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player ready...Phil Ochs
Farewells & Fantasies (Rhino) (star) (star) (star) 1/2
At long last, the full body of this troubled troubadour’s works — more than 50 songs– has been collected, with track-by-track notes, biographical information and photos, and the reflections of such fine writers as Michael Ventura and Mark Kemp. The three-disc set includes familiar and influential material from Ochs’ politically potent Elektra albums and continues through the A&M period, when his impressionistic — and occasionally bizarre — work tripped uneasily from epic beauty to bare-bulb paranoia, and from folk to country to rockabilly. As Ben Edmonds suggests, “Phil may have aspired to the Woody Guthrie value system, but he grew up wanting to be Elvis,” while also having to live in the shadow of Bob Dylan. Blessed with a marvelously expressive voice, a wonderful sense of humor and a deep social conscience, Ochs constantly tested his limits and was devastated when the rest of the world didn’t embrace his personal vision.