Wednesday 22 September 2010

Phil Ochs: "Changes" Live on Midnight Special, 1974

Ochs begins this segment by referencing a review of his music in Esquire magazine which stated, "His guitar playing would not suffer much were his right hand webbed." Here he puts this to the test, with a bandaged hand and broken arm he inflicted on himself after punching a wall at Max's Kansas City in New York City. Ochs and Jim Glover in this clip sing "Changes," which according to Phil's story here was written circa August 1965 during his first visit to Canada.

This wasn't even the first time he performed on television with this type of injury. After punching out the ticket box office at Carnegie Hall and getting banned for life, he appeared with a bandaged hand in 1970 on The David Frost Show, which included Frost watching in amazement as Ochs strummed through "I Ain't Marching Anymore."

2 comments:

jo said...

He also performed The Power and the Glory on the same show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ob7cDBMc6g

Great version of both songs.

Marie said...

I didn't know this had been uploaded recently! I always love finding new footage. I think Phil sounds amazing and this arrangement with Jim Glover is so nice. Thanks for keeping up this blog! I always find so much neat info. =)