Originally Posted By: rayc
Originally Posted By: Mark Hayes
I saw Phil Ochs perform "Hippie from Olema" at Carnegie Hall, before the bomb threat cleared the house.

You lucky fellow, Phil was amazing..his songs are wonderful and the arrangements on the albums are insanely good. Weird for a folky but a folky nevertheless. You're lucky to have seen him. I didn't "discover" him until about 2005.


I agree with all you say about Ochs, but that show was not what you might think.

The audience (including me) had come to hear Phil Ochs, revolutionary art-rock/folk singer.

He had other ideas.

He wanted to play electric rock 'r roll. He wanted to play Elvis music. He did play some expected material to start, but he quickly went into his new thing. I guess he figured if Dylan could do it, he could, too.

I remember quite clearly him saying, in response to continuous booing, "We're guerilla fighters, willing to die for rock 'n roll".

Then the show ended because of the bomb threat.

I was in the lobby when Ochs came out. Some idiot passed him a guitar and he waved it away. He said OK, OK, we have another show, it will be softer. But I wasn't around for that. Later I read about the glass punching and the cut hand.

At least there was no bomb.

My favorite Ochs song, far and away, is "The War Is Over".

I just discovered this performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOs9xYUjY4I