OCHS, Phil Rehearsals For Retirement (CD)

Phil Ochs alking Vietnam is one of four Phil Ochs songs selected for the Anthology. They comprise only a portion of the protest singer's war-related output. During a short life that produced only eight studio albums and one chart single [Outside A Small Circle Of Friends; A&M 891, #118] Ochs left an enduring legacy of topical songs. Philip David Ochs was born on December 19, 1940 in El Paso, Texas.

His earliest interests in music were playing clarinet and listening to the rock 'n' roll of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly. It was while studying journalism at Ohio State University that fellow student Jim Glover introduced him to the topical folk music of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and The Weavers. By 1960 Ochs began writing political songs, thus merging his two big interests. Two years later he moved to New York City where he quickly became part of the growing folk music revival. In 1963 Ochs appeared at the Newport Folk Festival alongside such stars as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton and Peter, Paul & Mary.

He was also busy writing songs for his first album, 'All The News That's Fit To Sing,' a title that perfectly captured his topical lyrics. This was a parod of the 'New Yotk Times' slogan. Two of the album's tracks were 'talking blues.'. One was Talking Cuban Crisis, the other Talking Vietnam. The latter described the U.S. role in Vietnam as "training a million Vietnamese to fight for the wrong government and the American way."

Other observations in this 1964 song included a warning not to "turn your back on your houseboy," a description of a U.S. military tactic—"we burned some villages down to the floor"—and an accurate count of the US troop level, "15,000…give or take a few."

Various - History Next Stop Is Vietnam 1961-2008 (13-CD)
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