Long live Phil Ochs! What a song. Few of you understand it. Even fewer know that he played this song live in time square in the height if the vietnam war. One million people in attendance. Completely erased from history. That's how great phil was I'm his time.
I was fortunate enough to meet Phil Ochs when he introduced this song publicly with his own little march through Greenwich Village from Washington Square Park.
My son was born in 1967 and I wondered what kind of world I had brought him into . Phil Ochs was a hero then -- and now that the war in Iraq comes to its sad and welcome end. May peace prevail.
I cannot even begin to express the admiration I have for you for this remark. Phil was, is, and always will be my hero. My thanks to you, and my best wishes, this day and every day.
People who don't understand true depression shouldnt comment about others who CHOOSE to end theirs. I'm confident that Phil felt he had no other choice.
As someone who has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and attempted suicide I can tell you it feels just impossible to go on. But help is available and I wish he got some. Now, Phil had bi-polar disorder so that is different but I can very much connect with him on the feelings of suicide. It's like you have tunnel vision and all that matters is everything wrong in your life and you just have this feeling of absolute certainty that no one will care and it won't ever get better.
+TheHG12 it's _very_ different. there's no comparison.. it's like bronchitis, okay? vs double pneumonia that suddenly becomes intractable. & he had a tremendously severe case.
the girl with the 200 IQ I just said it's different. It had the same outcome though, so I gave my story. Do you have bipolar disorder? If not you shouldn't even be talking about it.
***** How so? People are discussing it like they know how it feels. I gave my own reality with depression but unless you have bipolar disorder or have studied the disease.
I agree. I only fairly recently discovered him and find him such a lovely person who wanted to make the world a better place. We need more people like him!
I've heard this song hundreds of times of course, but never this recording. This is the best intro to it...I too would love to know where and when this came from...
One friend who did "head north" sent me a letter - to me in Vietnam.... "Canada is the Answer" emblazoned across the top. I transferred that phrase to my helmet liner and got more than one funny look from the NCO's and Officers.... in the field.
Just found this terrific version. Phil's vocal is strong. Where was this recorded? Is there a whole concert? Phil was an idol of mine in the 60's and time has not dimmed that.It's great that with RU-vid Phil gets the play that he couldn't on the radio. Thanks.
> Lots of explanations for Ochs to hate Vietnam yes because like all our wars since then it was a morally reprehensible, disingenuous holocaust. for one
jonasjar, I wonder where this recording comes from, I have lots of Ochs material and never heard this version, it's very well recorded as well. Any idea?
I think it's from Sweden 1968, right after the RFK assassination. It seems he was so desillusioned at that point that he contemplated discarding his american citizenship and leave the country for good.
But of course the answer is Bob WAS a folk singer, until about 1965. I don't think you can really classify Masters of War and Boots of Spanish Leather, and other early Dylan, as pop.
Woulda burned mine too... But then I fooled them all... joined the USAF and then went to Vietnam. Wound up working with the Special Forces along the Cambodian border. Shoulda gone to Canada....
You think that people should burn in hell for opposing war and wanting everybody to have a basically decent standard of life? I'm guessing you'd have shouted for Barabbas, then.
How a man who believed in non-violence,peace and love hypocritically take his own life is a fucking mystery to me...I guess alcohol is the devil's brew...
Louis Tedone Please do a little bit of research on depression before you go shooting your mouth off about people who have suffered for years and eventually died from it.
John Burt It is depressing to think that some people believe that suicide is the answer,it's just a quick fix...this is obviously a touchy subject yet it is a shame to lose a great talent for any reason...
Nancy Benefiel I so wish people like Louis Tedone would stop appointing themselves experts on clinical depression and casting vile aspersions on beautiful human beings like Phil Ochs. Depression is one of the cruelest of all the fatal diseases not yet cured. Telling a person suffering from it to just la-di-da buck up and quit drinking is utterly despicable. *****
Bullshit. Phil was never a Communist. He was a left-wing democratic socialist...the difference between that and being a Communist is the difference between the students in Tienenman Square(most of whom wanted socialism without dictatorship)and the bitter old Stalinist types who had then, and thousands of others, slaughtered in Beijing. Phil was never against democracy...he was against segregation and inequality. You didn't have to back the war in Vietnam to be for democracy.
Spoken like a true Cold Warrior, who thinks the real dividing line is between the human race and "communists." It is true that Phil Ochs never worshipped Stalin, but he Also never let stalinophobia become his guiding principle. What Phil thought about those who did is cl;ear enough from "Love me, I'm a liberal": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-u52Oz-54VYw.html
