Phil Ochs

Philip David Ochs (December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was a protest singer (or, as he preferred, a "topical singer") of the early 1960s, perhaps best known for his songs "Power and Glory", "There But for Fort

Philip David Ochs (December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was a protest singer (or, as he preferred, a "topical singer") of the early 1960s, perhaps best known for his songs "Power and Glory", "There But for Fortune", "Changes", "When I'm Gone", and "I Ain't Marching Anymore". Born in El Paso, Texas, he grew up in a non-political middle class family. He studied journalism at Ohio State University, but dropped out in his last year. He moved to New York City and became an integral part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene. He emerged as an unpolished yet passionate vocalist who wrote poignant lyrics about war, civil rights, labor struggles and other topics of the time. He described himself as a "singing journalist," saying he built his songs from stories he read in Newsweek. He can perhaps be described as a socially conscious patriot in the tradition of Woody Guthrie.

Ochs wrote many more songs than were recorded on his first three albums (All the News That's Fit to Sing (1964), I Ain't Marching Anymore (1965), and Phil Ochs in Concert (1966)), but these records contained some of his best work. Two traditional genres that Ochs contributed to in his early performances are the talking blues and the musical reinterpretation of older poetry, for example Alfred Noyes's The Highwayman and Edgar Allen Poe's The Bells. During this early period of his career, his friend Bob Dylan said, "I just can't keep up with Phil. And he's getting better and better and better."