Phil Ochs Covers: They Might Be Giants - One More Parade

Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylan

by Douglas R. Gilbert with text by Dave Marsh

Wolfe announced that the festival "marked the emergence of Phil Ochs as the most important voice in the movement." Ochs had released just one album, All the News That's Fit to Sing, and thirteen of its fifteen tracks were "topical." Ochs had written an essay in praise of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" in Broadside's previous issue. He loved Dylan's new work and said so to everyone who asked.

Irwin Silber, editor of Sing Out!, decided to dethrone Dylan with a lecture, and wrote him an open letter that appeared in the magazine's November issue. Silber adopted a tone appropriate to a fairly hip father lecturing a wayward child: "You seem to be in a different kind of bag now, Bob--and I'm worried about it. I saw at Newport how you had somehow lost contact with people. It seemed to me that some of the paraphernalia of fame were getting in your way. You travel with an entourage now--with good buddies who are going to laugh when you need laughing and drink wine with you and insure your privacy--and never challenge you to face everyone else's reality again."

A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks

by Andy Gill & Kevin Odegard

By the end of April 1974, Dylan was back in New York, hanging out at his old haunts in Greenwich Village, catching up with old chums like Dave Van Ronk and Phil Ochs, and even, at the latter's behest, giving a somewhat sozzled performance at a Friends of Chile benefit Ochs had organized at the Felt Forum. With Sara remaining on the West Coast, rumors soon began to circulate about the state of their marriage, particularly when he started spending a lot of time with Ellen Bernstein, a young A&R executive at Columbia Records, who was later widely believed to be the subject of the most emotionally upbeat of the Blood on the Tracks songs, "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go." He also started taking a course of classes given by art teacher Norman Raeben, which would have a (literally) dramatic effect on his songwriting.

Phil Ochs Covers: Pete Seeger - Draft Dodger Rag

1968: The Year That Rocked the World

by Mark Kurlansky

Another event that they did intend to carry out was the nomination of the Yippie candidate for president, Mr. Pigasus, who happened to be a pig on a leash. "The concept of pig as our leader was truer than reality," Hoffman wrote in an essay titled "Creating a Perfect Mess." Pig was the common pejorative for police at the time, but Hoffman insisted that in the case of Chicago, the "pigs" actually looked like pigs, "with their big beer bellies, triple chins, red faces, and little squinty eyes." It was a kind of silliness that was infectious. He pointed out the resemblance of both Hubert Humphrey and Daley to pigs, and the more he explained, the more it seemed that everyone was starting to look like a pig.

But there was a problem: There were two pigs. Abbie Hoffman had gotten one and Jerry Rubin had gotten one, and a conflict arose over which one to nominate. Typical of their differences in style, Rubin had picked a very ugly pig and Hoffman a cute one. The argument between them over the pig selection almost became physically violent. Rubin accused Hoffman of trying to make the Yippies his own personality cult. Hoffman said that Rubin always wanted to show a fist, whereas "I want to show the clenched fist and the smile."

The arguing continued for some time before it was decided that the official candidate of the Youth International Party would be Rubin's very ugly pig. Hoffman, still angry from the dispute, stood in the Chicago Civic Center as Jerry Rubin said, "We are proud to announce the declaration of candidacy for president of the United States by a pig." The police then arrested Rubin, Hoffman, the pig, and singer Phil Ochs for disorderly conduct but held them only briefly. The next day another pig was loose in Lincoln Park, apparently a female, supposedly Mrs. Pigasus, the candidate's wife. As the police pursued the animal, Yippies shouted, "Pig! Pig!" for the fun of it, because it was unclear whether they were shouting at the pursuers or the pursued. When the police finally grabbed the pig, someone shouted, "Be careful how you treat the next First Lady." Some of the police laughed; others glared. They threw the little pig into the back of a paddy wagon and threateningly asked if anyone wanted to go with the pig. A few Yippies said yes and jumped into the wagon. They closed the door and drove off. Some journalists took the bait and started interviewing Yippies. The Yippies said that they were unstoppable because they had a whole farm full of pigs just outside Chicago. A journalist wanted to know how they felt about losing their pig, and one of the Yippies demanded Secret Service protection for both their candidate and his First Lady. A radio reporter asked with great earnestness just what the pig symbolized. Answers were hurled back: Food! Ham! Parks belong to pigs.

The Harder They Fall (Single Version)

Wild in the Streets (1968)

Phil Ochs turned down the lead role of Max Frost for this 1968 feature film. Having watched the film, I can't help but agree with his assessment.