WHAT PRICE THE GLORY OF ONE MAN (for Phil Ochs)
(Anne McMenamin)

We were never old friends - I didn't even know you.
I did meet you once but I didn't understand.
But whenever I hear your music I love you.
I want to reach back in time and just hold your hand.
For the power of your passion and the glory of your reason,
They ring through your songs like a clear tenor bell,
Why wasn't your caring reflected back to you,
To warm and enfold you, and nourish your soul?

When despair drives a man to take his own life,
We all stand defeated by unrightable wrong.
But the loss is more keen and the failure more damning,
When the heart was so brave and the voice was so strong.
For you cut through the bull-shit, you scorned the pretensions,
You sang as you saw, and your vision was true.
In a sea of romantics and band-waggon jumpers,
The liberal soft-option was no option for you.

I can't hear, "When I'm gone", but tears overtake me,
Did you know what was coming? Was the dark always there?
And I wish there'd been someone to sit down beside you –
Sit close beside you, as close as the air.
For you laughed at the lies, sang over the guns,
Stood up for the right, gave all you could give,
You should have stood tall, and we should have told you,
That you could be proud – proud enough to live.

But the past can't be changed - there's no point in wishing,
"Why nots" and "Why wasn'ts" cannot right the wrong.
And now that you're gone, we'll sing your songs for you,
And we can assure you, there will be more songs.
For the poor are still poor, the guns are still blazing,
And still there is beauty that words can't recall.
You left us your songs, at what price the glory?
But the glory of the future shall rest on us all.


Notes: Anne wrote this song in 2006 and this is what she said in an email to me: "One of the things I have found from communicating with people about Phil Ochs is that he evinces a strong emotional response - people feel very intensely about him. I think this is why so many people have been moved to write songs."

You can listen to Anne singing the song acapella here. Anne McMenamin
RP Nov2008