Broadside Ballads 11: Interviews with Phil Ochs

by Phil Ochs

Overview

In the wake of Phil Ochs' suicide on April 9, 1976, Folkways Records releases this album of interview material recorded by Broadside magazine in 1968. The interviewer is Broadside co-editor Gordon Friesen, but he isn't much heard from; Ochs really only needs to be primed slightly to discourse on the subjects that interest him. The singer/songwriter's goal seems to be to give a sort of State of the Union assessment of the popular music industry, circa 1968, with looks back as far as the birth of rock & roll in the mid-'50s. His main point is that things have gotten more commercial and gone downhill. Calling himself a "semi-journalist" always ready to step back and view the scene as if he himself were not a part of it, Ochs suggests that popular music reached a creative peak around 1965, when Bob Dylan was both a critical and commercial success, but that since then, the entire community of folk-based artists has been corrupted by greed. He does not exempt himself, noting that, like his peers, he has moved from what was a small, New York-based folk record label, Elektra, to a more commercially oriented West Coast company, A&M Records. He notes, however, that it is really Elektra that has changed, moving toward commercial rock with the Doors. Nevertheless, he says that he personally has been depressed for a couple of years and is having trouble writing. He is particularly upset that he was not invited to perform at a memorial concert for Woody Guthrie held at Carnegie Hall on January 20, 1968. In his articulate comments, he comes off as an acute observer of the folk and pop music scenes of the '60s, but the listener will not gain any insight into his work as a songwriter or much into his career. (The album contains a booklet featuring a printed version of a separate interview conducted by Israel Young of the Folklore Center on September 4, 1968, shortly after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, at which police beat demonstrators in the streets. Ochs was there, and in the interview he expresses extreme disgust with what he experienced, suggesting he may leave the country as a result. In fact, as a sleeve note reveals, Ochs stayed, while Young eventually moved to Sweden.) ~ William Ruhlmann

Product Details

Release Date:	05/30/2012
Label:	Smithsonian Records
UPC:	0093070532120
Rank:	127188

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Phil Ochs   Primary Artist,Guitar,Vocals