Phil Ochs: The Radical Singer/Songwriter of the New Left
By Pinellas DSA member Bruce Nissen
Editors note: at the end of this post, you will find a link to a presentation by Bruce Nissen on this subject, as a supplement to this post.
As a DSA member who is over 70 years old, I’m finding that a lot of my young comrades are very curious about what it was like in the 1960s and early 1970s. And, mystifying to me, a number of them are fascinated by tales I can tell of my “radical student days” during those years. I’ve never thought my own life was all that interesting, but I will admit that the late 1960s were indeed very, very interesting times. I am very grateful that I came to political maturity in that period; it certainly shaped the trajectory of rest of my life.
One enormous part of the 1960s campus milieu was the music. Especially folk music and rock music were integral to the emerging “youth culture,” and some of it took on a decidedly political tone. Here I want to highlight one very radical singer-songwriter of the time who apparently very few of my younger friends have ever heard of. I saw him live numerous times; he was a major radicalizing force to me and many others. He was one of my heroes.
His name was Phil Ochs. He was a contemporary of Bob Dylan and they both emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early/mid-sixties. Dylan of course went on to fame and fortune and a long life. Phil had a much more tragic trajectory; he took his own life in 1976 when at the bottom of one of his manic-depressive cycles. Despite this sad ending, Phil was an incredible songwriter and performer who influenced many of us at the time.
What I want to do here is introduce my younger DSA comrades to Phil Ochs, primarily through exposure to his songs and performances. What follows is a series of links to YouTube videos of Phil Ochs performances.
Many (although not all) of Phil’s songs were topical commentaries on the events of the day. With the Vietnam War raging, opposition to that war was a common Phil Ochs topic. Here is Draft Dodger Rag, one of the first of his songs I ever heard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFFOUkipI4U
Another anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement was his song I Ain’t Marching Anymore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRU_ruqnR6Q
And as the war dragged on into the 1970s, his song The War is Over was his attempt to hasten its demise. Here he is performing it live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOs9xYUjY4I
Of course, the Vietnam War was not his only target. Here is his anthem against police, I Kill Therefore I Am: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQBLBvi67fw
Some of his music consisted of tributes to those songwriters who had gone before him who he admired. One was Woody Guthrie, America’s troubadour who wrote This Land is Your Land and many other songs, and who was much more radical than the sanitized version of him that has been passed down to us. Here is Phil’s salute to Woody, Bound for Glory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xONuHXndRuI
Another radical singer/songwriter of earlier vintage that he greatly admired was Joe Hill, the organizer for the radical union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or Wobblies). Here is Phil’s song The Ballad of Joe Hill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kozWk8Ff_Xg
Not all of Phil Och’s songs were overtly political. He also wrote some haunting ballads that are more personal. Here I want to simply highlight two that have been covered by many other artists. First up, perhaps his most beautiful song of all time, Changes (this one has a lot of great pictures of Phil in the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlVfVBFdMaM
And his There But for Fortune has also been covered by many other artists and folksingers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smlg7sPUmRs
There are so many more Phil Ochs songs that are burned into my brain, but I fear that this could go on too long, so I won’t put any more in this article. In his final years, as his life was unravelling he went through a “gold lame suit” Elvis Presley-Merle Haggard phase that failed to connect his radical politics with his gestures toward American pop culture: his old fans hated it and apolitical pop music fans did not pick up on his music at all. Near the end he wrote some extremely poignant and revealing songs, like Crucifixion, Another Age, My Life, Chords of Fame and others. You can find almost all of these and many more on YouTube. In addition a fair bit of his music is possible to buy. There is a documentary film on his life There But for Fortune and folk musicians still celebrate his life and legacy through tribute get-togethers around the country.
He was an extremely flawed human being. But at the time he was my hero. I’m hard pressed to think of any contemporary vocal artists today who play a similar role to the one he played in the 1964–1974 period. I believe my young DSA comrades would benefit from an acquaintance with his work.
A presentation on the subject by the author can be found here: https://youtu.be/JFMPEfUoz6s
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New York is Ours with Illapa Sairitupac
Tonight on RPM we continue our series of conversations with DSA’s 2022 For The Many candidate slate with Illapa Sairitupac. Illapa is social worker and climate organizer who has been endorsed by NYC-DSA for Assembly District 65, a Lower East Side district once held by the notorious Sheldon Silver. We’ll talk to Illapa about running a campaign for working class New Yorkers in a district that also includes the capital of capitalism: Wall Street.
We’ll also hear from members of the NYC-DSA Housing Working Group who were out canvassing in lower Manhattan with Illapa this weekend for the Right to Remain campaign - to pass the Good Cause Eviction bill.
Plus a breaking news update on the REI Soho Union vote with Amy Wilson.
For more info on Illapa: https://illapa.nyc/
To learn more about Right to Remain and the NYC-DSA Housing Working Group: https://linktr.ee/nycdsa_housing
Statement on the war in Ukraine
March 3, 2022
The Ithaca, New York chapter of Democratic Socialists of America condemns the agents of military aggression, including the Putin regime in Russia and NATO forces, whose bids for global control have driven the crisis in Ukraine and endangered civilians throughout the region and the world who need a just transition to a humane economy and a livable planet—NOT a war on behalf of ruling class interests.
Putin is an expansionist who governs on behalf of the rich and powerful, and who aims to reconstruct the territories of the Soviet Union. His invasion of Ukraine and his claim that Ukrainians can have no identity separate from Russians violate principles of self-determination and international law that all advocates of peace must uphold. Putin has manipulated history and claims of genocide to justify unleashing Russia’s military might against the people of Ukraine. He has jeopardized the lives of countless civilians, further destabilized the world, and generated new refugee disasters. These crimes can only fuel militarism and far-right extremism within and beyond the region. Russian imperialism must be denounced. We reject the twisted logic that holds that “Socialists condemn U.S. foreign policy; Putin condemns U.S. foreign policy; so socialists should condone Putin.”
At the same time, the U.S. and its allies deserve condemnation for their aggression in Eastern Europe and around the globe. U.S. efforts to promote a western-friendly Ukraine are designed to surround Russia while sinking the roots of global capitalism deeper in the region. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact provided an opportunity to dismantle NATO, a machine of permanent Cold War conflict. Instead, the U.S. helped NATO expand and threatened to bring Ukraine into the alliance, a provocation that amounts to installing missiles in Russia’s backyard. U.S. condemnations of Russian violence are absurdly hypocritical. The world’s chief invader, the U.S. in the last two decades has killed almost a million people while pouring trillions of dollars into a crusade for oil, power and wartime profit. The so-called War on Terror has spread chaos and bloodshed across Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and other parts of the Middle East and Africa. Meanwhile the U.S. has continued its tradition of interfering in the affairs of sovereign nations in Latin America and elsewhere. The U.S. and NATO’s obscene assault on Libya a few years ago no doubt helped provoke Putin’s latest act of hostility in Ukraine.
People of conscience in the U.S. have a special duty to oppose American imperialism and reject its lies. That means exposing the dishonesty of American warmakers and their servants in the corporate media. U.S. political elites mouth democratic ideals while relentlessly pursuing global capitalism. Their calls for security and human rights are meant to camouflage war profiteering and empire-building. By accepting the demonization of foreign adversaries, ordinary Americans serve the private interests of a ruthless ruling class. We refuse to vilify the Russian people. As the discredited War on Terror loses its power to justify endless conflict, we must not let our government reignite Cold War hostilities or launch new overseas adventures.
We must also unmask the racist hypocrisy behind western outrage over Russia. Where is the outcry against routine violations of Palestinian self-determination? Where is the anguish over the suffering caused by U.S. air strikes and lopsided warfare in the Global South? We must combat the white supremacist logic that normalizes violence against brown-skinned people while portraying military clashes between Europeans as unthinkable disasters.
It is our responsibility as Americans to resist the warmongering of our leaders, just as it is the Russian people’s responsibility to defy the antihuman agenda of their political elites. We reject all forms of aggression, including sanctions, which disproportionately harm vulnerable civilians. Sending Ukraine more U.S. military aid and weapons can only further destabilize the region while empowering the far right.
We demand an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of foreign troops, and an end to brinkmanship. We demand that Russia and NATO deescalate, and that all parties in the Ukrainian dispute seek diplomatic solutions. We stand with the brave Russians who have protested their government, and with the besieged Ukrainians who seek survival and coexistence.
We recognize that the threat of mass bloodshed and nuclear war casts a perverse shadow over the dreams of the masses for dignity and peace. We pledge to work for the demilitarization of our planet, and to seek the ecological repair and the reorganization of power and wealth that a world without war requires.
We call on people of conscience everywhere to participate in mass rallies and other actions in the name of a just peace. Soldiers, defy orders! Civilians, oppose nationalism and militarism! No war but class war!
Ithaca DSA Steering Committee
West Suburban Illinois Democratic Socialists of America say “No To War!”
We stand in solidarity with the working class of Ukraine and Russia, who are not responsible for the violence and chaos currently being orchestrated in Eastern Europe, yet will be its ultimate victims. We support the anti-war protestors in Russia as well as Ukrainian expatriates whose families are being affected by the invasion. The United States should unconditionally accept Ukrainian refugees who are forced to leave their country as a result of this conflict. As socialists, we oppose authoritarianism, imperialism, and war in all its forms. As always, the rich and powerful will push for further American military intervention, as well as increased military spending, and we must oppose this at all costs. This conflict cannot be resolved positively with guns, tanks, or nukes, but with a unified international diplomatic response. We must say, “No to War!”
– WSILDSA Steering Committee