New Phil Ochs Film: Still Marchin' Across the Land
When the new documentary about legendary political folk singer Phil Ochs
opened in New York early last month, its touring schedule cited only
nine cities in all. But after playing for four weeks in New York, and
doing well elsewhere, it's now opened or is opening across the country
in a total of 60 cities. It's debuting today, for example, everywhere
from Coral Gables, Fla. to Toronto, Ontario.
Directed by Kenneth Bowser, it's titled, after one of his greatest
songs, "Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune." As I noted in a review six
weeks ago, it's quite excellent, with commentary by, among others, Sean
Penn, Tom Hayden, Joan Baez, Christopher Hitchens, Billy Bragg, Paul
Krassner and Peter Yarrow.
There's plenty of music, of course, from "I Ain't A-Marchin' Anymore" to
one of my favorites, "Tape From California," but it is also relentlessly
political, like Phil. It also does not shy away from the drinking and
bi-polar horrors of his final years, culminating in his death by hanging
at the age of 35 in 1976.
Democracy Now! featured interviews with the director and with Phil's
brother Michael Ochs. The New York Timesreviewed the film prominently.
As senior editor at Crawdaddy magazine, I happened to meet and hang out
a bit with Phil for a couple of years in the early to mid-1970s, mainly
during his less manic periods. Before that, in August of 1968, I had
rubbed shoulders with him at the infamous Democratic convention protests
in Chicago. Like me, he had campaigned for Eugene McCarthy and ended up
in the streets (as the movie makes clear), and sang for the bloodied
protestors after the ultimate "police riot," a night I'll never forget.
When Phil went to Chile to get a look at the Allende reforms, one of my
best friends, Stew Albert, went with him, and Stew later wrote a major
piece for Crawdaddy on the trip and getting close to the Chilean folk
singer Victor Jara. Of course, Jara was later seized during the Pinochet
coup, tortured, and killed, and this had a devastating impact on Phil
(again, nicely shown in the film).
Whenever I chatted with Phil, he was courteous, fun and still quoting
liberally, so to speak, from the day's newspapers. Unfortunately, he had
severe writer's block and was drinking heavily, which somehow did not
top him from organizing a very successful benefit for Chile and the "War
Is Over" rally in Central Park. I also spent some time with him when he
was singing for Ramsey Clark in his race for the U.S. Senate. The one
time I saw him during his "Phil Ochs is dead, I am John Train" period he
was getting tossed out of a party at William Kunstler's home after he
started swinging a golf club over his head.
When Crawdaddy expired in 1979, Michael Ochs, a noted photo archivist,
bought our complete collection.
Here are links to the web site for the film and the recent New York
Times feature piece and (below) the trailer, and beneath that, "Tape
from California" and "Here's to the State of Richard Nixon."
Greg Mitchell's latest book is "The Age of WikiLeaks: From Collateral
Murder to Cablegate," available in both print and e-book.
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http://www.thenation.com/blog/158705/new-phil-ochs-film-still-marchin-across-
land
Via InstaFetch
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