Phil Ochs - The Men Behind the Guns

Phil Ochs - There But For Fortune (Studio Version)

The Harder They Fall (Single Version)

Kansas City Bomber

Phil Ochs' single (1972):



The Kansas City Bomber trailer (Ochs' song for the film was rejected):

Phil Ochs & John Lennon - Chords of Fame

Hotel room, Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 10, 1971:

United Fruit

Demo recorded for Broadside, 1965:



And the fruit boats ride on the waves
And the crew will dream of return
Back to the Florida waters
For the work of unloading onto the trains

And the ships will dance by the shore
With fruit from Venezuela
Brazil and Costa Rica
But the fruit from the island of Cuba is carried no more

And on the decks it will lay
Picked by the hands of the peons
At the lowest possible wages
While the profits are made by the strangers from far away

Now some pick the fruit of the vine
While others will go to the mountains
And eat the fruit of the hillside
And learn the way of the rifle and wait for the time

Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
So they will be strong in the morning to go back again

And the companies keep a sharp eye
And pay their respects to the army
To watch for the hot-blooded leaders
And be prepared for the junta to crush them like flies

So heavy the price that they pay
As daily the fruit it is stolen
Over the blue Caribbean
But the lengthening shadow of Cuba will hinder the way

And the fruit boats ride on the waves
And the crew will dream of return
Back to the Florida waters
For the work of unloading onto the trains


The Clash used lyrics from "United Fruit" in "Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)" on the album Sandinista! (1980):



The towers of London, these crumbling rocks
Reality estates that the hero's got
And every hour's marked by the chime of a clock
Whatcha gonna do when the darkness surrounds?
You can piss in the lifts which have broken down
You can watch from the debris the last bedroom light
We're invisible here just past midnight

The wives hate their husbands and their husbands don't care
Their children daub slogans to prove they lived there
A giant pipe organ up in the air
You can't live in a home which should not have been built
By the bourgeoise clerks who bear no guilt
When the wind hits this building, this building it tilts
One day it will surely fall to the ground

Fear is just another commodity here
They sell us peeping holes to peek when we hear
A bang on the door resoundingly clear
Who would really want to move in here?
The children play far away, the corridors are bare
This room is a cage, it's like captivity
How can anyone exist in such misery?

It has been said not only here

"Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To go back in the morning"

It has been said not only here

"Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To be strong in the morning
To go back again"

It has been said

"To raise the buildings"

"Allianza dollars are spent
To raise the towering buildings
For the weary bones of the workers
To be strong in the morning"

What Are You Fighting For?

Demo version, recorded for Broadside:



Oh you tell me that there's danger to this land you call your own
And you watched them build the war machines right beside your home
And you tell me that you're ready to go marchin' to the war
Oh I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Before you pack your rifle and sail across the sea
Just think upon the Southern part of land that you call free
Oh, there's many kinds of slavery and we've found many more
Yes I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

And before you walk out on your job and answer to the call
Just think about the millions who have no job at all
And the men who wait for handouts with their eyes upon the floor
I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Turn on your TV, turn it on so loud
And watch the fool a-smiling there and tell me that you're proud
And listen to your radio, the noise it starts to pour
Oh I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Read your morning papers, read every single line
And tell me if you can believe that simple world you find
Read every slanted word till your eyes are getting sore
I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

And listen to your leaders, the ones that won the race
As they stand right there before you and lie into your face
If you ever try to buy them, you know what they stand for
I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Put ragged clothes upon your back and sleep upon the ground,
And tell police about your rights as they drag you down
And ask them as they lead you to some deserted door
Yes I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

But the hardest thing I'll ask you, if you will only try
Is take your children by their hands and look into their eyes
And there you'll see the answer you should have seen before
If you'll win the wars at home, there'll be no fighting anymore


Studio version, Early Years:



Oh you tell me that there's danger to this land you call your own
And you watched them build the war machines right beside your home
And you tell me that you're ready to go marchin' to the war
Oh I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Before you pack your rifle, go sail across the sea
Just think upon the Southern part of land that you call free
Oh there's many kinds of slavery and we've found many more
Yes I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

And before you walk out on your job and answer to the call
Just think about the millions who have no job at all
And the men who wait for handouts with their eyes upon the floor
Oh I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

And read your morning papers, read every single line
And tell me if you can believe that simple world you find
Read every slanted word till your eyes are getting sore
Yes I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Listen to your leaders, the ones that won the race
As they stand there right before you and lie into your face
If you ever try to buy them, you know what they stand for
I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

Put ragged clothes upon your back and sleep upon the ground
And tell police about your rights as they drag you down
And ask them as they lead you to some deserted door
Yes I know you're set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

But the hardest thing I'll ask you, if you will only try
Is take your children by their hands and look into their eyes
And there you'll see the answer you should have seen before
If you'll win the wars at home, there'll be no fighting anymore

We've Got to Find Another Way

By Mark Spoelstra (1962)

I got a Form from my Draft Board sayin' this is what to do
Fill out this Form if you want to be a conscientious objector too

CHO:
Because I know there's got to be Peace
Peace on Earth some day
But Peace don't come from war, you see
We've got to find another way

Well I waited for five long months
Thinkin it's the alternative for me
But they gave me military duty
And they gave it in the 1st degree

Now I do love, I love this land
And Freedom is God-sent
But when it comes to killing men
I won't do it for any government
(Chorus)

I'm going to tell my draft board
That they don't have the right
To make a man go to war
Go to kill and fight

Now the army teaches a man
To go to war and kill
If I have to go to jail
God knows that I will. CHO.

Now they jail a man for murder
Because it is a crime
But if you don't kill for the army
You serve the same prison time

Some people are building them fallout shelters
But I don't know what for
Where are they going to get something to eat
After a nuclear war? CHO.

Now the moral of this here song
Is plain as day to see
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
To be or not to be. CHO.

I Will Not Go Down Under the Ground

By Bob Dylan (1962)

I will not go down under the ground because someone tells me that death's comin' round
I will not carry myself down to die when I go to my grave my head will be high

CHO:
Let me die in my footsteps before I'll go down under the ground

There's been rumors of ways and wars that have been
The meaning of life has been lost in the wind
Some people are thinkin' that the end is close by
Instead of learning to live they are learning to die. (CHO.)

I don't think I'm smart but I think I can see
When someone is pulling the wool over me
And if there's a war and death comes around
Let me die on this land 'for I'll die underground. (CHO.)

There's always been people that have to cause fear
They've been talking about war for many long years
I've read all their statements and not said a word
And now, Lord God, let my poor voice be heard. (CHO.)

If I had riches and rubies and crowns
I'd buy the whole world and I'd change things around
I'd throw all the tanks and the guns in the sea
For they all are mistakes of our past history. (CHO.)

Let me drink from the waters where the mountain streams flow
Let the smell of wild flowers flow free through my blood
Let me sleep in your meadows with your green grassy leaves
Let me walk down the highway with my brothers in peace. (CHO.)

Go out in your country where the land meets the sun
See the meadows and mountains where the wild waters run
Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho
Let every state in the Union seep deep down in your soul.

CHO. And you'll die, etc.

Carlino

Words & Music by Gil Turner (1962)

Come all you good people if you want to hear
About a politician that we have 'round here
He takes the people's money
He ought to be ashamed
He's a big shot up in Albany, Carlino is his name

They passed a law in Albany, didn't take much time
Carlino was the engineer, he rammed it down the line
A hundred million dollars, said Nelson Rockefel
We gotta dig some shelters to save us all from Hell

There's a company called Lancer, Carlino's on their team
Their shelters are made of fibreglass, well, isn't that a scream
They're building public coffins, the large economy size
But if they make ten million bucks, well that's free enterprise

If you want to make some money, here's an easy way
Get the people all afraid of comin' Judgement Day
Pay off the politicians and get 'em on your side
Make 'em say we can't have peace, so let's all run and hide

Some folks think that shelters will save them when it's time
They're building them in secrecy, well isn't that a crime
If it gets too crowded in that room below the ground
Even bought a rifle to shoot their neighbor down

Listen friends and neighbors I've one more thing to say
This human race of people has come a long, long way
I will not face my brother -- put a bullet in his head
Let's stop these fears and profiteers and fight for peace instead

Behind the Songs: Basket in the Pool

by Donovan Leitch

Before I returned home, Tom Smothers threw a party for me at Robert Redford's house. The guest list was as long as the press party with more faces. Tom took great delight in playing the "Barabajagal" single at full volume on the huge sound system, asking his guests who they thought the singer was. Everyone got it wrong. At the height of the excitement the crowds parted for a wild-looking chick with blazing eyes. She stuck her face close to mine. It was Janis Joplin.

"Just wanted to see what you looked like, Donovan!" And she was gone. Janis had gone back to the bedroom where all the musos were hiding from the "Hollyweird" crowd.

At the poolside there was a raffle, and the protest singer, Phil Ochs, won it. Everyone cheered as he went up to the microphone, but he was not pleased. He gave us all a tongue-lashing about Vietnam and the senselessness of Hollywood, this party, me included. Raising the huge basket of fruit he had won, he tossed it into the pool and left in disgust. Of course he was right, but the party went on regardless.

I climbed the rock waterfall high above the party (feeling a little like I also had been thrown away) and plunged into the pool to join the fruit.

Behind the Songs: Floods of Florence

"And the holy works of love and reverence fell before the floods of Florence"
--Phil Ochs, "Floods of Florence" (1968)

The Great Flood of Florence, 1966: A Photographic Essay

On November 4, 1966, Florence experienced the most devastating flood of its entire history, which crippled the city and destroyed many of the world's art treasures. On that day, Swietlan Nicholas Kraczyna, a twenty-six-year-old American artist living in Florence, went out into the flooded streets and photographed the dramatic unfolding events.

Kraczyna was awarded the Fiorino d'Oro--the highest honor of the City of Florence--for ten of those photographs. This book presents, for the first time, a selection of eighty-four of Kraczyna's flood photographs, taken on that tragic day and in the days that followed, as the city tried to deal with the immense disaster.

Behind the Songs: Half a Century High

"In the tube where I was killed I was fulfilled
The lies of light would bend, I'd stare until the end, and then again"
--Phil Ochs, "Half a Century High" (1968)

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

When Marshall McLuhan first coined the phrases 'global village' and 'the medium is the message' in 1964, no one could have predicted today's information-dependent planet. No one, that is, except for a handful of science fiction writers and McLuhan himself. Understanding Media was written twenty years before the PC revolution and thirty years before the rise of the Internet. Yet McLuhan's insights into our engagement with a variety of media led to a complete rethinking of our entire society. He believe that the message of electronic media foretold the end of humanity as it was known. In 1964, this looked like the paranoid babblings of a madman. In our twenty-first-century digital world, the madman looks quite sane. Understanding Media: the most important book ever written on communication. Ignore its message at your peril.

Behind the Songs: Ballad of Oxford (Jimmy Meredith)

"There was hate, cold hate, in their hearts,
Shot from their souls like a gun
And as they threw their stones and bricks,
They screamed, 'See what you have done!'"
--Phil Ochs, "Ballad of Oxford (Jimmy Meredith)"

An American Insurrection: James Meredith and the Battle of Oxford, Mississippi, 1962

In 1961, a black veteran named James Meredith applied for admission to the University of Mississippi — and launched a legal revolt against white supremacy in the most segregated state in America. Meredith’s challenge ultimately triggered what Time magazine called “the gravest conflict between federal and state authority since the Civil War,” a crisis that on September 30, 1962, exploded into a chaotic battle between thousands of white civilians and a small corps of federal marshals. To crush the insurrection, President John F. Kennedy ordered a lightning invasion of Mississippi by over 20,000 U.S. combat infantry, paratroopers, military police, and National Guard troops.

Based on years of intensive research, including over 500 interviews, JFK’s White House tapes, and 9,000 pages of FBI files, An American Insurrection is a minute-by-minute account of the crisis. William Doyle offers intimate portraits of the key players, from James Meredith to the segregationist Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, to President John F. Kennedy and the federal marshals and soldiers who risked their lives to uphold the Constitution. The defeat of the segregationist uprising in Oxford was a turning point in the civil rights struggle, and An American Insurrection brings this largely forgotten event to life in all its drama, stunning detail, and historical importance.

Nameless Bodies You Will Find

It was the wrong body. The finding of a negro male was noted and forgotten. The search was not for him. The search was for two white youths and their negro friend.

--CBC documentary, 1964

While the FBI searched for the bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in 1964 (the infamous "Mississippi Burning" case), they uncovered the bodies of two black youths who had been murdered in a separate crime. Underlining the racial element to the two cases, the former case with two of the victims being white, received major media attention, while the latter was soon forgotten. Phil Ochs wrote of the latter in "Here's to the State of Mississippi": "If you drag her muddy rivers, nameless bodies you will find." The case was the subject of the documentary film Mississippi Cold Case.

From Democracy Now (September 10, 2008):

Here in the United States, a federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of a former Ku Klux Klan member sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murder of two black teenagers in 1964. James Ford Seale was convicted last year after the case was reopened after more than four decades. He was first arrested shortly after the killings, but the charges were thrown out after the FBI turned the case over to local authorities. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel ruled Seale should never have been tried, because a five-year statute of limitations on kidnapping-related charges had expired. Seale had been thought dead but was discovered by the brother of one of the victims. During the trial, Seale’s cousin Charles Marcus Edwards testified he and Seale had abducted and attacked the black teenagers. Edwards said Seale and other Klansmen then drove the teenagers across the Louisiana border. They put duct tape over their mouths and dumped them into the Mississippi River alive. The victims, Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, were both nineteen years old. Their bodies were found about two months later, when authorities were conducting an intensive search for slain civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner.

Behind the Songs: Do What I Have to Do

"Oh, I'm afraid of trouble, yes I'm afraid of jail
But I'm more afraid, lord, not to try
More afraid of what happens, now, if we fail
What happens now if we fail"
--Phil Ochs, "Do What I Have to Do" (1964)

Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs

This 2007 volume of civil rights songs--issued appropriately in the seventy-fifth anniversary year of the Highlander Folk Center--was originally two books. The first, We Shall Overcome, was published in 1963 when the civil rights movement was in full bloom. Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Emmett Till's murder (1955), the Montgomery bus boycott (1955-56), and the Little Rock school crisis (1957-58) were still fresh in the nation's consciousness. And the student sit-in movement, the Freedom Rides, the early stirrings of voter registration, and the major SCLC campaigns in cities like Albany, Birmingham, and St. Augustine were still happening as Guy and Candie Carawan collected the songs they and others were singing in protests, demonstrations, mass meetings, conferences, and jails across the South.

Behind the Songs: Spanish Civil War Song

"And don't forget the churches and the sad role that they played
They crucified their people and worked the devil's trade
But now the wounds are healing with the passing of time
So we send them planes and rifles and recognize their crime"
--Phil Ochs, "Spanish Civil War Song" (1963)

The Spanish Civil War

A masterpiece of the historian's art, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War remains the best, most engrossing narrative of one of the most emblematic and misunderstood wars of the twentieth century. Revised and updated with significant new material, including new revelations about atrocities perpetrated against civilians by both sides in this epic conflict, this "definitive work on the subject" (Richard Bernstein, The New York Times) has been given a fresh face forty years after its initial publication in 1961. In brilliant, moving detail, Thomas analyzes a devastating conflict in which the hopes, dreams, and dogmas of a century exploded onto the battlefield. Like no other account, The Spanish Civil War dramatically reassembles the events that led a European nation, in a continent on the brink of world war, to divide against itself, bringing into play the machinations of Franco and Hitler, the bloodshed of Guernica, and the deeply inspiring heroics of those who rallied to the side of democracy. Communists, anarchists, monarchists, fascists, socialists, democrats--the various forces of the Spanish Civil War composed a fabric of the twentieth century itself, and Thomas masterfully weaves the diffuse and fascinating threads of the war together in a manner that has established the book as a genuine classic of modern history.

Behind the Songs: Ballad of John Henry Faulk

"His wife and children trembled, the time was runnin' short,
When a man of law got on their side and took them into court,
And there upon the stand they could not hide behind their eyes,
And the cancer of the fascist was displayed before our eyes"
--Phil Ochs, "Ballad of John Henry Faulk" (1963)

John Henry Faulk: The Making of a Liberated Mind

Austin writer Michael C. Burton has produced the first biography of this celebrated humorist, folklorist, raconteur and champion of the First Amendment. The author conducted extensive interviews with Faulk, and with family and friends, including Studs Terkel, Lee Grant and Pete Seeger; and received counsel from Faulk's close friends such as Austin humorist Cactus Pryor. The author concentrates on Faulk's formative years in South Austin in the twenties when, as son of a well-known and eccentric attorney, he associated more with his poor black neighbors and rather earthy cedar choppers than the middle-class members of the Methodist church. John Henry came under the influence of J. Frank Dobie and John Lomax at the University of Texas, where he was encouraged to develop his native ability for folklore. After World War II, when he served in the Merchant Marines, the Red Cross and finally was accepted into the Army, he began to fine tune his talents as a humorist and folklorist. His first big break came when Alan Lomax, who worked for CBS Radio in New York, introduced him to radio executives. From disc jockey to radio host and later a television personality, Faulk's career skyrocketed. But when the Un-American Activities Committee and Senator McCarthy ushered in the notorious "Hollywood blacklist," John Henry was caught in the crossfire. His eventual lawsuit exonerated him, but the damage had been done. His return to Austin to rebuilt the shambles, his stint on the Hee-Haw series, and his continued fight as a champion of the First Amendment are chronicled in the closing chapter. His grand finale, from 1986 to 1989, was "Pear Orchard, Texas," a revised version of his "Deep in the Heart" one-man play. He had already established his legacy by the time of his death in 1990.

Behind the Songs: On Her Hand a Golden Ring

"Then the crackle and that clatter and the crinkle of the glass
Fell upon the people from the power of blast
The face of Jesus was crumbled into sand
Nearby the gold ring on her hand"
--Phil Ochs, "On Her Hand a Golden Ring" (1963)

Until Justice Rolls Down: The Birmingham Church Bombing Case

It was a time when Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders rallied black youth and adults to march for their civil rights, a time when the Ku Klux Klan was active in cities and throughout the countryside of the Deep South, employing 19th-century tactics to intimidate blacks to stay “in their place.” It was also the year that the worst act of terrorism in the entire civil rights movement occurred just as Birmingham, Alabama, was coming under close national scrutiny.

This book tells the story of one grim Sunday in September 1963 when an intentionally planted cache of dynamite ripped through the walls of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and ended the dreams and the lives of four young black girls. Their deaths spurred the Kennedy administration to send an army of FBI agents to Alabama and led directly to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. When the Justice Department was unable to bring anyone to trial for this heinous crime, a young Alabama attorney general named Bill Baxley began his own investigation to find the perpetrators. In 1977, 14 years after the bombing, Baxley brought one Klansman to trial and, in a courtroom only blocks from the bombed church (now a memorial to the victims), persuaded a jury to return a guilty verdict. More than 20 years later two other perpetrators were tried for the bombing, found guilty, and remanded to prison.

Frank Sikora has used the court records, FBI reports, oral interviews, and newspaper accounts to weave a story of spellbinding proportions. A reporter by profession, Sikora tells this story compellingly, explaining why the civil rights movement had to be successful and how Birmingham had to change.

Behind the Songs: Jim Dean of Indiana

"His mother died when he was a boy, his father was a stranger
Marcus Winslow took him in, nobody seemed to want him"
--Phil Ochs, "Jim Dean of Indiana" (1970)

James Dean: A Biography

James Dean died in 1955 at the age of 24, blazing out his position as the 'first American teenager' and destined forever to exemplify the spirit of rebellion and defiance. His film career lasted only sixteen months, but it produced three cinematic greats: East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. The titles alone evoke epic visions and even now all three films retain their timeless appeal, constituting a three-part heroic poem on atomic age youth, its beauties and its frustrations.

So much has been written about James Dean that today the myth has become hazy, and he is both revered and puzzled over by generations who never knew him. Yet who really was James Dean, the original 'live fast, die young' icon of the twentieth century? This definitive and balanced study, now fully updated, cuts through all the different legends around James Dean and shows the man behind the myth. John Howlett interviewed many actors, friends and lovers who knew Dean in New York and Hollywood, and for this edition has incorporated fascinating new material about James Dean's sexuality and significant information that has come to light from the opening of the Warner Brothers archives on Dean.