I saw him at Bristol (UK) in 64/65, at the University Folk Club that also had Tom Paxton, Bert Jansch and Al Stewart that first year...no doubt others that have slipped the mind. He certainly impressed me, I don't recall anything uncomfortable about the performance, and I could have heard more. I have his LPs, though they don't get played much anymore for too many of the references have passed their sell-by dates.

I don't compare Dylan with Ochs on a table of "greats", but suggest that whereas protest politics was a phase with Dylan, it was Ochs' fire in his belly. Which is why he couldn't (or at least didn't) appeal to that larger audience.

Basically, I agree with most of the favourites you mention, though I would add Miranda. And I would like to buy a copy of Crucifixion without that appalling backing track......

On the night we first bought a TV in the current home, I put it on at random and there was a history of Phil Ochs running - I was lost for the hour it took, but it ended with a massed choir of NY folkies singing Crucixion - now that I dearly love to have!