The Complete Phil Ochs: Chords of Fame

by Phil Ochs, Tom Nolan (Foreword), Mark Eliot (Introduction)

Melodies, with guitar chords & diagrams.
"The last days of Phil Ochs," by Tom Nolan, pp. 14-28.
Bach, Beethoven, Mozart & me
Basket in the pool
The bells
Bound for glory
Boy in Ohio
Bracero
Cannons of Christianity
Celia
Changes
Chords of fame
Cops of the world
Cross my heart
Crucifixion
Doesn't Lenny live here any more
The doll house
Draft dodger rag
The floods of Florence
Flower lady
Gas station women
Half a century high
The harder they fall
Here's to the state of Richard Nixon
The highwayman
Hills of West Virginia
I ain't marching anymore
I kill therefore I am
I'm gonna say it now
In the heat of the summer
Is there anybody here?
I've had her
Jim Dean of Indiana
Joe Hill
Links on the chain
Lou Marsh
Love me, I'm a liberal
Miranda
My kingdom for a car
My life
No more songs
One more parade
One way ticket home
Outside of a small circle of friends
The party
Pleasures of the harbor
Power & the glory
Pretty smart on my part
Rehearsals for retirement
Rhythms of revolution
Santo Domingo
The scorpion departs but never returns
Tape from California
That was the president
There but for fortune
The thresher
Too many martyrs
The war is over
What's that I hear?
When I'm gone
When in Rome
White boots marchin' in a yellow land

Genres: Music

149 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Philip David Ochs grew up in a non-political middle class family. While in college at Ohio State University, he met Jim Glover who became his roommate & whose father was Phil's political teacher. It was during this time, while he was majoring in journalism, that he formed his political beliefs & started putting them to music.
After 3 years of college, Phil dropped out & went to New York City. This was during the early 60s when things were booming in Greenwich Village. Phil started out singing at open mikes & passing the hat. By '64 he was well enough established to release his 1st album, "All the News That's Fit to Sing". His 2nd album, "I Ain't Marching Anymore", was released in '65. By '66 he was able to sell out Carnegie Hall for a solo concert.
Most of Phil's songs were very political, some humorous & some very serious. He wrote about the topics of the day-civil rights, VietNam, hungry miners, & personalities such as Billy Sol Estes, JFK, Medgar Evers, Wm Worthy & Lou Marsh.
In '67 he signed with A&M Records where his 1st release was "Pleasures of the Harbor" in which he used heavily orchestrated arrangements for the 1st time. Some fans criticized this change, while others accepted it.
Phil continued to perform & travel around the world. While in Dar Es Salaam, he was mugged & lost the top 3 notes of his vocal range. This event seemed to send him on a downward spiral. His last years were troubled ones. He suffered from manic depression plus an affinity for the bottle. He committed suicide on 4/9/76, aged 35.
Many of Phil's songs have been covered by other artists. Some of his best known songs are: "Changes", "There But For Fortune", "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "Draft Dodger", "Small Circle of Friends", Crucifixion" & "When I'm Gone".
There've been 2 biographies about him. Death of a Rebel by Marc Elliot in '77 & There but for Fortune: The Life of Phil Ochs by Michael Schumacher in '96. Rhino Records released a 3-CD compilation titled Farewells & Fantasies in '97 which includes all his best known works plus some previously unreleased tracks. Sliced Bread Records released a double CD of covers of Phil's songs performed by 28 artists in '98 entitled The Songs of Phil Ochs.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was exposed to folk music and the urban folk scene from earliest childhood, Father being a devoted listener to WFMT's "Midnight Special" program since its inauguration during the year of my birth. Saturday night, when it was broadcast, was the one night a week when I was allowed, encouraged even, to stay up late. It was on the Special that I heard the first rock band I actually liked, the Fugs, and where I first heard Phil Ochs, either singing himself or being covered by another artist.

By high school I was buying albums, purchasing every one of Ochs' as they appeared. During the junior year I attended a concert given by him at the University of Chicago. During the Chicago Convention of 1968 he performed for us in Grant Park, not the Bandshell performance which had been attacked by the police, which I wasn't at, but under the trees in front of the Hilton Hotel the next day. Eugene McCarthy joined us down there also and it was at a McCarthy primary gathering four years later when I actually had the guts to go up to Ochs after his performance to thank him for his work and, stumblingly, try to express what his work meant for me.

This compilation of his work actually belongs, or belonged, to my younger brother, Fin. Having helped him move out of his apartment in Stevensville, Michigan to smaller digs, I ended up with this and a whole bunch of his other stuff, stuff that I may eventually be returning when he settles. Meanwhile, I've been going through it regularly.

[Curmudgeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate to admit it, but I was kinda disappointed by the arrangements in this book. Most of Phil's songs are harmonically pretty basic, and his melodies tend to be very simple; the magic of his recordings largely comes from the arrangements and the performance. All the songs here, save two, are presented in an absolutely barebones format with merely lyrics, the melody, and the guitar tab. "Pleasures of the Harbor" has a simple piano accompaniment, and one other song does as well ("Changes", I think?), but it's still a bit of a letdown that there wasn't a little bit more.

There are two essays included in the book, one a biographical-sketch sort of piece, and the other a look into some aspects of the recording of Pleasures of the Harbor that was excerpted from a longer work--probably well worth tracking down, if you (like me) love that album & are also interested in all the steps that go into recording something to begin with. Some fun bits of trivia there, involving things like the construction of a massive click track for "Crucifixion" because of Phil's tendency to change tempo, which made it nearly impossible for the musicians to try and follow his performance for the record.

The book includes a number of black and white photographs (some big, some small, some famous, some not-so-famous) and a discography. All in all, what is presented isn't bad, but you just wish there was a little bit more of it.