Best Of The Rest: Rare And Unreleased Recordings

Product Description

Phil Ochs is known primarily as a songwriter but his talents extend far beyond that - to short stories, poetry and satire. More than a torrent, less than a flood, the songs poured out of Phil so quickly that not all were able to find their place on his albums with some of those songs only emerging decades later.

The Warner/Chappell demos which make up the main portion of this represent a time period spanning Ochs' last two albums for Elektra when Phil was finding his full strength as a songwriter and moving to include the lyrical in his repertoire, alongside the topical and satirical.

Review

''Phil Ochs has one of those minds. He wrote with such clear thinking, his words lift boulders off hypocracy's hide, and his wit whittles the readers distractions into justice.''

Sean Penn

''Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan were the most important and influential musical voices of the Sixties protest movement that encompassed civil rights, anti-war, feminism, political reform, and a general questioning of blind faith in authority.''

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

''I grew up listening to Phil Ochs, and his music had as much to do with my political awakening as did reading Rachel Carson or Allen Ginsberg, listening to John Lennon or Joan Baez or being given a chance to laugh at all the madness via Hunter S. Thompson...''

Michael Moore

''Phil Ochs told the truth before it was ready to be accepted, before it was politically expedient. He was the kind of truth teller that made liberal allies nervous because his truth demanded an accountability to their own compromise...

Tim Robbins

''Phil Ochs was a tireless crusader for justice. He is one of the all-time great activist troubadours. With wit and fire, his songs skewered the evildoers of his day and remain perfect examples of how to fight the power with guitar in hand...''

Tom Morello

''Phil Ochs was a born writer. He played guitar because that was the language his generation was speaking. Today, his questioning voice chimes as clearly as it ever did.''

Billy Bragg

'' As much as has been written about the sixties, it's arguable that no one experienced that defining moment in American history more personally than Phil Ochs...'' --Steve Earle