I remember when he died.

he was still relatively young, and it was terribly sad.

he'd made this album where he was wearing a gold suit on the cover, like Elvis, and to be honest - at the time you felt the whole world of folk music was going to hell. All the inclusiveness that had been carefully constructed in the 1960's was just being thrown away.

As Paul says the English folk clubs were being methodically emptied as people who had totally misunderstood Ewan MacColl and Martin Carthy strained after some weird form of traditional purity. Ewan and Martin were artists at the top of their game, and I don't think it was ever the intention of either of them to interfere with other artists. Somehow in emulating them, their followers felt they had to be nasty to everybody else.

Ochs should have felt at home and amongst friends, but in fact a lot of artist with a contemporary/ Americana based approach were shut out. they started casting round for other directions, and lots of young artists and songwriters never even considered the folk clubs as a platform any more for their talents.

anyway that's how I remember it - I could be wrong. the cover of the All the news album was SO cutting edge in the 60's. It was a bloody pity how things went.