Phil Ochs was born in Texas in 1940. His father's medical work necessitated many family moves, until he ended up in Ohio where he attended the State University. It was here he developed his radical writing and activism through the student newspaper and eventually on his own underground paper. Although very proficient on the classical clarinet, he was drawn to folk music. Following his friend Jim Glover to New York, he began writing songs drawing from his political interests and found a ready audience, including an admiring Dylan, in Greenwich Village. He played the Newport Folk Festival to acclaim in 1963 and 1964 and signed to Elekra Records for three albums. Joan Baez’s cover of his ‘There But For Fortune’ was a huge hit in 1965. He moved to A&M in 1967 for more albums, but the mid-70s found him in a poor mental state that led to his suicide in 1976.
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