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songbook-intro.html
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<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Introduction from The Songs of Phil Ochs</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1> Introduction to <CITE>Songs of Phil Ochs</CITE></H1>
<h3>An Appleseed Music Inc. Publication 1964</h3>
<P>
I got interested in polictics after wasting a couple of years
drifting throught college. Around the same time, I became
interested in learning the guitar, and luckily won an old Kay in
a bet on the election of John Kennedy for President. As a
journalism mamor, I was writing for several campus papers, so it
was pretty natural to slip some of my ideas between the chords I
was learning.
<P>
This book contains about a fifth of the songs I've written since
then. Many people have asked me how I write a song, and after
thinking about it for a while, I decided that all my good songs
were written subconsciously. That is to say, I'm never able to
sit down and decide that I'm going ot write a song. Rather, a
song idea will come out of the blue and I'll get the proverbial
lightbulb sensation. But I always try to keep my mind
conditioned tothinking of new ideas. When I get one, my brain
almost acts like a reflex muscle in following up a new thought.
Sometimes I have stayed up past daylight pursuing a song idea
until it was trapped in rhyme. But once you get the original
idea, the rest is relatively easy,and rewarding. Some of the
most exciting and satisfying moments of my life have been in the
writing of a song.
<P>
I hope this book will inspire some reasders to try their hand at
songwriting. You'll never know how good you might be without a
few honest attempts. I think many potenitally good songwriters
have been stillborn by their own inhibitions.
<P>
Most of my early songs were straight journalistic narratives of
specific events, and the later ones have veered more inthe
direction of themes behind the events. All of them, thought, are
trying to make a positive point, even the ones that deal with
tragic events. However, I do have to concur with some of the
rightwing groups that consider topical songs subversive. These
songs are definitely subversive in the best sense of the word.
They are intended to overthrow as much idiocy as possible, and
hopefully, to effect some amount of change for the better.
<P>
I'd like to dedicate this book to the memory of Joe Hill, the
Wobbly songwriter who received his royalties in the form of
bullets from a firing squad.
<P>
-- Phil Ochs
<P>
Copyright 1964 Appleseed Publications
</BODY>
</HTML>