The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington

by Maurice Isserman

In articles for the Weekly in the fall of 1964, I.F. Stone had helped discredit the government's account of the Gulk of Tonkin incident. In December of that year he had spoken at the SDS National Council meeting, arguing the case for a U.S. pullout from Vietnam; his speech was one of the factors leading SDS to call for its march on Washington. Thus, Stone was a natural choice for SDS to invite to speak at the rally in April. His turn at the podium came immediately after folksinger Phil Ochs had sung a musical parody mocking liberals as sellouts and hypocrites. Stone was annoyed and blasted Ochs: He was a liberal himself, he told the crowd, and he had seen "snot-nosed Marxist Leninists" come and go, and he wasn't impressed by their pretensions. In the years that followed, Stone repeatedly criticized "stunt-mongers and suicide tactics" in the antiwar movement--but because his commitment to ending the war was so clearly established, he also continued to get a respectful hearing in the antiwar movement and the New Left.

As Long As They Don't Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods

by Stephen G. Meyer

"As long as they don't move next door." The title is inspired by Phil Ochs. Once considered a rival of Bob Dylan, Ochs wrote topical songs containing a mixture of satire and bile. Most of his venom was saved for the likes of Orval Faubus and Richard Nixon, but in "Love Me I'm a Liberal," he chides what he considered the hypocrisy of the typical liberal. In one verse, he castigates northern supporters of the civil rights movement who condemn Jim Crow and the racism of southern bigots but deny or dismiss the prejudice against blacks in the North. Given the discomforting accuracy of Ochs's observation, the song's lines, "I love Puerto Ricans and Negroes / As long as they don't move next door," hit an appropriate note of social criticism.

There But for Fortune

Twenty years ago, after a long battle with writer's block and manic depression, internationally acclaimed folksinger-activist Phil Ochs took his own life. His music had been a spark firing 1960s political idealism, and his death signaled the end of an era.

There But for Fortune: The Life of Phil Ochs is both an in-depth biography and a significant musical history, focusing on the importance of Ochs' topical songs addressing the civil rights, anti-war, and labor movements. With the full cooperation of the Ochs family, and with unprecedented access to Phil Ochs' diaries and notebooks, noted biographer Michael Schumacher tells the full story of this gifted artist - from his early years as a musical prodigy and aspiring journalist in Ohio, where he earned his first guitar after betting on a Presidential election, to his initial performances in Greenwich Village's coffeehouses and folk clubs; from his headline-making appearances at Carnegie Hall to his ambitious consciousness-raising political rallies. Rich in its anecdotal detail, this biography recounts Ochs' travels around the globe, including his involuntary prison tour of South America, as well as his associations with some of the most notable figures of his generation, including Bob Dylan, Robert F. Kennedy, and John Lennon. The story of Phil Ochs is ultimately the chronicle not only of a man but of the singular times in which he lived.

With precision and compassion, There But for Fortune explores the rise and fall of an artist who believed in the power of music as a catalyst for change. Unfortunately this faith led to his downfall. When the visionary heat and momentum of '60s activism burned away, Ochs grew unstable and turned inward, fueling his self-destructive tendencies. Instead of confronting the apathy that he saw in the world around him, he was driven to create a frightening alter-ego - a frenetic and occasionally violent personality named John Train, who abused drugs and alcohol as well as the people around him. The Train persona eventually disappeared but Ochs was left to confront the damage his creation had inflicted on himself and others. Mired in the darkest depression imaginable, Ochs fell from the heights of his earlier success to the depths of despair, leaving him totally disillusioned and suicidal.

Still, the life of Phil Ochs cannot be characterized as tragic. As one of Ochs' close friends remarked to Schumacher, "Phil managed to put eighty-five years of living into his thirty-five years on earth." Regardless of his end, Phil Ochs left a priceless legacy in the ideals that he championed and the music he created.

Michael Schumacher is a respected journalist whose other books include Dharma Lion: A Critical Biography of Allen Ginsberg and Crossroads: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton. He lives with his family in Wisconsin.

"The millions of people who know and love the songs of Phil Ochs should read this book."
-Pete Seeger

"I am still weeping for Phil Ochs - for his friendship, for his singing, and for his social vision. Michael Schumacher's There But for Fortune has helped me understand more about Phil. I wish I had a time machine."
-Edward Sanders

"Michael Schumacher's accomplished a serious biography of Phil Ochs - prophetic, social conscience minstrel, lineage of Woody Guthrie, precursor to Bob Dylan's radical songwriting phase, tragicomic folksong renaissance pioneer from the '60s to the '70s."
-Allen Ginsberg

Excerpt

Phil had always believed that he would die at a young age, and he now began to contemplate his death, especially by suicide. It was not yet the obsession that it would become, but it was something that he could easily call up and consider, often in an eerily detached way. The tombstone on the cover of Rehearsals for Retirement had been no exaggeration: he constantly spoke of how he had died with America in Chicago. He elaborated on it at the Carnegie Hall shows, where he announced the death of Phil Ochs, speaking of himself in the third person as if he could stand back and look at his life with a totally objective view.

He swore he would never perform again. He saw no reason to rehash the same old material, and in his latest prolonged bout of depression, he could hardly write a single line, let alone an entire song, in his notebooks. With enough money in the bank to carry him indefinitely, Phil reasoned that he could stay away from the stage and recording studio for as long as he wanted.

The big plan, he told friends, was to travel and see the world. He had seen a large portion of Europe when he was performing, but his professional obligations had kept him from exploring the countries in any depth. Now, with time and money at his disposal, he vowed to check out every country in the world before he died.

He began his quest at the end of the year , when he visited France, Holland, England, and Ireland with friends Jerry Rubin and Stew Albert. Leaving the United States lifted his spirits. As Albert recalled, Phil was an ideal tourist, whose enthusiasm rubbed off on everyone around him.

Rubin and Albert had their own agenda on the trip-to bring the Youth International party to Europe-and they held press conferences and met with leftist organizers and activists wherever they went. Phil. still burned out from politics in general, turned down numerous invitations to become involved, either through television appearances or by giving benefit concerts. In Paris, he passed up the chance to appear with Rubin and Albert on television. going instead to the movies while his friends taped the show. In Holland, the group connected with members of the Kraubauterzen, a radical Dutch organization similar to the Yippies. Phil was amazed and pleased to learn that one of their members had been elected to a local city council.

Ironically, the Americans' politics were considered mild in com- parison to their European counterparts. In England, a group of British and Australian activists accused Rubin and Albert of selling out by agreeing to appear on The David Frost Show, which was currently broadcasting live in London. Rubin, Albert, and Brian Flanagan, a British activist also scheduled to appear as a guest on the show. struck up a deal with the radicals: the three of them would do a por- tion of the show as if they were serious guests, and then, after about fifteen minutes, they would allow the radicals to "take over" the program. Phil was asked if he wanted to participate in the overthrow, but he declined to have anything to do with it. He still felt loyal to Frost for giving him a shot on his program only a few months earlier, and he was not about to do anything that might embarrass him.

The takeover went off as planned. At the appointed moment, the English and Australians stormed the stage, shouting obscenities and political slogans, and creating bedlam in the studio. One activist kissed Frost on the mouth, proclaiming it a moment for gay liberation. Hashish joints were broken out and smoked. As Rubin had hoped, the cameras caught all of the action, including one funny mo ment that found David Frost watching the whole affair from the front row of the studio. The police were finally called and the troublemakers chased from the studio, but not before all involved had become local heroes.

“We were like the Beatles,” remembered Albert, noting that the story had run on the front page of a number of local papers. 'We couldn't go anywhere without being recognized."

While in London, the group, including Phil, met with Bernadette Devlin at a local tavern. The entourage hoped to spend some time in Belfast, but before heading into Ireland they wanted to speak to Devlin about the country’s volatile climate. The trip itself was uneventful, the group spending a week in Ireland and maintaining a low profile until Rubin and Albert’s limited visas expired and they had to leave.

Death of a Rebel

Death of a Rebel, unavailable for nearly a decade, returns in this updated, revised, and expanded edition. The controversial biography which the New York Times Book Review called "moving," Greil Marcus praised in Rolling Stone as "fascinating," Variety called "excellent," and the San Francisco Chronicle termed "a remarkable book," has become the primal reference on the life and times of Phil Ochs, sixties rebel/social commentator/student activist/street socialist/poet/pop star and disturbed child of an America gone war-crazy and assassination-insane.

Praised by the Village Voice for possessing "a bittersweet, ironic voice that recalls both Nathanael West and Bertolt Brecht," and by London's Melody Maker for his combination of "Beatles' musicality and Dylan's poetry," Ochs galloped into the sixties riding musical shotgun to Dylan's lyric Marxmanship. With a major recording contract in his pocket, sell-out concerts, and notoriety in the "straight" press for his outspoken political views, it seemed nothing would prevent Phil Ochs's becoming a major star of the decade that wrote the book on rock, roll, and rebellion. And yet, at the height of his popularity, suddenly it was over, in the ashes of Chicago '68 and in J. Edgar Hoover's personally supervised FBI campaign of constant surveilance, harassment, and professional blacklisting.

What brought him down from the pinnacle of commercial and artistic success to the back alleys of his own despair, from the recognition on the international concert scene to the anonymity of jail cells and mental hospitals? What led him from the murderous satire of his best songs to suicide a block from his childhood home? Death of a Rebel is the depiction of that graceless fall, a portrait of an original American troubadour and the price he paid for trying to be a left-wing Elvis Presley in the days of rage in the age of Richard Nixon.

Presented here for the first time are new facts and documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act that prove Ochs was a target of Hoover's FBI, a thoroughly updated discography, previously unavailable photographs, and several new interviews not available for the original publication. This edition of Death of a Rebel presents the fullest depiction yet of one of the most talented, enigmatic, and tragic American pop-culture icons who ever raised a voice to sing, a fist to protest, and a generation's consciousness.

Marc Eliot has written four other books, including Rockonomics: The Money Behind The Music. He lives in New York City and Palenville, New York, and is presently at work on a novel to appear next year.

The War Is Over

A sampling from the songs included in The War Is Over

Cops of the World
We'll spit through the streets of the cities we wreck,
And we'll find you a leader that you can elect.

Love Me, I'm a Liberal
And I love Puerto Ricans and Negroes, as long as they don't live next door.

Flower Lady
But nobody's buying flowers from the flower lady.

The Party
And their conversation sparkles as their wits are dipped in wine--
Dinosaurs on a diet, on each other they will dine.

The War Is Over
Silent soldiers on a silver screen;
Framed in fantasies and drugged in dreams;
Unpaid actors of the mystery.
The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free,
And what's this got to do with me?

When I'm Gone
And you won't find me singin' on this song, when I'm gone.
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here!

Songs of Phil Ochs

"Ochs is a major new writer worth watching."
Robert Shelton, New York Times

"Phil Ochs has reached maturity as a . . . writer that few acquire in a lifetime of work."
Josh Dunson, Sing Out

Contents

Introduction (4)
Foreword (5)
What's That I Hear (7)
Hills of West Virginia (8)
There But For Fortune (9)
Bound For Glory (10)
Draft Dodger Rag (11)
William Moore (12)
Talking Plane Disaster (14)
Talking Vietnam (15)
Thresher (17)
Lou Marsh (18)
Remember Me (19)
Firehouse 35 (20)
No Christmas In Kentucky (21)
Celia (22)
Links On The Chain (23)
That Was The President (24)
What Are You Fighting For (25)
Automation Song (26)
Power And Glory, The (27)
Another Country (28)
Too Many Martyrs (29)
I Ain't Marchin' Anymore (30)
Iron Lady, The (32)

Introduction

I got interested in politics after wasting a couple of years drifting through college. Around the same time, I became interested in learning the guitar, and luckily won an old Kay in a bet on the election of John Kennedy for President. As a journalism major, I was writing for several campus papers, so it was pretty natural to slip some of my ideas between the chords I was learning.

This book contains about a fifth of the songs I've written since then. Many people have asked me how I write a song, and after thinking about it for a while, I decided that all my good songs were written subconsciously. That is to say, I'm never able to sit down and decide that I'm going to write a song. Rather, a song idea will come out of the blue and I'll get the proverbial light-bulb sensation. But I always try to keep my mind conditioned to thinking of new ideas. When I get one, my brain almost acts like a reflex muscle in following up a new thought. Sometimes I have stayed up past daylight pursuing a song idea until it was trapped in rhyme. But once you get the original idea, the rest is relatively easy, --- and rewarding. Some of the most exciting and satisfying moments of my life have been in the writing of a song.

I hope this book will inspire some readers to try their hand at songwriting. You'll never know how good you might be without a few honest attempts. I think many potentially good songwriters have been still-born by their own inhibitions.

Most of my early songs were straight journalistic narratives of specific events, and the later ones have veered more in the direction of themes behind the events. All of them, though, are trying to make a positive point, even the ones that deal with tragic events. However, I do have to concur with some of the right-wing groups that consider topical songs subversive. These songs are definitely subversive in the best sense of the word. They are intended to overthrow as much idiocy as possible, and hopefully, to effect some amount of change for the better.

I'd like to dedicate this book to the memory of Joe Hill, the Wobbly songwriter who received his royalties in the form of bullets from a firing squad.
PHIL OCHS

Foreword
by Gordon Friesen

To me, this first book of songs by Phil Ochs marks an important milestone in the current development of fresh new directions for American song. It brings between two covers the already solid achievement of a young poet-songwriter who is contributing much to the present revitalization of the nation's "folk-type" singing tradition. Phil Ochs is one of the most significant leaders, I think, of the band of young creators who are boldly taking America's folksong revival down new and exciting roads.

This whole group of young men and women, almost spontaneously it seems, began writing "contemporary folk songs" about two years ago. Their output has been terrific; this book represents only a small portion of the songs Phil Ochs has written in that time. And not only writing them, but getting them printed and recorded and sung all over the country. Their influence has extended in widening circles until now we see a concentration on "songs of protest" even by the established commercial folk music groups, to many of whom "songs with a message" were something to be strictly avoided only a few months ago.

This new trend was summed up recently in a statement in the Saturday Evening Post by folksinger Carolyn Hester. Indicating why she (and by inference many another folksinger today) was switching from the old traditional ballads to singing more and more of the newly-composed "topical folksongs", Miss Hester said: "People are demanding more of a folk singer. You must stand up and say what you believe, what you think ... Writers --- that's what's new in folk singing today."

Among these new writers Phil Ochs stands at a certain apex, because many of the streams of this movement to restore vitality and meaning to our country's songs (and not only "folk", but song in general) converge in his work. We find in Phil's songs, for example, the bitterness of a Bob Dylan, but redeemed by a sharp sense of humor. Even the love song rises to a new level in Phil's hands. It is true that the love songs composed by many of these young writers, Dylan, Len Chandler, Eric Andersen, Peter La Farge, tower high in their realism above the sentimental ersatz in which American popular song has been wallowing since the 20's. But Phil, in his lyrically and musically beautiful "Celia" -- based on the real life Pomeroy case -- adds something quite significant: he makes of it specifically a love song of our special times, when so many dark forces keep a man and a woman apart.

Meaningful song, of course, is not alien to America; it has only seemed that way these past few decades. Songs crying out against injustice and reaffirming a faith in liberty and reason exist from Revolutionary days straight on through the 1800's and through the labor struggles, Great Depression and World War two of this century. Such songwriting waned, along with virtually all creative activity in general, in the stifling atmosphere of McCarthyism. But even during that dark period the spark of topical song was kept alive by such composers as Pete Seeger, Lee Hays, Malvina Reynolds, Ernie Marrs and others. And standing tall behind them, the influence of the giant, Woody Guthrie.

It is against this background that the Phil Ochses, the Dylans, the Chandlers, the Tom Paxtons, the Buffy Sainte-Maries, began working. They have come far in a short time. Phil, only 23, is already being listed in Who's Who; recognition of his poetry also has come from abroad. (The world-famed French poet and novelist, Luis Aragon, paid homage to Phil in his latest volume of poetry). Two years ago, Phil was a student at Ohio State University vitally interested in journalism because he felt he had so many things to say. But his dim experience with the campus press left him unconvinced that there was much freedom of expression in the newspaper world. So he turned to one of the traditional areas where a man can still stand up and say how he feels about things -- folksinging. He began to put his ideas into song.

But songs must have a considerable dimension above and beyond editorials. This is something Phil never loses sight of. As folk music critic Robert Shelton said in a recent New York Times article "(Phil Ochs) is a fighter who uses ridicule and humor as his weapons. He comments in song on Cuba, Vietnam, militarism, civil liberties and civil rights, but with such a flair for lyric-writing that his songs rarely sound like pamphleteering."

"But all is not criticism. He has learned some of Guthrie's patriotic affirmation, especially in 'The Power And The Glory' and 'What's That I Hear?' ... Ochs is a major new writer and singer worth watching."

Another ingredient absolutely essential to good songs is good music. And that you will find too in this songbook of Phil Ochs'. Music critic Josh Dunson, writing in the New York publication BROADSIDE, where Phil's songs -- and those of many of the new young songwriters -- first appeared, says Phil has created "some of the most beautiful tunes produced by topical singers to date. 'Bound For Glory,' the restrained and thoughtful tribute to Woody Guthrie; 'Lou Marsh,' the ballad of the New York Youth Board worker killed last year; and 'The Automation Song,' a deftly painted picture of the plight facing America's working man, all are moving and lasting compositions..." (Incidentally, it is in Phil's song about Woody that many listeners find most comparison to Woody's own songwriting; they in "Bound For Glory" the same spirit which pervades "This Land Is Your Land.")

These songs of Phil's and others in this book are already becoming quite well-known, through the singing of them by professional performers like Joe & Eddie, Joan Baez, Ronnie Gilbert, the New World Singers, and amateur groups and individuals, especially on college campuses, in various parts of the land. Quite a few have also been recorded, by the Goodtime Singers, Pete Seeger, Phil himself on Broadside Ballads Vol. 1 (Folkways), on Vanguard's "New Folks Vol. 2", and his solo Elektra album, "All The News That's Fit To Sing" ("Hey! these are good songs," Pete Seeger said after listening to Phil's L-P).

Phil, like Dylan and the others, is a "working" singer as well as a songwriter, earning a living by performing his own material. He has appeared at Town Hall and Carnegie Hall, has sung the circuit of clubs, haunts and coffeehouses. When he can, he travels for a firsthand look at the things he wants to write songs about; his Hazard, Kentucky, songs came out of several visits to the impoverished miners' families there; on a trip to Atlanta, Ga., he absorbed the feeling behind the Negro people's struggle for freedom.

What we have here is an admittedly condensed sketch of the forthright young American who created the songs in this book. You will get much more of a picture of him from the songs themselves. Read them, sing them, enjoy them, listen and learn from them.

(Mr. Friesen is a contributing editor of the topical folk music publication "BROADSIDE").

Folk Singer for the FBI: The Phil Ochs FBI File

Phil Ochs (1940-1976) was one the greatest political and topical folk singers of the 1960s, whose protest songs included "I Ain't Marching Anymore," "Links on the Chain," and "Ringing of Revolution." Ochs was first investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) early on in his career, after writing a favorable article on Woody Guthrie in Mainstream magazine in 1963. That same magazine issue brought another name to the attention of the FBI: fellow Greenwich Village folk singer Bob Dylan. The FBI attended political rallies where Ochs played, and poured over media articles to build a profile on him. Ochs began noticing the attention, referring to the FBI in his lyrics and telling an audience in 1966: "As you know, I'm a folk singer for the FBI." The FBI's investigation intensified after the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago occurred in August 1968. The FBI attempted to build a case against Ochs and other members of the Youth International Party (Yippies), but the indictment against Ochs never materialized due to a lack of evidence. Ochs instead later testified at the Chicago Seven trial for the defense. Special agents now monitored his travels in person, and received updates from foreign authorities when, for example, he was arrested at a student political rally in South America. Despite the hundreds of pages in his FBI file, Ochs never committed a federal crime. He continued to be under investigation until his death by suicide in 1976.

Reviews

"This is why I love Phil Ochs." - Ethan Smith

"[A] must read as we slip down the slope towards a fascist state." - Notlobmusic

"Hard to believe and who knows what they [FBI et al.] do these days." - WICN 90.5 FM

Excerpts from the FBI File

"Mainstream" [a folk magazine] August, 1963, contains a poem entitled "Glory Bound" by Phil Ochs, and an article "The Guthrie Legacy" also by Ochs. Both the poem and the article are eulogies on folk singer and guitarist Woodie [sic] Guthrie, described as "incurably ill." Ochs does not specifically describe himself in these writings, but their content shows that he has conversed with guitarists and folk singers. The reader is drawn to conclude that Ochs himself is a guitarist and folk singer. An article on page 40 of the same issue "Mainstream" entitled "off the record" by Josh Dunson, describes Philip Ochs as a "topical song writer." NYO [New York Office] indices reflect no information concerning Philip Ochs.

On October 15, 1965, Phil Ochs, a folk singer, who at that time was appearing at the Second Fret, a night club and coffee house in Philadelphia, was observed by SAS [Special Agents] of the FBI to entertain at a "speak-out" held at City Hall, Philadelphia, Pa., sponsored by the Philadelphia Area Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

"The Worker" of January 9, 1966, page four, contained an article disclosing "Phil Ochs sang about the war" at a teach-in sponsored by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and Students for Peace in Vietnam, an affiliate of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held December 29, 1965, at Columbia University's McMillian Auditorium, New York City. The article stated, "The teach-in was aimed at high school students and was an attempt to organize and give expression to high school sentiment . . . on the war in Vietnam." ("The Worker" is an east coast Communist newspaper that ceased publication in July, 1968. . . .)

"The Worker" of April 11, 1967, page one, column four, indicated Phil Ochs was one of the artists scheduled to participate in the April 15, 1967, anti-Vietnam demonstration in New York City sponsored by the Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

The October 16, 1967, issue of "Mobilization News," published by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (NMC) listed Phil Ochs as one of the entertainers who would appear at the October 21, 1967 anti-Vietnam demonstration at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

The October 27, 1967, issue of the "Kingsman," a Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, newspaper, reflected that Phil Ochs was one the folk singers who performed at the October 21, 1967, anti-Vietnam demonstration at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

The November 23, 1967, issue of "The Village Voice," a New York City newspaper, contained an article written by Phil Ochs captioned, "Have You Heard? The War is Over!" In this article the author calls for a rally in Washington Square Park, New York City, on November 25, 1967, to declare an end to the Vietnam War.

The November 26, 1967 issue of the "New York Times," a daily New York City newspaper, contained a report of an impromptu march of several thousand persons from an anti-Vietnam rally at Times Square Park, New York City, on November 25, 1967. The article indicated, "The original idea for the anti-war demonstration started with Phil Ochs, a composer and singer, who has been called 'a troubadour of the New Left.' " The article continued, "He had organized a similar march in Los Angeles last summer and subsequently wrote a satirical song on 'the war is over' concept."

The January 22, 1966 issue of the "Newark Evening News," a Newark, New Jersey, daily newspaper, page three, reflected that Phil Ochs was one of the performing artists at the Broadway for Peace 1968 presentation at Lincoln Center, New York City, January 21, 1968, sponsored by the Congressional Peace Campaign Committee.

The February 15, 1968 issue of "Win," a publication of the War Resisters League in cooperation with the New York Workshop for Nonviolence, carried on page fifteen, an article entitled, "The Birth of the Yippies." The piece reflects the Youth International Party (YIP) was founded in New York City on January 16, 1968, by some 25 artists, writers and revolutionaries, including Phil Ochs.

The February 27, 1968 issue of the "Long Island Press," a metropolitan New York City newspaper, contained an article reporting an interview with Keith Lampe, a founder of YIP, wherein Lampe said that among those involved in creating YIP was folk singer Phil Ochs.The March 21, 1968 issue of "The Village Voice," ... on March 7, 1968, page twenty-eight, contained an article reflecting Phil Ochs would be one of the entertainers at a benefit for the National Committee for Free Elections in Mississippi on that date at the Tavern-On-The-Green in New York City.

"The Worker," of April 23, 1968, page one, column two, disclosed that Phil Ochs was one of the folk singers scheduled to appear at the April 27, 1968 anti-Vietnam demonstration in Central Park, New York City, sponsored by the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee.

On August 23, 1968, a SA [Special Agent] of the FBI observed a demonstration at the Civic Center Plaza, Chicago, Illinois, and observed approximately 50 youths where a YIP press conference was scheduled for 10:15 a.m. on that date.

At 10:20 a.m. it was observed that a live pig was brought to the Plaza by the YIP contingent which they announced was the YIP "candidate" for President of the United States. When efforts were made by the Chicago Police to bring the pig under control, 7 Yippies attempted to intervene and were arrested by the police. One of those so arrested was Phil Ochs, a white male, born December 19, 1940.

On April 5, 1969, Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation observed the GI-Civilian Anti-War Parade and Rally, and reported that at approximately 4:45 PM, Phil Ochs was introduced to the Chairman and sang a song titled "On March 10 [sic], the Battle of New Orleans---" ["I Ain't Marching Anymore"]. This was followed by another song by Ochs called "All Quiet in [sic] the Western Front."

The "New York Times," a New York City daily newspaper, in the issue of April 6, 1969, on page one contained an article captioned "Thousands March Here to Demand Vietnam Pull Out." This article stated that thousands of anti-war demonstrators marched along the Avenue of the Americas on April 5, 1969, from Bryant Park to Central Park [about five miles straight up the main commercial and entertainment strip of Manhattan] for a rally in a downpour demanding United States withdrawal from Vietnam, chanting, "Free speech for GI's." The article noted that this parade began a weekend of anti-war demonstrations here (New York City) and in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle. Informants generally familiar with [subversive] activity and associated front group activity in the area where Ochs resides advised that they have no information concerning any membership or current [subversive] activity or front group activity on the part of Ochs.

The "Daily Trojan," a campus newspaper at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, October 16, 1969, carried a photograph of Phil Ochs who had ended a year-long retirement the previous day at the University of Southern California (USC), in a benefit performance for the Vietnam Moratorium Committee. He had also appeared at three other college campuses in the Los Angeles area during the day. This was described as his first activity since the Democratic convention in Chicago.

The Vietnam Moratorium Committee has been publicly described as a national group headquartering in Washington, D.C., formed for the purpose of calling a "moratorium on business as usual" in protest of the Vietnam War.