The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

Posted: 04 Dec 2011 02:10 AM PST

Phil Ochs was a peer of Bob Dylan, but it all ended tragically for the troubadour.

I dreamed I saw Phil Ochs last night, alive as you and me," sang British singer-songwriter Billy Bragg on 1990's The Internationale mini-album, and I was instantly intrigued. In a way this column was almost inevitable, for I've already written about both Bragg and Joe Hill, the leftist folk-singer who was framed for murder back in 1915. Ochs is one of the links in the chain linking Hill to Bragg, and Bragg's song replaced Joe Hill's story with that of the undeniably tragic Phil Ochs.

Phil Ochs (1949-1976) had it all. Good looks, intelligence and a way with words. Early on though, he became something of a rebel, identifying more with James Dean and Marlon Brando than John Wayne or Charlton Heston. He studied journalism, but found himself drifting into the folk music scene. In the early 1960s he moved to New York's fertile Greenwich Village which was also populated by future icons like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, Peter, Paul & Mary and a host of others.

Indeed, for better or worse, Ochs was to often find himself following in Dylan's footsteps.

Dylan's success as a folky songwriter helped pave the way for Ochs. He was signed up by Elektra Records in 1964 and soon released a string of stark records on which he was recorded in the most basic of settings ... vocals and acoustic guitar. His songwriting was the main pull and during this period his I Ain't Marching Anymore and Draft-Dodger Rag became topical hits. While Dylan and Britain's Donovan clearly burst into the mainstream, Ochs was very much a cult figure, staying true to his activist roots and the minimalist folkie movement.

Indeed while Dylan moved away from political comment, Ochs jumped right in. He helped in the forming of the Youth International Party alongside Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, and famously graced the violent 1968 Democratic nomination convention in Chicago which turned into a horror show for the American left wing.

Musically, he shifted from simple messages to more elaborate art-pieces like Pleasures Of The Harbor, The Crucifixion and When In Rome, attempting to translate his songwriting into something a little more cinematic.

Despite putting out more and more compelling music, Ochs' life was spiralling out of control. His marriage had ended, alcoholism was rearing its head and his lack of commercial success was deflating him. It didn't help that the US authorities had marked him as a trouble-maker and hounded him.

Despite coming up with the awesome (and ironically-titled) Greatest Hits, which was an album of all new material, Ochs was slowly losing it. His attempt to play a country set at Carnegie Hall while dressed up in a shiny gold Elvis-type suit only further alienated his fan base.

Ochs was also greatly affected by the political assassinations of the likes of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and Che Guevara. In the early 1970s he spent some time in Chile, and when in 1973, the socialist government was toppled, resulting in the deaths of President Salvador Allende and folk singer Victor Jara, Ochs became distraught. He still managed to put in good work to organise benefit concerts both for Chile and the end of the Vietnam War.

In 1975, he showed great signs of mental strain, announcing that he was dead and he had become another man (whom he named John Train). Diagnosed with bipolar disorder he fought off the best efforts of his siblings and close friends to help save him. In April 1976, Phil Ochs commmited suicide. The subject of a number of documentaries and archival works, he was a prophet who was seen and heard by too few people during his own lifetime.

n Martin Vengadesan, a music lover and history buff, combines his two passions in his fortnightly column. If you have any interesting stories you want him to research, do drop him a line.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 4 Disember 2011

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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