I'm Gonna Say It Now: The Writings of Phil Ochs

by Phil Ochs, David Cohen (Editor)

Overview

Phil Ochs is known primarily as a songwriter; however, his oeuvre extends far beyond that—to short stories, poetry, criticism, journalism, and satire, all of which are included in I'm Gonna Say It Now: The Writings of Phil Ochs, which represents the majority of what Ochs wrote outside of his large circle of songs. This comprehensive tome presents another side of the famous topical songwriter, showcasing his prose and poetry from across the full span of his life.

From prizewinning stories and clear-eyed reporting while a journalism major in college to music criticism, satires, and political pieces written while part of the burgeoning folk scene of New York City in the early 1960s and during the tumultuous Vietnam War era; from sharp and lyrical poems (many previously unpublished) to reviews, features, and satires written while living in Los Angeles and the final, elegiac coda writings from near the end of his life—I’m Gonna Say It Now presents the complete picture.

The book includes many rare or nearly impossible to find Ochs pieces, as well as previously unpublished works sourced from the unique holdings in the Ochs Archives at the Woody Guthrie Center. Additionally, never-before-seen reproductions from Ochs’s journals, notebooks, and manuscripts provide a closer look at the hand of the artist, giving a deeper context and understanding to his writings. Never before published photographs of Ochs bestow the visual cherry on top.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493051472
Publisher:	Backbeat
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Pages:	344
Sales rank:	131,769
Product dimensions:	1.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Phil Ochs was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1940. After attending Staunton Military Academy, Ochs became political while a journalism major at Ohio State University. Forsaking his college degree, Ochs moved to New York City in 1962 to join the burgeoning folk scene. Most well known as a topical singer-songwriter, Ochs was also an anti–Vietnam War and civil rights activist, performing at countless rallies, benefits and marches (authoring the seminal anti-war song "I Ain't Marching Anymore"). Ochs recorded three albums for Elektra Records before moving westward to Los Angeles and A&M Records. Ochs died, by his own hand, in Far Rockaway, Queens, in 1976.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Acknowledgments xix

Staunton Military Academy 1

The Fight 1

White Milk to Red Wine 2

Out of the Archives (Staunton Military Academy) 3

The Ohio State University 5

Politics 5

Narrow View 5

Disalle, Law Students Debate

Capital Punishment Question 7

Views Disarmament As Benefit To U.S.,

Russians, Poor Nations 9

Civil Liberties Groups Organized on Campus 11

Samuel Farber 13

Thursday Afternoon, August 31, 1961, Haiti,

Tom Bourelly, Speaker 15

Rodrigo Alamos 17

A Critique of the Sessions 19

Red Party Defended by Youth Organizer 20

One Version of Why and How Nehru Did

What He Did to Seize Goa 22

Over Billion Wasted on CD, Young Says 24

Stradley Body Bars Defender 25

Discussion of Constitution Submitted to Steeb Hall 26

Satire 27

Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right 27

How Green was My Gamboling 30

Letter to be Read by Jack Parr on His

"Letter From Camp" Department 33

Only in Cuba; or, Listen Ohio Staters 34

Gone with the Wind, Jr 38

Science for Idiots 43

Journalism 46

11 Afrotc Instructors Maintain Flight Status 46

See Airplane Land on Oval, One of 20,000 Photos Here 48

Here Comes the Smut, Martha 49

The New Kingston Trio 51

Play Reflects Thurber Wit 54

Moots Tells Reporter of Year in Office 55

Segovia Plays to Enthralled, Pleased Fans 57

Derby Presents Abstract Plays 58

Pianist Gets Top Applause 59

Masters of Deceit 60

Williams Risked His Hands as Partner For Johansson 62

Out of the Archives (Ohio State University) 64

New York City 67

Topical Songs and Music Criticism 67

The Need for Topical Music 67

The Guthrie Legacy 69

Requiem for a Hootenanny 73

The Art of Bob Dylan's "Hattie Carroll" 76

The Year of the Topical Song 78

Buffy Sainte-Marie-It's My Way 81

Paths of Victory, Hamilton Camp 82

Broadside Singers (Liner Notes) 83

Songs of Phil Ochs-Introduction 86

Topical Songs-History on the Spot 87

An Open Letter from Phil Ochs to Irwin Silber,

Paul Wolfe, and Joseph R. Levine 91

I Ain't Marching Anymore (Liner Notes) 94

I Ain't Marching Anymore (Song Notes) 96

Son of "My Back Pages" 99

Buffy Sainte-Marie and Eric Andersen 101

The Ballad of Gordon Lightfoot 102

Ochs: It Ain't Me, Babe 104

Topical Songs and Folksinging, 1965 106

Tim Hardin-The Singer's Singer 109

Man Against Music 112

Changes (Liner Notes) 116

Satire 117

An Interview by Fans in the Underground of Greenwich Village 117

The Songs of Phil Ochs 121

Revolt on the Campus; or How I Learned to Love the Folk Scene and Stop Worrying About Music 122

Newport: Short Hot Summer 125

The Newport Fuzz Festival 126

That Was The Year That Weren't 129

Out of the Archives (New York City) 132

The War Is Over 137

Have Faith, The War Is Over 137

Have You Heard? The War Is Over 140

Poems 143

Love Is A Rainbow 143

And Here Comes David Blue 144

The California Christmas Sun 145

Che Guevara Just Cannot Be True 147

Cobbwebs 148

Coming Attractions 149

The Critic 150

Encores 151

The Great Post Office Robbery 153

Griffith 155

Happy New Year 1968 158

Letters to the Editor 160

The Nude Model Paints the Foppish Bohemian Artist 161

Oliver Bubbles and His Notes from a New America 162

On Robert Kennedy 170

Poor Zalman, or the Failure of the Jew in American Society 172

Talking Chicago Jail Blues 173

The Torture Garden 175

The Underwater Schoolroom Is Fond of Fire 177

Virtue 178

Who Was That Man in the Gold Lame Suit 182

I Will Not Hurt You 183

Out of the Archives (Poems) 185

Los Angeles 205

Phil Ochs Discusses Politics of Songwriting 205

Pleasures of the Harbor (Liner Notes) 207

James Dean Lives in Indiana 208

Tape from California (Liner Notes) 211

Rehearsals for Retirement (Liner Notes) 212

Leaving Darwin 213

The Last Ten Best List 216

Mike Mazurki's Spot 219

Requiem for a Dragon Departed 225

Opposes Pot Decriminalization, Freep Press Passes 231

Brezhnev on TV. Let's Make a Deal 239

Will Elliot Richardson Be Our Next President? 242

Out of the Archives (Los Angeles) 247

Coda 269

Soho Bar Attacked 269

The Sale of One City 270

Save New York City 271

Out of the Archives (Coda) 273

Footnotes to History 279

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

Phil Ochs was a tireless crusader for justice. He is one of the all-time great activist troubadours. With wit and fire, his songs skewered the evildoers of his day and remain perfect examples of how to fight the power with guitar in hand.

Tom Morello

As a teenager my life was changed by Phil Ochs' anti-war songs and his unique ability to combine fierce progressive ideology with a sentimental heart. This remarkable collection of his prose is a reminder that Ochs was simultaneously one of the intellectual leaders of the counter-culture, a writer whose moral clarity was balanced by humor, irreverence, and wisdom. I'm Gonna Say It Now  is not merely a treasured relic for Ochs completists, it reveals a unique window into a pivotal moment in American history. 

Danny Goldberg

Phil Ochs was much more than simply a songwriter. He wrote obsessively, because he had to—from his heart, his soul, his conscience. This collection of Phil's many and varied writings throughout his life sheds new light on his brilliant mind.

Joan Baez

I grew up listening to Phil Ochs, and his music had as much to do with my political awakening as did reading Rachel Carson or Allen Ginsberg, listening to John Lennon or Joan Baez or being given a chance to laugh at all the madness via Hunter S. Thompson or Lenny Bruce. Phil Ochs was that combination — heart, rage, satire, a call to action, a moment of peace. When he died before his time I remember feeling crushed yet determined not for any of us to give up. The stakes are too high. That he still speaks to us today is a monument to his art and his enduring soul.

Michael Moore

Everything Phil Ochs wrote, including this new collection of journalism, poetry and calls to action, exudes great humanity, heart, and brilliant humor. He was and continues to be a great blessing.

Anne Lamott

Phil Ochs told the truth before it was ready to be accepted, before it was politically expedient. He was the kind of truth teller that made liberal allies nervous because his truth demanded an accountability to their own compromise, their own self serving pragmatism.

Tim Robbins

Phil Ochs has one of those minds. He wrote with such clear thinking, his words lift boulders off hypocracy's hide, and his wit whittles the readers distractions into justice.

Sean Penn

"Once he dumped hack rules forced on him as a journalism student, the late singer-songwriter Phil Ochs became an extraordinary scribe. This collection includes reportage, satire, political essays, music and film criticism, liners, poetry and travel notes. Early prose is stilted, but when he landed in New York to join the 1960s folk movement, he hit stride by blending facts with wry — frequently cutting — wit."-Mojo Magazine

"Ochs’s work remains relevant today, and this book will appeal to his loyal fans and to readers interested in folk music’s role in promoting justice."-Library Journal

From the Publisher

Phil Ochs was a born writer. He played guitar because that was the language his generation was speaking. Today, his questioning voice chimes as clearly as it ever did.

Billy Bragg

The words (and melodies) of Phil Ochs have inspired me for over 50 years. They are "dances of delight" but also remind us that: "Can't add my name into the fight when I'm gone, so I guess I better do it while I'm here."

Russ Feingold

The long lost, largely unpublished, prose of folksinger Phil Ochs does much more than entertain.  At the least, it takes us back to a more innocent time. At the best, it awakens the poet in the soul.

Kinky Friedman

As much as has been written about the sixties, it’s arguable that no one experienced that defining moment in American history more personally than Phil Ochs .

Steve Earle

Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan were the most important and influential musical voices of the Sixties protest movement that encompassed civil rights, anti-war, feminism, political reform, and a general questioning of blind faith in authority. What made Phil stand out was not just his passion for social justice as expressed in his seminal songs "I Ain’t Marchin' Anymore" and "There But for Fortune," or his sardonic wit that shined an unyielding light on society's petty hypocrisies as in "Love Me, I’m a Liberal" and "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends," but the compassion in his more poetic songs like "Floods of Florence" and "Pleasures of the Harbor." To listen for an hour to Phil Ochs songs is to get an honest yet loving glimpse into the flaws and strengths of humanity.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

12/01/2020

Singer-songwriter Ochs (1940–76), whose protest songs addressed civil rights, war, capital punishment, and police brutality, was once seen as a legitimate rival to Bob Dylan. Cohen (Phil Ochs: A Bio-Bibliography) gathers a wide-ranging collection of Ochs's writings, including contributions to student publications at the Staunton Military Academy and Ohio State University; reviews in Broadside, Sing-Out, and other popular music journals; and articles in alternative press outlets such as the Village Voice and the Los Angeles Free Press. Ochs's political pieces often deal with the same issues found in his protest songs. Cohen organizes the material under several rubrics, chronologically, geographically, and by genre. One group of articles documents the exciting history of the 1960s New York folk scene, with portraits of emerging new talents, including Hamilton Camp, David Blue, Eric Andersen, and Buffy Sainte Marie; another, devoted to Ochs's writings in Los Angeles, contains liner notes for several albums, some satire, and film-related articles, including "Requiem for a Dragon Departed," an intriguing obituary on Bruce Lee. The poetry section features 22 poems, most unpublished heretofore. VERDICT Ochs's work remains relevant today, and this book will appeal to his loyal fans and to readers interested in folk music's role in promoting justice.—William Gargan, emeritus, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY

Library Journal

Read More