Peter, Paul and Mary are three, yet one; they have individuality, yet unity. It shows in their music--as those who attended the group's Friday night concert at St. John Arena will attest--and it shows in their talk.
Paul described the group as "three individuals who get along precisely."
"Peter, Paul and Mary is our life," he said, "or at least seven eights of it. Everything else is peripheral.
"Even when Peter was working on the film 'You Are What You Eat' he was Peter, Paul and Mary first."
Mary explained that the group's unity results, in part, from "the common ethical base we share and express in our music."
"We all may not agree on an issue initially, but we talk it out among ourselves," she said.
The ethical base for their music is what has held the group together for the nine years they have been performing, she said.
"It is impossible to say whether we are musicians or social commentators first," she went on. "It is very tied up together with us."
The ethical base also "keeps our music from going stale," she said. "Take a song like 'Blowin' in the Wind,' which is sort of our national anthem. A song like that means so much you don't get tired of it. It means something different with different concerts."
She explained, "When we sang it in the march on Washington the second verse, concerned with civil rights, was the most important. When we performed at a Hiroshima hospital, however, the last anti-war verse held all the meaning."
Mary said that the group's feelings are not expressed in just protest songs or Bob Dylan tunes. "Part of what we believe is expressed in simple, straightforward songs that say something very true about life."
When deciding what to sing from their large repertoire at a given concert, the group does not try to "psych out" the audience, Mary said. "It's not our duty to do that, and besides that's a dangerous game to play."
"You have to sing what you think is right, what you want to sing," she said.
The group once walked off a show where the sponsor tried to tell them what to sing. "A musician must be true to himself and not let some businessman dictate what can be sung," she said.
"Students in state universities have much the same problem," she said. "You have businessmen trying to tell educators and students how to educate, how to run educational institutions."
Mary said she could understand student unrest, but added that she felt the radical left was "really messing itself up."
"The system in our nation is not the best, but it can be changed. Anarchy won't change it, however," she said. "Anarchy will only lead to further repression.
"People who want social change can have it if they are willing to work for it. We've worked hard these nine years for that--and we are going to keep right on doing so."
Q&A with Ann Powers on 'Best Music Writing 2010' Seattle Times Andrew Matson: In the article "Phil Ochs' Greatest Hits" (self-published in the zine Get Well), writer Chris Estey goes track by track through Americana ...
Phil Ochs film opens January 5th Flocked Media PHIL OCHS: There But For Fortune,” the new film about the iconic folk music hero of the 1960s, has U.S. Theatrical Premiere...
Tracing the Arc of a Tragic Folk Singer New York Times By BOB BAKER IF Kenneth Bowser, a New York documentary filmmaker, succeeds in his crusade to rehabilitate the 1960s protest singer Phil Ochs, he'll have his ...
". . . I shall not murder the mankind of her going with a grave truth . . ." -- Dylan Thomas. "A Refusal To Mourn the Death, By Fire, of a Child in London"
By WILLIAM J. ALLOWAY
According to Webster, a wake is "a watch kept at night, or a vigil, as for some ritual purpose; especially, an all-night vigil over a corpse before burial . . ." Among my Celtic forebearers, the wake was such, with the hag-women keening the caoine, the lament for the dead, while the other women would do their private weeping in some back room of the house which allowed the men of the clan to dance to the fiddle and the bagpipe about the coryse with drink, food, and tobacco.
But Woody Guthrie was a folk-singer, a balladeer, and a writer of songs and an American, though his fathers' fathers wore the kilt and knew well the taste of the claymore.
His clan in Columbus gathered in a corner of Tuttle Field on Saturday's grey grim afternoon on the green grass amongst the smells of rain to come and the autumn forest of the park. Of the few that came, some were bearded and some were not; some wore the psychedelic uniform and some did not. They came in cars, on bicycles, on foot, and one on a motorcycle. With the prodding of two guitars and an African drum, a few sang those songs of his that they knew. They did not know all the words to some of the songs that sang of life sometimes bitterly, sometimes sadly, and sometimes joyously.
It was not a sad time, for their clan is not much on sadness, which is a very human trait. They smoked and laughed and ate apples while they sang. It was a gentle thing, not boisterous, not bawdy, but comfortable feeling. They talked of other things like the march on Washington, the possibilities of establishing a Digger community in Columbus, and private things, each to each.
As they had gathered, they departed, like leaves blown across the field by the fall wind in some natural, instinctual pattern. As do all clans, they exorcised the dreaded spirit of their dead with their own gentle, loving rites to pick up the string of life again with only a burr of a knot in its length.
It was the way that Woody, if it was possible for him to have any say in the matter, would have liked it to be.
New York, NY IFC Center Opens January 5, 2011 Portland, OR Northwest Film Center January 9, 2011 Hudson, NY Time & Space LTD January 14 - 16, 22-23, 2011 Dallas, TX Texas Theatre January 28 - February 3, 2011 Hudson, NY Time & Space LTD February 4 - 6 & 10, 2011 Lake Worth, FL Lake Worth Playhouse February 4 - 10, 2011 Brooklyn, NY indieScreen February 4 - 10, 2011 Wellfleet, MA Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater February 4 & 20, 2011 Detroit, MI Detroit Film Theatre February 5, 2011 Albuquerque, NM Guild Cinema February 8 - 10, 2011 Wilmington, DE Theatre N February 11 - 13, 2011 Lacrosse, WI Rivoli Theatre February 11 - 17, 2011 Jackson, MS Mississippi Film Institute February 18 - 19, 2011 Columbus, OH Gateway Film Center February 18 - 24, 2011 Toronto, ON Bloor Cinema February 18 - 24, 2011 Coral Gables, FL Coral Gables Art Cinema February 18 - 24, 2011 Austin, TX Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar February 21 & March 2, 2011 Chicago, IL Gene Siskel Film Center February 25 - March 3, 2011 Edmonton, AB Metro Cinema Society February 26 & 28, 2011 Tucson, AZ Loft Cinema March 2, 2011 Portland, ME The Movies at the Museum March 4 - 6, 2011 Santa Monica, CA Laemmle Monica 4 March 4 - 10, 2011 Denver, CO Denver FilmCenter/Colfax March 4 - 10, 2011 Pittsburgh, PA Harris Theater March 4 - 10, 2011 Pasadena, CA Laemmle Playhouse March 4 - 10, 2011 Encino, CA Laemmle Town Center March 4 - 10, 2011 Claremont, CA Laemmle Claremont March 5 - 6, 2011 Deal Park, NJ Axelrod Performing Arts Center March 7, 2011 Asbury Park, NJ The Showroom March 9 - 13, 2011 Bloomington, IN Ryder Film Series March 10 - 13 & 19 - 20, 2011 Detroit, MI Detroit Film Theatre March 11, 2011 Telluride, CO Palm Theatre March 11, 2011 Seattle, WA Northwest Film Forum March 11 - 13, 2011 Washington DC West End Cinema March 11 - 17, 2011 Santa Fe, NM The Screen March 11 - 17, 2011 Lake Worth, FL Lake Worth Playhouse March 11 - 17, 2011 Brookline, MA Coolidge Corner Theatre March 11 - 31, 2011 Spokane, WA Bing Crosby Theater March 13, 2011 Nashville, TN Belcourt Theatre March 15 - 17, 2011 Toronto, ON Bloor Cinema March 18 - 20 & 22 - 23, 2011 Ann Arbor, MI Michigan Theater March 18 & 21, 2011 San Francisco, CA Balboa Theater March 18 - 24, 2011 Berkeley, CA Rialto Elmwood March 18 - 24, 2011 San Rafael, CA Smith Rafael Film Center March 18 - 24, 2011 Santa Cruz, CA Nickelodeon Theatre March 18 - 24, 2011 Hartford, CT Real Art Ways March 18 - 24, 2011 Amherst, MA Amherst Cinema March 18 - 24, 2011 San Jose, CA Camera 3 March 18 - 24, 2011 Montpelier, VT Green Mountain Film Festival March 18 - 27, 2011 Albuquerque, NM Guild Cinema March 21 - 24, 2011 Grand Rapids, MI Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts March 25, 2011 Tallahassee, FL Tallahassee Film Society March 25 - 27, 2011 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Cinema Paradiso March 25 - 27 & 29, 2011 Lincoln, NE Ross Media Arts Center March 25 - 31, 2011 Waterville, ME Railroad Square Cinema March 25 - 31, 2011 Overland Park, KS Glenwood Arts Theatre March 25 - 31, 2011 Narrowsburg, NY Tusten Theatre March 26, 2011 Long Beach, CA Found Theatre March 26-27, 2011 Santa Rosa, CA 6th Street Playhouse March 29, 2011 Milwaukee, WI Times Cinema April 1 - 7, 2011 San Diego, CA Gaslamp Cinema April 1 - 7, 2011 Provincetown, MA Whaler's Wharf Cinema April 1 - 7, 2011 San Luis Obispo, CA Palm Theatre April 1 - 7, 2011 Fort Collins, CO Lyric Theatre April 1 - 7, 2011 St. Johnsbury, VT Green Mountain Film Festival April 2 - 3, 2011 Huntington, NY Cinema Arts Centre April 6 & 7, 2011 Durham, NC Carolina Theatre April 8 - 13, 2011 Yellow Springs, OH Little Art Theatre April 8 - 14, 2011 Washington, DC Avalon Theatre April 8 - 14, 2011 Norfolk, VA Naro Cinema April 10, 2011 Anchorage, AK Bear Tooth Theatre April 11, 2011 Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis Film Festival April 14 - May 5, 2011 Cleveland, OH Cleveland Museum of Art April 15 & 17, 2011 Sacramento, CA Crest Theatre April 15 - 21, 2011 New Orleans, LA Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center April 16, 2011 Nevada City, CA Nevada Theatre April 17, 2011 Middleburgh, NY Middleburgh Library April 20, 2011 Bellingham, WA Pickford Film Center April 20 & 23 - 24, 2011 St. Pete’s, FL Beach Theatre April 29, 2011 Portland, OR Northwest Film Center April 29 - 30 & May 1, 2011 Rhinebeck, NY Upstate Films April 30 & May 1 - 2, 2011 Savannah, GA Psychotronic Film Society of Savannah May 1, 2011 Seaside, CA Cal State University - Montery Bay May 2, 2011 Eugene, OR Bijou Theatre May 2 - 8, 2011 Wolfville, NS Fundy Film Society May 4, 2011 Bryn Mawr, PA Bryn Mawr Film Institute May 4, 2011 Rochester, NY Little Theatre May 4, 2011 Courtenay, BC World Community Film Festival May 5, 2011 Pelham, NY The Picture House May 6 - 8, 2011 Madison, WI Sundance Cinemas May 6 - 12, 2011 Vancouver, BC DOXA Documentary Film Festival May 13 & 15, 2011 Portland, OR Hollywood Theatre May 13 - 19, 2011 Bryn Mawr, PA Bryn Mawr Film Institute May 14, 2011 Winnipeg, MB Winnipeg Film Group May 20 - 22 & 25, 2011 Schenectady, NY Proctors Theatre May 22, 2011 Chicago, IL Gene Siskel Film Center May 27 - June 2, 2011 Bar Harbor, ME Criterion Theatre May 31 - June 5, 2011 Boulder, CO Boedecker Theater June 1 - 4, 2011 Phoeniz, AZ FilmBar June 2 - 14, 2011 Jackson, WY Jackson Hole Center for the Arts June 3, 2011 Tulsa, OK Circle Cinema June 3 - 9, 2011 Saratoga, NY Saratoga Film Forum June 9, 2011 Ottawa, ON Ottawa Folk Festival June 14, 2011 Ithaca, NY Cornell Cinema June 19 - 21, 2011 San Francisco, CA Red Vic Movie House June 26 - 28, 2011 Houston, TX Museum of Fine Arts June 30 - July 4, 2011 Pleasantville, NY Jacob Burns Film Center July 5, 2011 Cleveland, OH Cleveland Museum of Art July 13, 2011 Memphis, TN Memphis Brooks Museum of Art July 17, 2011 Vancouver, BC Pacific Cinematheque July 29 - August 3, 2011 Indian Lake, NY Indian Lake Theater October 14 -15, 2011
Filmmaker Ken Bowser directed the documentary Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune, which premiered at the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival in Woodstock, New York. The film features interviews with Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, Tom Hayden, Christopher Hitchens, Sean Penn, Ed Sanders, Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow, and more.
I last saw Phil toward the end of 1966, when I ran into him at the Limelight one night before I left New York for Italy again. He was drinking a lot by then and he was bloated and disheveled, volatile and dark.
Phil began telling me a long, convoluted tale that made no sense. He laughed and cried and his manner frightened me. I tried to act as if nothing was wrong with his behavior or appearance. I gave him my address in Italy and half begged him to get away, take a long break, and come visit me. Phil Ochs had a good career and people who loved him but the demons he struggled with eventually engulfed and over-powered him. He committed suicide in 1976 at the age of thirty-six [sic - 35].
New Film About The Iconic Folk Singer Phil Ochs World Music Central Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune is a new film by acclaimed filmmaker Kenneth Bowser (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls & Live From New ...
Between 100 and 150 Ohio State students and Columbus residents are expected to travel to Washington D.C. this weekend for a counter inauguration, according to George Vargo, Education-4 and a National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE) volunteer. MOBE is sponsoring the counter-inauguration to protest the inauguration of President-elect Richard Nixon.
Buses will be provided for transportation, Vargo said. The buses will leave the University area on 10 p.m. Friday and will depart from Washington at 10 p.m. Sunday. Round trip tickets will cost $16.
Those interested in buses or more information should call The Ohio Peace Action Council at 299-3223, Vargo said.
Ohio Headquarters
Ohioians may stay at the Ohio Movement Center at Brightwood Park Methodist Church, 8 Jefferson, NW, where they will be able to eat and sleep. Most people are bringing sleeping bags and blankets, Vargo said. Food will be distributed at the church.
Workshops on militarism, imperialism, racism and women's liberation are scheduled for Saturday at Federal City College, Vargo said.
'Political Confrontation'
A counter-inaugural parade which will seek "a political, not a physical confrontation" with the Administration is planned for Sunday.
Demonstrations will include a counter-inauguration and a counter-state-of-the-union message and will precede a counter-inaugural ball.
The counter-inaugural ball will be held in a tent behind the White House and will feature Janis Joplin, Judy Collins, Phil Ochs and the Fugs.
On Monday an "organized presence" of the MOBE movement will be formed along the inaugural parade route, Vargo said. A guerrilla theatre will perform skits during the time the parade is marching.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tom Lindeman flew to Wisconsin in April to cover the state Democratic Primary. Today he compares his impressions with the Columbus McCarthy appearance.
While tired Hubert Humphrey fished for pike at Lake Waverly, Minn., Gene McCarthy cast his line in Columbus.
Despite his come-from-behind approach, which requires politicking every minute, McCarthy still looked refrigerated in his cool summer suit, sky blue shirt, stripped tie and sun tan.
The Minnesota Senator is surely weary by now, but his pace seems to have increased since the early days of stumping in New Hampshire and Wisconsin.
His campaigning in early April was dubbed the "Children's Crusade," a phrase his professional advisers have dropped lately. Several things have changed with Senator McCarthy.
Earlier it was strictly "Be clean for Gene" when representing the ex-professor. The most frequent complaint by youthful campaigners in Wisconsin was voiced against a poster in the headquarters declaring "Haircuts Recommended."
Wednesday, as the crowd waited in front of the State House, it was entertained by a hippy-type band, unshorn, in mod sun glasses and dress.
Before the candidate arrived on the steps of Ohio's highest political chambers, folk singer Phil Ochs, a former Ohio State student, drew applause from the early young crowd when he labeled most political office-holders "dishonest, except (New Orleans District Attorney) Jim Garrison."
The applause was longer and louder when he sang an antiwar song called "We Ain't Marchin." The words vibrated between two World War I Doughboy statues flanking the speaker's platform. The inscription on one of the statues reads "The republic is secure so long as we continue to honor the memory of its defenders."
The performers and performance seemed out of place in a campaign even as off beat as McCarthy's. Perhaps Columbus Advance Man Tony Podesta missed a cue. At any rate, when the Senator arrived he steered clear of the entertainers.
McCarthy, himself, still has his quiet demeanor. He was extra serious, interjecting little of his popular humor. Fighting the GOP for headlines this week is hardly fun.
The candidate, once a continuous speaker, punctuated his speech Wednesday with silence. The lunch hour crowd politely applauded each pause.
In the beginning, Senator McCarthy was laughed off as the Democrat's answer to Harold Stassen. Although the Senator proved his critics wrong in New Hampshire, he is still considered a maverick by the Democratic hierarchy.
And so the entire candidacy of Senator Eugene J. McCarthy these final days must shift to fishing for people like those in the Neil House, conventional people, delegates.
February 10, 1969
