I have been listening to a lot of Phil Ochs lately for the first time in a long time. Last Year, I published a diary that described my experiences at one of his last live performances and included a video I had just run into on YouTube which was basically his final recording. I’ve even joined his Facebook Group, “50 Phil Ochs Fans Can’t Be Wrong,” an allusion to the back cover of his final album. I’ve recently run into a couple of recordings I had not realized existed, and I thought there might be a few people here who might be interested (frankly, I’m amazed at how directly his songs speak to the here and now, although they were mostly written around fifty years ago). These two videos document something of whichI had hitherto been unaware: Phil’s admiration for The Beatles. The first is a cover of one The Beatles pop songs, “I Should Have Known Better”:
In fact, Phil apparently met and sang for John Lennon in New York in 1971. Although I long ago read two biographies of Phil Ochs, but—if they mentioned it—I have completely forgotten the fact. As Phil so perceptively sings in “The Flower Lady,”
Feeble aged people almost to their knees,
Complain about the present using memories.
Never found their pot of gold, wrinkled hands pound weary holes,
Each line screams out you’re old, you’re old, you’re old—
But nobody’s buying flowers from the flower lady.
--Phil Ochs (from “The Pleasures of the Harbor” album)
I have to admit, the emotional depth of these words was pretty much lost on me when I was a young and foolish adolescent in the early seventies hearing these lines so beautifully sung in Phil’s high tenor for the first time; now, as an old and foolish retiree trembling on the edge of his sixtieth birthday their truth, wisdom, and empathy are all too painfully apparent. In any event, here is Phil singing to John Lennon (who doesn’t sing, but it’s plainly John’s voice talking to Phil in the first section of the recording). As recordings of “The Chords of Fame” go, I’d say it’s pretty middling, but it remains nevertheless a fascinating historical document. According to the YouTube introduction, it was
Recorded during Johns and Yoko's exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York (at a nearby hotel room during celebrations of John's 31st birthday). Other guests included were Ringo Starr, Maureen Starkey, Phil Spector, Klaus Voormann, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall, Eric Clapton, Allen Ginsberg and Jim Keltner.
Here’s the video:
This is the first diary I have published in several months; the devastating result of the election (one of my last diaries pretty much summed up my reaction, and I’d say it is still pretty accurate, at least as far as my personal response goes) is just part of a deep dark hole I have been crawling out of into the light of creativity in the last several weeks.