Line #65 Music/PhilOchs


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ede4a3bb624a0f51627c3039fac25820.jpeg]]
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3	->''"One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies."''
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5	Philip David "Phil" Ochs (December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American SingerSongwriter, famous for his {{protest song}}s (or "topical songs", [[InsistentTerminology as he liked to call them]]).
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7	He was the most active during TheSixties, when he wrote hundreds of songs, covering many topics, such as UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and labor rights. After the events of 1968 (the assassinations of UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr and UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy, the police riot in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}, and the election of UsefulNotes/RichardNixon) he became increasingly disillusioned and depressed, eventually leading to severe mental illness which [[DrivenToSuicide drove him to hang himself]] in 1976.
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9	You can find the lyrics of his songs [[https://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/ here]].
10	----
11	!!Studio album discography during Ochs' lifetime:
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13	* ''All the News That's Fit to Sing'' (1964)
14	* ''I Ain't Marching Anymore'' (1965)
15	* ''Pleasures of the Harbor'' (1967)
16	* ''Tape from California'' (1968)
17	* ''Rehearsals for Retirement'' (1969)
18	* ''Greatest Hits''[[note]]''Not'' an actual GreatestHitsAlbum; it's all-new material[[/note]] (1970)
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20	!!Posthumous albums of unreleased studio material:
21	* ''The Broadside Tapes 1'' (1980)
22	* ''A Toast to Those Who Are Gone'' (1986)
23	* ''On My Way (1963 Demo Session)'' (2008)
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25	!!Live album discography during Ochs' lifetime:
26	* ''In Concert'' (1966)
27	* ''Gunfight at Carnegie Hall'' (1974)
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29	!!Posthumous live albums:
30	* ''There and Now: Live in Vancouver 1968'' (1990)
31	* ''Live at Newport'' (recorded at the 1963, 1964 and 1966 Newport Folk Festivals) (1990)
32	* ''Live Again!'' (recorded 1973) (2014)
33	* ''Live In Montreal, 10/22/1966'' (2017)
34	----
35	!!Tropes present in his life and work:
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37	* AndImTheQueenOfSheba: "Another Age".
38	-->''The dogs are chasing chicken bones\
39	Across the lawn.\
40	If that was an election\
41	I'm a Viet Cong.''
42	* ApatheticCitizens: "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends".
43	-->''Oh, look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed\
44	They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed\
45	Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain\
46	But TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}} is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game.''
47	* BourgeoisBohemian: "Love Me I'm a Liberal" attacks such people, accusing them of supporting fashionable leftist causes but being unwilling to engage in real revolutionary change, as it might threaten their wealth and privilege.
48	* {{Bowdlerisation}}: Some radio stations cut out the line "Smokin' marijuana is more fun than drinkin' beer" from "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", even though the rest of the verse doesn't paint a flattering picture of [[TheStoner stoners]].
49	* CorruptChurch: In "Here's to the State of Mississippi":
50	-->''And here's to the churches of Mississippi\
51	Where the cross, once made of silver, now is caked with rust\
52	And the Sunday morning sermons pander to their lust\
53	The fallen face of Jesus is choking in the dust\
54	Heaven only knows in which God they can trust''
55	* CrapsackWorld: Mississippi according to "Here's To The State of Mississippi". It is depicted as a state where murder is prevalent, the [[ApatheticCitizens citizens are apathetic to the killings]], the schools [[AssimilationAcademy teach hatred]], the police is [[PoliceBrutality brutal]] and [[DirtyCop corrupt]], the churches are [[CorruptChurch tolerating injustice]], the judiciary is [[KangarooCourt morally compromised]] and so is the government who had left the U.S. Constitution "drowning in an ocean of decay."
56	* DeepSouth: "Here's to the State of Mississippi".
57	* DeusEstMachina: Prior to performing "Another Age" on the album ''There & Now: Live in Vancouver 1968'', he remarks, "If God were a computer, undoubtedly he'd blow up the world."
58	* DirtyCop: In "Here's to the State of Mississippi", he depicts the police in Mississippi that way:
59	-->''They're chewing their tobacco as they lock the prison door\
60	And their bellies bounce inside them while they knock you to the floor\
61	No, they don't like taking prisoners in their private little war\
62	And behind their broken badges, there are murderers and more.''
63	* DraftDodging: In "Draft Dodger Rag", the narrator lists several ridiculous excuses to avoid serving in the military. Silly as they sound in the song, conditions such as asthma, flat feet and (until recently) homosexuality are all likely to keep you out of the US military, even if you volunteer.
64	* DrowningMySorrows: In the '70s, Ochs increasingly turned to alcohol and drugs to ease his depression. [[DrivenToSuicide It didn't end well.]]
65	* ElvisImpersonator: One misfire was ''Greatest Hits'', Ochs' homage to Music/BuddyHolly and Music/ElvisPresley. He even wore a gold suit like The King, which was interpreted as selling out. Privately, Ochs expressed anxiety about his career, as well as his plans to craft a popular image for himself: [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Che Guevara meets Elvis]]. For this reason, many purists abandoned him for prioritizing his own fame over the music, including Music/BobDylan. Ochs gives the impression of a man torn between his healthy-sized ambition and his ideals.
66	* EpicRocking: Many of his compositions could get very long. The longest is probably "When in Rome", which exceeds thirteen minutes in its studio version from ''Tape from California''.
67	* FolkMusic: He was an important figure in the '60s folk revival.
68	* FriendlyRival: For a while with Music/BobDylan, though as Dylan moved away from folk music and became more successful and Ochs' mental health issues surfaced, their relationship turned into WeUsedToBeFriends. They reconciled later in Ochs' life, though. He even briefly appears in Dylan's film ''Renaldo and Clara''.
69	* GreatestHitsAlbum: Subverted; see Non-Indicative Name below.
70	* HurricaneOfExcuses: In "Draft Dodger Rag", the singer gives a rather dubious list of reasons that he cannot join the military.
71	* {{Hypocrite}}: "Draft Dodger Rag" is about a red-blooded conservative who's all for that war in Vietnam, so long as he doesn't have to go himself[[note]]Don't bother potholing this to a certain former president, it'll only get edited out again[[/note]], while "Love Me, I'm a Liberal," is about someone who pays lip service to every left-wing cause until it becomes dangerous, distasteful or personally uncomfortable. ("The people of old Mississippi/should all hang their heads in shame,/I can't understand how their minds work./What's the matter, don't they watch Les Crane?/But if you ask me to bus my children/I hope the cops take down your name ....")
72	* IWillFightNoMoreForever: The ex-soldier from "I Ain't Marching Anymore."
73	* JesusWasWayCool: Ochs covered "Ballad of the Carpenter" (written by Evan [=MacColl=]) that presents Jesus as an advocate for the poor workers, who was killed by the rich because of that, and makes no mention of religion.
74	* JustFollowingOrders: Mentioned in his anti-war song "Is There Anybody Here":
75	-->''Is there anybody here who thinks that following the orders takes away the blame?\
76	Is there anybody here who wouldn't mind a murder by another name?''
77	* LyricalDissonance:
78	** "Outside a Small Circle of Friends," a jaunty ragtime tune about people's apathy towards murder and poverty.
79	** "Pretty Smart on My Part".
80	* MessianicArchetype: As the title suggests, "Crucifixion" is about one of these, or possibly a cycle of Messianic Archetypes including Christ and UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy. "Possibly" because the song as a whole is a bit of a...
81	* MindScrew: His eight-and-a-half minute long allegoric song "Crucifixion", all the more so because of the discordant orchestral music used on the song (arranged by avant-garde composer Joseph Byrd).
82	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Pleasures of the Harbor'' marked a move from Folk to Pop, but notably more of a baroque style of Pop, rather than Rock.
83	* NonIndicativeName: His 1970 album ''Greatest Hits'' wasn't a GreatestHitsAlbum; it contained only new material. This may have been SelfDeprecation since he hadn't been very commercially successful.
84	* ProtestSong: Nearly all of his work.
85	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Ochs (who studied journalism) called himself a "singing journalist" and titled his first album ''All the News That's Fit to Sing'' (after the ''New York Times'' slogan "All the News That's Fit to Print").
86	* RuleAbidingRebel: "Love Me I'm a Liberal" is about people who espouse left-wing causes as long they're convenient.
87	* SanitySlippageSong: "Pretty Smart on My Part."
88	* TakeThat: A common trait of his songs.
89	* TheVillainSucksSong: In 1972, during Nixon's re-election campaign, Ochs rewrote "Here's to the State of Mississippi" to "Here's to the State of Richard Nixon".
90	-->''Oh here's to the land you've torn out the heart of.''\
91	''Richard Nixon, find yourself another country to be part of.''
92	* WhenImGoneSong: "When I'm Gone", obviously.
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Context Music / PhilOchs