Learn: The Songs Of Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs is to Bob Dylan as Kind of Like Spitting is to Bright Eyes. You will no doubt recognize this as an oversimplification – if not hyperbole – but the fascinating story behind this recording serves up manifold associations illuminating themes of discovery, rivalry and tragedy, ultimately posing foundation-shaking questions such as “What can one learn from the past?”

Recorded in 2004 at L.A.’s Gene Autry Theater on Autry’s vintage two-track machine, Kind of Like Spitting deliver a selection of songs from the Phil Ochs catalog. This recording aligns itself with the production of Ochs’ seminal records (1965’s All The News That’s Fit To Sing and 1966’s I Ain’t Marching Anymore), consisting solely of acoustic guitars and vocals. It also documents a transformation in KOLS – having taken to Ochs as a musical father figure and identifying with his underdog status only to realize he was a brutally narcissistic character who suffered from manic depression and ultimately took his own life in 1976 after a spectacular downward spiral.