Phil Ochs - Im Gonna Say It Now

Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan were the most important and influential musical voices of the Sixties protest movement that encompassed civil rights, anti-war, feminism, political reform, and a general questioning of blind faith in authority. What made Phil stand out was not just his passion for social justice as expressed in his seminal songs I Aint Marchin Anymore and There But for Fortune, or his sardonic wit that shined an unyielding light on societys petty hypocrisies as in Love Me, Im a Liberal and Outside of a Small Circle of Friends, but the compassion in his more poetic songs like Floods of Florence and Pleasures of the Harbor. To listen for an hour to Phil Ochss songs is to get an honest yet loving glimpse into the flaws and strengths of humanity. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , six-time NBA champion and MVP

Phil Ochs told the truth before it was ready to be accepted, before it was politically expedient. He was the kind of truth teller that made liberal allies nervous because his truth demanded accountability to their own compromise, their own self-serving pragmatism. Tim Robbins , American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer

Phil Ochs was much more than simply a songwriter. He wrote obsessively, because he had tofrom his heart, his soul, his conscience. This collection of Phils many and varied writings throughout his life sheds new light on his brilliant mind. Joan Baez , American singer, songwriter, musician and activist.

Phil Ochs was a born writer. He played guitar because that was the language his generation was speaking. Today, his questioning voice chimes as clearly as it ever did. Billy Bragg , British singer, songwriter, and activist

As much as has been written about the sixties, its arguable that no one experienced that defining moment in American history more personally than Phil Ochs. Steve Earle , American singer, songwriter, record producer, author, and actor.

The long lost, largely unpublished, prose of folksinger Phil Ochs does much more than entertain. At the least, it takes us back to a more innocent time. At the best, it awakens the poet in the soul. Kinky Friedman , author, The Mile High Club

Everything Phil Ochs wrote, including this new collection of journalism, poetry, and calls to action, exudes great humanity, heart, and brilliant humor. He was and continues to be a great blessing. Anne Lamott , American novelist and nonfiction writer

As a teenager my life was changed by Phil Ochss anti-war songs and his unique ability to combine fierce progressive ideology with a sentimental heart. This remarkable collection of his prose is a reminder that Ochs was simultaneously one of the intellectual leaders of the counter-culture, a writer whose moral clarity was balanced by humor, irreverence, and wisdom. Im Gonna Say It Now is not merely a treasured relic for Ochs completists, it reveals a unique window into a pivotal moment in American history. Danny Goldberg , author of Serving The Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain and In Search of The Lost Chord: 1967 and the Hippie Idea

Published by Backbeat Books
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Copyright 2020 by the Phil Ochs Estate

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ISBN 978-1-4930-5147-2 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-4930-5148-9 (e-book)

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Anybody know who Phil Ochs is? asked Lady Gaga at the Camden Rising concert in the midst of the Democratic National Convention in July 2016, before launching into an impassioned version of Phils 1967 song The War is Over. Viewed from one direction it was a surprising choice, a popular singer like Lady Gaga choosing to cover a very political, forty-nine-year-old song written by a not-quite-as-popular left-wing singer-songwriter. On the other hand, Phil Ochs is an artist who keeps being referenced, whether by singers such as Billy Bragg (who reworked the classic I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night as I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night) or by writers such as Stephen King (in his novels The Tommyknockers and Hearts in Atlantis ).

A multifaceted creator, a writer of no mean skill all of his life, it is, on that other hand, no real surprise at all that Phil Ochs is continually being rediscovered by artists such as Lady Gaga, with new aspects of his work still being unearthed. In truth, Phil was not only a songwriter, he was a short story writer, a satirist, a critic, a poet (a poet of the first order the former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark would proclaim at Ochss Felt Forum memorial in 1976), and yes, a journalist (according to at least one Nobel Prize laureate in literature). In short, a multidimensional wordsmith.

This, then, is a collection of the writings of Phil Ochs, spanning his days as a high school student at the Staunton Military Academy through his college days at Ohio State University to his time on the opposing Gemini coasts of New York City and Los Angeles. It also encompasses his forays into poetry and wends all the way through to his last years and his final elegiac pieces. Reproductions from the rare, and in some cases unique, material held in the Phil Ochs Papers at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, augment the text of Phils works throughout the book under the rubric of Out of the Archives. These looks backstage allow the reader to more closely glimpse the hand of the artist and view the creative process at work, seeing where Phil made corrections, alterations, and emendations. The Out of the Archives section appears at the end of each relevant chapter, with the reproductions in the same order as the texts themselves.

Please note that due to limitations on the use of song lyrics written by other artists, which Phil used to illustrate his critiques, some edits had to be made to Phils original writings. No artist has been entirely written out, but in a few cases the depth and intent of Phils narrative is lessened. The chapters affected are The Guthrie Legacy, The Art of Bob Dylans Hattie Carrol, Topical SongsHistory on the Spot, and Man Against Music. Likewise, in the article on Hattie Carroll, Phils perceptive summation of the song (with all this he leaves the listener stunned with a sense of injustice) was excised, as it lacked Phils intended meaning in the altered context. It is here restored, albeit slightly out of its proper place.

Phil arrived at Staunton Military Academy in 1956, drawn more by his love of music and the marching band than the military discipline of the school. Attracted to writing early on, Phil would contribute to the February 1958 inaugural issue of Stauntons literary magazine, the Scimitar , which was edited by Michael Goldwater, son of conservative Senator Barry In Your Heart You Know Hes Right Goldwater. Phils story, White Milk to Red Wine, won the prize for best short story. Less known than his contributions to the Scimitar were his days as a features writer for the school newspaper, the Kablegram . Phil was noted as being a member of their writing staff from October 25, 1957, through at least February 7, 1958 (unfortunately, the next two issues of the paper could not be sourced and consulted), and the Kablegram almost certainly contains his earliest surviving work, most likely a satirical piece. Alas, very few of the features articles contain bylines and none are credited to Ochs, so definitive attribution is not possible, and thus none were able to be included in this collection (however, see the Footnote to History for The Fight for one intriguing possibility).