Phil Ochs Quotes

Show me a prison, show me a jail Show me a pris'ner whose face has grown pale And I'll show you a young man With many reasons why There but for fortune, go you or I.

It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all.

Call it peace or call it treason, call it love or call it reason, but I ain't marching anymore.

I for one don't even believe that he's president. In order to have a president you need to have an election, in order to have an election you have to have a choice, and if you remember back to the primaries there were people running against the war, Kennedy and McCarthy. They often got 85 to 90% of the votes, but when it came time for the parties, that was totally ignored, so in point of fact, there really was no election. For a man who's always wanted to be president, and now that he's president, he's not even president.

Look outside the window, there's a woman being grabbed They've dragged her to the bushes and now she's being stabbed Maybe we should call the cops and try to stop the pain But Monopoly is so much fun, I'd hate to blow the game And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody Outside of a small circle of friends.

I watched my life fade-away in a flash A quarter of a century dash through closets full of candles with never a room For rapture through a kingdom had been captured. And so I turn away from my drizzling furniture and pass old ladies Sniffling by movie stars' tombs, yes I must be home again soon. To face the unspoken unguarded thoughts of habitual hearts A vanguard of electricians a village full of tarts Who say you must protest you must protest It is your diamond duty… Ah but in such an ugly time the true protest is beauty And the bleeding seer crawled from the ruins of the empire And stood bleeding, bleeding on the border He said, passion has led to chaos and now chaos will lead to order. Oh I have been away for a while and I hope to be back again soon.

I write all my own songs and they are just simple melodies with a lot of lyrics. They usually have to do with current events and what is going on in the news. You can call them topical songs, songs about the news, and then developing into more philosophical songs later.

One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies.

The final story, the final chapter of Western man, I believe, lies in Los Angeles.

America is two Mack trucks colliding on a superhighway because all the drivers are on amphetamines.

In the courtroom, watch the balance of the scales
If the price is right, there's time for more appeals
The strings are pulled, the switch is stayed
The finest lawyers fees are paid
And a rich man never died upon the chair

But our land is still troubled by men who have to hate. They twist away our freedom, and they twist away our fate. Fear is their weapon, and treason is their cry. We can stop them if we try.

God isn't dead — he's just missing in action.

And I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone
And I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone
Can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here.

And if there's any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there's any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara.