Phil Ochs Quotes

41 Sourced Quotes

When they show the destruction of society on color TV, I want to be able to look out over Los Angeles and make sure they get it right.

Phil Ochs
Dump the reds in a pile, boys
Dump the reds in a pile
You'd better wipe off that smile, boys
Better wipe off that smile
We'll spit through the streets of the cities we wreck
We'll find you a leader that you can't elect
Those treaties we signed were a pain in the neck
'Cause we're the cops of the world, boys
We're the cops of the world.

Phil Ochs
Show me a country where the bombs had to fall
Show me the ruins of buildings so tall
And I'll show you a young land
With many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or I
You or I.

Phil Ochs
I for one don't even believe that he's president. In order to have a president you need to have an election, in order to have an election you have to have a choice, and if you remember back to the primaries there were people running against the war, Kennedy and McCarthy. They often got 85 to 90% of the votes, but when it came time for the parties, that was totally ignored, so in point of fact, there really was no election. For a man who's always wanted to be president, and now that he's president, he's not even president.

Phil Ochs
I was over there, entertaining the troops. I won't say which troops.

Phil Ochs
Does defending liberalism leave you friendless and perhaps wondering about your breath?

Phil Ochs
Smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer,
But a friend of ours was captured and they gave him thirty years
Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why
But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high.

Phil Ochs
Before the days of television and mass media, the folksinger was often a traveling newspaper spreading tales through music. 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
Call it peace or call it treason,
Call it love or call it reason,
But I ain't marching anymore!

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

Phil Ochs
The painter paints his brushes black
Through the canvas runs a crack
Portrait of the pain never answers back.

Phil Ochs