As much as I enjoyed Martin Scorsese’s excellent Bob Dylan documentary, I found the absence of any mention of Phil Ochs a bit baffling. I grew up in Ohio’s capital city, and developed a sort of chauvanistic pride in Och’s work. He came of age in Columbus (as loosely documented in the beautiful song ‘Boy in Ohio’), went to Ohio State, wrote for the Lantern, and played music in Larry’s Bar on High Street. He moved to New York and became one of the great protest singers of his generation, and then went on to create some remarkably personal music with Van Dyke Parks. I’ve not seen much good footage of Phil Ochs, so I was very happy to stumble across this on YouTube.

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