Customer Reviews

Gunfight at Carnegie Hall

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Our pal Phil comes out in gold lame and marries folk protest to rock and roll and country in a mindblowing soul-baring performance. It doesn't all work by any stretch.He just doesn't have the voice to cover Elvis, but he does well with the Buddy Holly medley and Merle Haggard's traditionalist chestnut, "Okie From Muskogee". Though Ochs was wearing down, his own songs sound purty good, and the loooooose band is at least fired up... Wonder if there's more tape in the vaults.

Ochs is brilliant. The album is terrific. The covers, "Mona Lisa," the Buddy Holly and Elvis medleys, as he put it "formed his musical mind." "Okie From Muskogee" is great, there may be a hint of irony, but that was Phil. "Chords of Fame" always strikes a chord with me. "Pleasures of the Harbor," and "Tape from California," are perfect (well, ok, I love Phil. The interplay with the audience as he explains that his gold suit illustrates America - how do you use wealth responsibly? "Strip" a woman calls out, "I could never strip," he answers, "for that would be cheap." His description of the political environment was prescient.

Still, the question he raised in 1971 remains relevant: "How do we come to grips with wealth in America?"