Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill

Subject: Review: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: olddude
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 06:23 PM

My goodness does this bring back memories
for those who haven't seen it ... this is great

Phil Ochs Joe Hill


Thank You Phil for the memories, we lost him too soon way too soon

Subject: RE: Review: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 06:28 PM

Olddude, you wanna review it?

Subject: RE: Review: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: olddude
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 07:15 PM

dang, losing my eyesite
sorry

Subject: RE: Review: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: olddude
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 07:19 PM

Great song anyway

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: Jeri
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 07:23 PM

No problemo - fixed it. I need to fire up the laptop so I can look at some of these videos. The cool thing is that once you find one, you get links for a bunch more.

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: olddude
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 07:27 PM

There is a pile of them on youtube. No kidding I wish they were required viewing (just kidding) Dear God we need a Phil Ochs today don't we

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: olddude
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 07:35 PM

Just thought of something. There are people on mudcat that were very good friends of Phil. I hope the video's don't cause hurt. It is hard for me to watch some videos of a friend I lost.

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: open mike
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 09:42 PM

i was fortunate to learn his song "Changes" from a T.V. guitar teacher(LAURA WEBBER) many years ago on PBS. INteresting that
the video is from a performance in Sweden.

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jan 09 - 11:48 PM

I love his music. This is the first time I've seen him, video or otherwise. Thanks for the link!

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 12:42 AM

Very nice. I only know a few Phil Ochs songs, Pleasures of the Harbor, I Aint a'Marchin, There but for Fortune. Well written songs with nice melodies, but its taken some time for his voice to grow on me. It's really the kind of tenor vibrato that has become the stereotypical forthright folk singer voice of the 60s, and I don't much care for vibrato singing. I can not listen to Glen Yarborough or Buffy St Marie. But the more I listen to Ochs, the more the clarity and expression seems to come through, and I really enjoy his guitar technique as well.
This video surprised me as I expected the I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill song, and Phil's is a completely different song set to the John Hardy tune.

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: oldhippie
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 08:21 AM

Great video, olddude, thanks for the link.

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: Michael S
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 04:19 PM

Fellow Phil fans might enjoy this blog. Among other things, it contains a feature called "Behind the Songs," which links Phil compositions to published works that further explicate the events in the song. For example, an entry on Outside of a Small Circle of Friends links to a book about the infamous Kitty Genovese murder that inspired the song.

Full disclosure: Though I stumbled upon the blog accidentally, an April '08 entry links to a section of my own book that describes my discovery of Phil in 1968. He was the first artist I truly embraced who carried the label "folk." The site is great fun.

--Michael Scully

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: The Sandman
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 05:32 PM

YES ,Good song,but [IMO]not as effective as I dreamed I saw Joe Hill.
IMO I dreamed I saw Joe Hill is succint and really powerful,
Phil Ochs song [imo] needs to be precised,It is too long and rambling,and has no drama,even though I agree with the sentiments,he is trtying to express,I prefer the other song.

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: topical tom
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 08:15 AM

A great singer-songwriter who left us much too soon.

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: Rog Peek
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 02:47 PM

Transcript of a conversation between Phil Ochs and John Lennon about Phil's song 'Joe Hill. Conversation and Phil Performing Chords of Fame was recorded 15th Dec 1971:

P. "Did you follow the words here?"
J. "If I didn't, I've got it here,…I was half in the music and half in the words."
P. "Yeah."
J. "Go on."
P. "See here, here's a …."
J. "That tune, I love that tune."
3rd voice "Do Chords of Fame."
P. "Chords of Fame?"
3rd voice "Yeah."
P. "OK."
J. "Do you mean that's a public domain song?" (John still referring to 'Joe Hill')
P. "The melody is."
J. "I'll have it. I don't hold those (?). Who have I heard singing that tune?"
P. "Let's just st….." (Phil trying to get started with Chords of Fame.)
John hums the first few bars of John Henry.
P. "John Hardy, yeah, everybody…."
J. "John Hardy, that was it?"
P. "Yeah, The Kingston Trio (?)"
J. "I didn't hear any of that."
P. "And Woodie Guthrie wrote another long ballad called 'Tom Joad' after he saw the movie 'The Grapes of Wrath', it told the movie in long ballad form, it's a, about as long as that one" (referring to Joe Hill).
J. "That's how many verses?"
P. "That, that, I don't know let's…"
Phil seems desperate to start singing Chords of Fame, and John is all questions.
J. "Did you do it in a traditional form like, so many verses?"
P. "Oh yeah, I wrote about twenty eight verses, yeah."
J. "And that's how, well was that traditional to write to write twenty eight? Or…"
P. "No, no."
J. "Any size?"
P. "Any size, oh yeah, oh they ran that long, sure, but uh, but uh
J. "Sure, I just wondered if you done it to a format?"
P. "Not, not, not to the uh not to the uh, to the length, I mean it's just a long ballad it could have gone on…."
J. "You are the same guy that was in the pub aren't you, ha, ha, ha, ha."
P. "The same? Yeah I am.
J. "I'm kidding."
P. "I know, look I was."
J. "I'm sure, we've all been there."
P. "I was so wiped out when I saw the limousine, I'd had about three bottles of red wine and I was racing to the village for more when I heard this "Stop!" You know. "What's happening?""
J. Yeah, it's freaky, ha, ha. Come on."
P. "Uh, here's a song about, about a (?), Chords of Fame."
J. "Yeah that's it."
P. "Um"
J. "Ok, hey."
P. "This is a, this is a song about the dangers of fame, ok, um….."
Phil Sings Chords of Fame as John accompanies on slide guitar.

Rog

Subject: RE: Phil Ochs video singing Joe Hill
From: GUEST,Rafflesbear
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:50 PM

Sadly Phil had already passed on by the time these guys were born but they are big fans - Draft Dodger Rag