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A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for bullshit.

Phil Ochs

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Phil Ochs
Age: 35 †
Born: 1940
Born: December 19
Died: 1976
Died: April 9
Guitarist
Poet
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
El Paso
Texas
Philip David Ochs
Protest
Specific
Mistake
Song
Cannot
Bullshit

More quotes by Phil Ochs

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There is an urgent need for Americans to look deeply into themselves and their actions, and musical poetry is perhaps the most effective mirror available. Every newspaper headline is a potential song.
Phil Ochs
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Does defending liberalism leave you friendless and perhaps wondering about your breath?
Phil Ochs
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Step outside the guidelines of the official umpires and make your own rules and your own reality.
Phil Ochs
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It's always the old to lead us to the war. It's always the young to fall.
Phil Ochs
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The people who carried the burden, who marked in strange field in search of an answer, and ended their journeys an unwilling hero.
Phil Ochs
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Call it peace or call it treason / call it love or call it reason / but I ain't marching anymore
Phil Ochs
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Show me a country where the bombs had to fallShow me the ruins of buildings so tallAnd I'll show you a young landWith many reasons whyThere but for fortune, go you or IYou or I.
Phil Ochs
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In the courtroom, watch the balance of the scalesIf the price is right, there's time for more appealsThe strings are pulled, the switch is stayedThe finest lawyers fees are paidAnd a rich man never died upon the chair
Phil Ochs
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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.
Phil Ochs
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I can spare a dime, brother, but in these morally inflationary times, a dime goes a lot farther if it's demanding work rather than adding to the indignity of relief.
Phil Ochs
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I wonder who I left behind on the other side of fame.
Phil Ochs
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It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the act of struggle itself, not what you win. Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life.
Phil Ochs
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Show me the prison, Show me the jail, Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale. And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why And there, but for fortune, go you or I.
Phil Ochs
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Some people never get their feet on the ground, They're either sitting in a chair or theyre laying down.
Phil Ochs
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Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why. But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high.
Phil Ochs
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The fortunes of the entire world may well ride on the ability of young Americans to face the responsibilities of an old America gone mad.
Phil Ochs
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One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies.
Phil Ochs
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It is wrong to expect a reward for your struggles. The reward is the act of struggle itself, not what you win.
Phil Ochs
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America is two Mack trucks colliding on a superhighway because all the drivers are on amphetamines.
Phil Ochs
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I like Hitler, jolly jolly Hitler.
Phil Ochs