The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102943   Message #2502405
Posted By: oldhippie
26-Nov-08 - 05:30 PM
Thread Name: Songs for/about Phil Ochs
Subject: Lyr Add: PHIL'S SONG (Bruce Piephoff)
PHIL'S SONG
(Bruce Piephoff)

You were a gentle dreamer born in Texas
Growing up on the movies you saw
Soon you moved to New York City
There was John Wayne to take the place of paw

You used to stare out the window wondering
Just where those roads were going to
Combed your hair back and wore James Dean's red jacket
Dreamed of boxing like Brando used to do

Love your mother, go to church, kick some ass
It's white milk turning into red wine
Johnny Cash and Elvis would still be there
John Train gone too far down the mile

Come the sixties you were marching freedom
Left your lady for the lyrics of a song
And you captured the spirit of the decade
Cried like a baby when the Kennedys were gone

I listened to you sing about Kentucky
And the coal miners and the badness of the war
You were there in Chicago
Then you weren't marchin' anymore

Lost your voice, you were mugged down in Africa
Richard Nixon was elected, the light failed
Then came the bottle and the bouts with depression
Ending up in Far Rockaway where you set sail

You couldn't write no more 'cause you were depressed
You weren't depressed because you couldn't write
You hung yourself because you were ashamed
Of the hurt Train brought your friends in manic blight

An American decade had gone crazy
Your ups and downs had mirrored what you saw
Some had clapped their hands for the folksong
'Til the folksong wasn't happening anymore

You spiraled from the top down to the bottom
Rehersals for retirement at thirty four
John Train dared to take over
When your friends couldn't listen to any more

What happened to the pleasures of the harbor
What happened to the ties that never bind
Phil, I guess perhaps it don't really matter
Outside a small circle of friends

Notes: This is part of an email I received from Bruce:-
"Thanks for including my song, "Phil's Song" from my 2000 CD release, FRINGELAND, on Flyin' Cloud Records.
I wrote the song about Phil because of my love of his music. I began playing and writing in the late 60s when Phil was still around and felt the tragic loss when he died young. I wrote the song back in the mid seventies but finally recorded in 2000. I was greatly influenced by great songwriters like Phil and Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine and Tom Waits, etc."

Fringeland is still available, vist Bruce's site Bruce Piephoff