Ochs performed at many political events, including the 1968 Democratic National Convention, mass demonstrations sponsored by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events. Ochs initially described himself as a democratic socialist but grew more radical after the police riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
After years of prolific writing in the 1960s, Ochs' mental stability declined in the 1970s as he struggled with bipolar disorder and alcoholism. He died by suicide on April 9, 1976.
Ochs's influences included Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Bob Gibson, Faron Young, and Merle Haggard. His best-known songs include "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "When I'm Gone", "Changes", "Crucifixion", "Draft Dodger Rag", "Love Me, I'm a Liberal", "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", "Power and the Glory", "There but for Fortune", and "The War Is Over".
Ochs's drinking became more and more of a problem, and his behavior
became increasingly erratic. He frightened his friends both with his
drunken rants about the FBI and CIA and about his claiming to want to have Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker or Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders manage his career.
In mid-1975, Ochs took on the identity of John Butler Train. He
told people that Train had murdered Ochs and that he, John Butler Train,
had replaced him. Ochs was convinced that someone was trying to kill
him, so he carried a weapon at all times: a hammer, a knife, or a lead
pipe.
His brother, Michael, attempted to have him committed to a psychiatric hospital.
Friends pleaded with him to get help voluntarily. They feared for his
safety because he was getting into fights with bar patrons. Unable to
pay his rent, he began living on the streets.
After several months, the Train persona faded and Ochs returned,
but his talk of suicide disturbed his friends and family. They hoped it
was a passing phase, but Ochs was determined. One of his biographers explains Ochs' motivation:
By Phil's thinking, he had died a
long time ago: he had died politically in Chicago in 1968 in the
violence of the Democratic National Convention; he had died
professionally in Africa a few years later when he had been strangled
and felt that he could no longer sing; he had died spiritually when
Chile had been overthrown and his friend Victor Jara had been brutally
murdered; and, finally, he had died psychologically at the hands of John
Train.
On Christmas Eve 1975, Ochs visited the apartment of Larry Sloman
and Dave Peller, which he had done semi-frequently near the end of
1975. On this particular evening, Peller recorded Ochs singing ten
songs, five of them new and intended for an album that "would be an
unflinching narrative of his psychosis over the past year" which went by the working title of Duels in the Sun.
Five other songs were also at some level of completion by this time. A
second tape, possibly recorded before Christmas Eve, features additional
songs intended for this project. This album would never come to fruition beyond these two recordings.
In January 1976, Ochs moved to Far Rockaway, New York, to live
with his sister Sonny. He was lethargic; his only activities were
watching television and playing cards with his nephews. Ochs saw a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder. He was prescribed medication, and he told his sister he was taking it. On April 9, 1976, Ochs died by suicide, hanging himself in Sonny's home.
Years after his death, it was revealed that the FBI had a file of nearly 500 pages on Ochs. Much of the information in those files relates to his association with counterculture figures, protest organizers, musicians, and other people described by the FBI as "subversive". The FBI was often sloppy in collecting information about Ochs: his name
was frequently misspelled "Oakes" in their files, and they continued to
consider him "potentially dangerous" after his death.
Congresswoman Bella Abzug (Democrat
from New York), an outspoken anti-war activist who had appeared at the
1975 "War is Over" rally, entered this statement into the Congressional Record on April 29, 1976:
Mr. Speaker, a few weeks ago, a
young folksinger whose music personified the protest mood of the 1960s
took his own life. Phil Ochs – whose original compositions were
compelling moral statements against the war in Southeast Asia –
apparently felt that he had run out of words.
While his tragic action was undoubtedly motivated by terrible
personal despair, his death is a political as well as an artistic
tragedy. I believe it is indicative of the despair many of the activists
of the 1960s are experiencing as they perceive a government that
continues the distortion of national priorities that is exemplified in
the military budget we have before us.
Phil Ochs's poetic pronouncements were part of a larger effort to
galvanize his generation into taking action to prevent war, racism, and
poverty. He left us a legacy of important songs that continue to be
relevant in 1976 - even though "the war is over".
Just one year ago - during this week of the anniversary of the end
of the Vietnam War - Phil recruited entertainers to appear at the "War is
Over" celebration in Central Park, at which I spoke.
It seems particularly appropriate that this week we should commemorate the contributions of this extraordinary young man.
Robert Christgau, who had been so critical of Pleasures of the Harbor and Ochs's guitar skills eight years earlier, wrote warmly of Ochs in his obituary in The Village Voice.
"I came around to liking Phil Ochs's music, guitar included," Christgau
wrote. "My affection [for Ochs] no doubt prejudiced me, so it is worth
[noting] that many observers who care more for folk music than I do
remember both his compositions and his vibrato tenor as close to the
peak of the genre.
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