The War is Over

by Phil Ochs, Andy Wickham

And That's Phil Ochs--Andy Wickham
About the Author--Judy Henske
Encores
Outside of a Small Circle of Friends
Is There Anybody Here?
I've Had Her
The Harder They Fall
Rhythms of Revolution
Cannons of Christianity
The Party
Tape From California
Flower Lady
Half a Century High
Sung Out
Cross My Heart
Santo Domingo
When I'm Gone
Love Me, I'm a Liberal
The Floods of Florence
The Critics Raved
Guitar Chord Chart--Jerry Silverman
Cops of the World
The Newport Pneumonia Fuzz Festival
Changes
White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land
Cobbwebs
Joe Hill
Miranda
An Interview with Phil Ochs
When in Rome
I'm Going to Say it Now
Bracero
The Torture Garden
Crucifixiom
That Was the Year that Weren't
Pleasures of the Harbor
Have You Heard? The War is Over!
The War Is Over
Coming Attractions
Credits & Discography

Genres: Music

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Philip David Ochs grew up in a non-political middle class family. While in college at Ohio State University, he met Jim Glover who became his roommate & whose father was Phil's political teacher. It was during this time, while he was majoring in journalism, that he formed his political beliefs & started putting them to music.
After 3 years of college, Phil dropped out & went to New York City. This was during the early 60s when things were booming in Greenwich Village. Phil started out singing at open mikes & passing the hat. By '64 he was well enough established to release his 1st album, "All the News That's Fit to Sing". His 2nd album, "I Ain't Marching Anymore", was released in '65. By '66 he was able to sell out Carnegie Hall for a solo concert.
Most of Phil's songs were very political, some humorous & some very serious. He wrote about the topics of the day-civil rights, VietNam, hungry miners, & personalities such as Billy Sol Estes, JFK, Medgar Evers, Wm Worthy & Lou Marsh.
In '67 he signed with A&M Records where his 1st release was "Pleasures of the Harbor" in which he used heavily orchestrated arrangements for the 1st time. Some fans criticized this change, while others accepted it.
Phil continued to perform & travel around the world. While in Dar Es Salaam, he was mugged & lost the top 3 notes of his vocal range. This event seemed to send him on a downward spiral. His last years were troubled ones. He suffered from manic depression plus an affinity for the bottle. He committed suicide on 4/9/76, aged 35.
Many of Phil's songs have been covered by other artists. Some of his best known songs are: "Changes", "There But For Fortune", "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "Draft Dodger", "Small Circle of Friends", Crucifixion" & "When I'm Gone".
There've been 2 biographies about him. Death of a Rebel by Marc Elliot in '77 & There but for Fortune: The Life of Phil Ochs by Michael Schumacher in '96. Rhino Records released a 3-CD compilation titled Farewells & Fantasies in '97 which includes all his best known works plus some previously unreleased tracks. Sliced Bread Records released a double CD of covers of Phil's songs performed by 28 artists in '98 entitled The Songs of Phil Ochs.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first editon of Phil Ochs' The War is Over. I owned it, loaned it, lost it. Bought the 1971 revised reprint by Collier.

Merged review:

Chicago's "Midnight Special" on WFMT introduced me to Phil Ochs as my dad introducted me to the program (still on at 98.7FM). The war in Southeast Asia was going strong, I was approaching draft age and Ochs seemed to speak for me, both about that, about the civil rights movement, about politics in general and more personally as well.

I first saw Phil in concert at the University of Chicago in 1967 thanks to Walt Wallace who drove a bunch of us high schoolers down in his legendary Volvo. Then, of course, Phil was everywhere during the Chicago Democratic Convention of 1968: in the Bandshell when the cops charged, in front of the Hilton Hotel on the nights of what the Walker Report called the "police riot"--and, to sing to us, on the mornings after.

I talked to him once. It was 1971. Gene McCarthy was running again and had a fundraiser downtown featuring him and Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary. After they had done their bits and as Phil was putting away his guitar I went up to the stage, stuttering a thank you for all he had meant to me, to us, to the movement. He was polite, maybe embarrassed by my embarrassment.

In 1976 Phil died, a suicide. I was in New York City at the time and was able to attend the memorial concert at the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden. It was quite a night: Jim & Jean, Jerry Rubin, Odetta, Melanie Safka, Dave van Ronk, the widow of the recently-assassinated Salvador Allende and on and on.

I know virtually all of his lyrics by heart.