Phil Ochs' voice
rings out anew
in documentary
film at the DFT.
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or nearly half a century, the
uncompromising folk and pro-
test singer Phil Ochs has been
overshadowed by the other great Jewish
songwriter of his generation.
Actually, that's not quite accurate. Since
his suicide in 1976, Ochs hasn't been
overshadowed so much as forgotten, at
least outside of a shrinking population of
politically minded baby boomers and a
small circle of younger musicians.
Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune,
Kenneth Bowser's crisply compelling
and ultimately melancholy docu-
mentary, strives to revive this gifted
performer and committed activist for
rediscovery and renewed appreciation.
That's to be expected. What's note-
worthy, however, is that the filmmaker
resists the natural urge to push a paral-
lel between the Vietnam War (and the
passionate anti-war movement) and the
current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan
(and the widespread public silence).
Ochs' younger brother Michael (a
well-known archivist of rock 'n' roll
photographs) notes at the beginning of
the documentary that they were the only
two Jews in their school. "We learned
how to fight , ) ' he recalls with a smile.
It's unclear if this was in Texas, where
the brothers were born, or one of the
various places they moved as their doc-
tor father bounced from hospital job to
hospital job. Jack Ochs was plagued by
bipolar disorder and depression and,
tragically, Phil also suffered from manic-
depression, most noticeably (according
to the film) in his late 20s and 30s.
Inevitably a portrait of the roller-
coaster '60s and '70s, the documentary
suggests that Ochs' mental illness was
exacerbated by the disappointments and
disillusionment of the period, culminat-
ing with Richard Nixon's election and
continuation of the war in Vietnam. The
film is careful and vague about early
manifestations of Ochs' illness (perhaps
because Michael Ochs is one of the pro-
ducers), but it seems to have shaped him
far more than his Jewishness did.
Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune
screens 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5,
at the Detroit Film Theatre in the
DIA. $6.50-$7.50. (313) 833-4005;
tickets®dia.org .
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Certainly there's no hint here that
Phil's friendship and rivalry with Bob
Dylan in Greenwich Village during
the folk boom of the early '60s had
anything to do with being members of
the same tribe. Their volatile relation-
ship was simply one of attraction and
competition between two wildly tal-
ented and wildly ambitious artists —
although various witnesses recall Dylan
"toying with" the earnest, idealistic
peer who idolized him.
These psychodramas, however, never
steal the focus from Ochs' forthright
songs and pure, gorgeous tenor. His
galvanizing antiwar anthem, "I Ain't
Marching Anymore," is presented here
in one of countless pristine and grip-
ping performance clips we're treated to.
Of course, he's got a slew of iconic
tunes to work into the narrative, notably
the discomfiting "Love Me, I'm a Liberal."
Unwilling to pander to his listeners, even
if it meant angering and losing some of
them, Ochs goes beyond Dylan's attack
in "Positively 4th Street" on his own fans'
hypocritical self-satisfaction.
The film succeeds in inspiring us with
its depiction of a social-justice dynamo
who played innumerable benefits and a
restless, intuitive artist who followed his
muse even when it confounded his most
devoted admirers (his ambitious fourth
album, Pleasures of the Harbor, aban-
doned stripped-down guitar-and-voice
in favor of lavish orchestral arrange-
ments). We're also saddened, naturally, at
his despair and premature death.
A thoughtful and insightful cast of
interviewees is instrumental in resur-
recting a rare songwriter who was both
of his time and ahead of his time. To
their credit, Peter Yarrow, Pete Seeger,
Paul Krassner, Billy Bragg, Tom Hayden,
Joan Baez, Sean Penn and Christopher
Hitchens keep the spotlight where it
belongs. L I
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or more
Michael Fox
Special to the Jewish News
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