An important and vital voice, still relevant today.

Review Score: (10/10)
This album was my introduction to Phil Ochs. I was 14 years old when my brother brought home the album. To say that I was stunned is a huge understatement. I was floored.

The anger, the eloquence, the irony and the hope in Phil's words and in his voice cut through me then, and cuts through me now, 31 years later. How can you listen to "Love Me, I'm a Liberal," and not realize that those same people live in our neighborhoods even today? How can you listen to "Canons of Christianity" and not recognize the same hypocrisy today? How can you listen to Phil's wonderful casting: "John Wayne plays Lyndon Johnson and Lyndon Johnson plays God," and not laugh from amusement and the grim reality of the truth of that line?

And then, almost eerily, Phil delivers his epitaph 8 years early on "When I'm Gone." Hearing the song today still sends shivers through me.

He left us far too early, but Phil Ochs left behind a wonderfully rich legacy. Buy this CD if you haven't already. You will not regret it for a minute.

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