In an earlier post, I mentioned how Phil Och’s ‘prophecy’ fell flat, but at a tribute concert to him tonight, I was struck by this lyric from the Power and the Glory:
But our land is still troubled by men who have to hate
They twist away our freedom & they twist away our fate
Fear is their weapon and treason is their cry
We can stop them if we try
Fear is their weapon, and treason is their cry… I was thinking about Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, featured in Gail Collins’ column today. Those words certainly apply and could have been written about American politics today, but Phil Ochs is not here to sing about it. He foresaw that too:
And I won’t be laughing at the lies when I’m gone
And I can’t question how or when or why when I’m gone
Can’t live proud enough to die when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here
Oh yeah, I guess we should change it to men and women, or people who hate…
I think I must have been at the same
tribute concert (Hurdy Gurdy folk ?).
I was reminded what a great artist
Phil Ochs was, the performers did a
great job in interpreting Ochs songs.
By the way, the lyrics you qoute were
added by Phil’s sister, Sonny Ochs, they
were not in the original song. But
in the spirit of Ochs, others have
added or modified some Ochs lyrics.
Ah, I’m just a dabbler in this genre of music. Thanks for the note – it was a fine concert!
I love that “in the spirit of Ochs” you can mess with his lyrics! Kind of says it all, sort of the WIKI song writing approach.
In that same spirit I give liberals a pretty hard time but only because I believe they have more capacity. Tough love I believe they call it.
And again in that same spirit let me ask how was the climate, er, weather? Was there an Accu- Forecast?
…sort of the WIKI song writing approach.
That’s what real folk music is in a nutshell!