Songs Written by Phil Ochs

Commentary (music and lyrics not included). Chapters: Crucifixion, the War Is Over, Outside of a Small Circle of Friends, I Ain't Marching Anymore, Draft Dodger Rag, There but for Fortune, Power and the Glory, Bwatue. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 41. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: from the album Pleasures of the Harbor "Crucifixion" (sometimes titled "The Crucifixion") is a 1966 song by Phil Ochs, a U.S. singer-songwriter. Ochs described the song as "the greatest song I've ever written." Ochs wrote "Crucifixion" during a two-hour car ride in the middle of his November 1965 concert tour of the U.K. According to Ochs's manager, Arthur Gorson, the composer was "wary" of how his audience might react to the new song because it did not have an explicit political message. He needn't have worried; his first public performance of "Crucifixion" was greeted by a standing ovation. The song is about the rise and fall of a hero, and the public's role in creating, destroying, and deifying its heroes. The first verse describes an event of cosmic proportions: "the universe explodes," "planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed" by the raising of a falling star. In the second stanza, a baby is born; the child has been "chosen for a challenge that is hopelessly hard," to redeem the world. The third and fourth verses describe the hero's development: he has the insight that "beneath the greatest love, there's a hurricane of hate," yet he is driven to spread his message of redemption despite the tremendous difficulty. The fifth and sixth stanzas describe the public acceptance of the hero's message and their adoration of the hero, but warns that "success is an enemy to the losers of the day" and that the people who are applauding the hero are salivating for his destruction. The hero's downfall comes i...http: //booksllc.net/?id=26419703