Music day - In Tune with Phil Ochs

Music! Some good tunes at this site, and free, as all good revolutionary, anti-capitalist music damn well SHOULD be!

http://riotfolk.revolt.org/

Was at the "bigger" meeting last night and afterwords (I know) in the tavern, a guy came up to the group and asked us if we knew of Phil Ochs. We apparently didn't know anything if we didn't know Ochs. I guessed singer or songwriter and was right, but didn't have a reference until the guy gave a few more clues and I went home and dreamed on it (There is more to write about that guy, but later.)

Anyway, today, doing the "assigned homework" I tried to find some free .mp3s of Phil's more famous works, "Draft Dodger Rag", "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore" and "Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends". Good luck.

HOWEVER, it seems, the family or someone is still making money off of his remains.
Ask yourself - How much more significance to today's politics would Ochs have if his work was being freely distributed to anti-war groups and other such folks looking for tunes to go with the change!

One really intriguing bit I collected for my grab bag here is this snip from Wikipedia:
"Intensely disappointed by his lack of commercial success and haunted by bipolar disorder, Phil Ochs hanged himself in 1976 after a long stretch of erratic behavior. While touring Africa, Ochs was attacked and strangled by robbers, supposedly damaging his singing voice. He believed the attack may have been arranged by government agents. After his death, it was revealed that the FBI had a 410-page file on Ochs."

They Rule by Fear
What is so chilling about the way the powers that be control us is that they would cynically seek to cause subliminal fear in those who would dare to speak out in song, as Ochs did, by destroying his artist's tool, his voice. Even if this is an apocryphal story, it sows the seed of fear, the tyrant's tool.

Here is a link to a good Phil Ochs website published by a guy named trent. I already like trent because he mentions Dave Roviks as being his current favorite singer-songwriter. I'll link to Dave's site next week.
This is a great, rich site, I'm going to be reading it for days:

http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/whats-new.html

Love Me, I'm a Liberal
By Phil Ochs
I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time

So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
Of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
As long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

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
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New Republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democtratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Notes (from trent):
Sonny Ochs says: "Lerner & Golden were both columnists with left-leaning tendencies. Harry Golden, a humorist, wrote some marvelous books and short stories. One I recall is his plan for integration in schools in the south (this was back when). Since the Southerners didn't mind blacks standing next to whites when making purchases in stores, he proposed that they take out all the chairs in the schools and let the students stand to learn. He called this "vertical integration."
Jason V. says: "Les Crane had a talk show based in NYC. Crane was quite liberal, and had many folksingers on his show.
Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon did a cover of this song with some updated lyrics (on their album "Prairie Home Invasion." Mojo Nixon sang this updated version solo on Comedy Central during their 1996 State of the Union show.
Jan Hauenstein says ``Phil Ochs didn´t write the melody which comes from an old Irish folk song, "Rosin the Bow". That melody also found a new home in several American folk songs before Phil put it to good use. The melody for the "chorus-line" (Love me, love me, love me, I´m a liberal) is probably original Ochs, though.''

The photo, if it uploads is from:
home.att.net/~enfield/images/
Blogger is taking some amount of time and failing to upload some of my photo selections. Heck, I had a couple of more good Ochs .jpgs to decorate the day with, but the uploads are kicking out.