The War Is Over: The Best of Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 4, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1988
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000002GI3
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #176,961 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Tape from California

2. Flower Lady

3. Half a Century High

4. Scorpion Departs But Never Returns

5. War Is Over

6. One Way Ticket Home

7. Rehearsals for Retirement

8. Chords of Fame

9. Gas Station Women

10. Outside of a Small Circle of Friends

11. Pleasures of the Harbor

12. Kansas City Bomber

13. White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land

14. Jim Dean of Indiana

15. No More Songs

16. I Ain't Marching Anymore [Live]

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

On the one hand this compilation is hardly a "best of." On the other, the title is apt: this is a collection of Ochs after his most political period, and is dominated by difficult, uneven, and harrowing post-'67 material. Hanging up his solo activist persona, Ochs experimented with strings, folk rock, and full-tilt rock & roll, looking for a way out of the troubadour cult status he'd created for himself. The set may not be representative of Ochs as a whole, but there's an affecting poetic impressionism at work, and the sound of a man trying to make sense of his own life, as he also tries to make sense of the changes around him. --Roy Francis Kasten

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough Collection of Post-Folkie Ochs Work, June 27, 1998

By A Customer

While it contains only one of his folk-protest songs, a live version of "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore," this CD gathers some of the best, or quirkiest, of Ochs' late 60s studio recordings, many of which are fascinating. Lyrics were always paramount for Ochs, and since he was steeped in the folk music structural tradition of verse upon verse, some of his songs seem to ramble on longer than necessary; but the best of them, "Outside a Small Circle of Friends," "Pleasures of the Harbor," and "Tape From California" are more memorable and adventurous than anything recorded by the folk artists who were his peers at the time. This CD represents only a portion of Ochs' importance, but it is a good introduction for music lovers who know little or nothing about him and his music. If you like this CD, you should also pick up "There But for Fortune," an 18-track compilation of his early work, to get a more thorough overview of Ochs' tragically brief but inspirational life and music.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best & best-priced collection of Phil Ochs available..., July 18, 1999

By A Customer

I find the only early folky-protest Ochs song of value to be CHANGES, which is not on this cd; but what is on it represents his true lasting genius in writing, singing, and psychosocial commentary... Ochs worked with gifted producers and musicians (Larry Marks, Van Dyke Parks, Ry Cooder, Clarence White, Lincoln Mayorga) on these records: PLEASURES OF THE HARBOR, PHIL OCHS' GREATEST HITS, REHEARSALS FOR RETIREMENT, which are the sources for this best-of, and the lush strings & flawless pop/folk/chamber arrangements really hold up! For my taste/ears, the opener 'Tape from California' is one song truly warranting desert island companionship: the damn thing has so many twists & turns & rich poetic wordplay, plus harmony-singalong possibilities that I've literally played it hundreds of times and never gotten tired of it. Phil Ochs' lyrics I personally dig the more they became playful/'trippy-surreal'/entheogen-influenced? than their mid-60's protest-commie mode...and

thankfully the former are what's served up here, a lovingly-crafted worthy salute to a great & tragic artist. Phil Ochs' voice was a pretty amazing instrument, maybe not everyone's c of t with its oft-employed distinctive vibrato, but I think the guy really had IT and this material shows it!

4.0 out of 5 stars A good piece of the puzzle, November 19, 2009

By	R. Counce (Seoul, Korea) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This album is valuable in that, if you want to put together a good collection of Phil Ochs, at his best, I suggest you buy this album along with the better compilation CD titled, "There But for Fortune." If you want to go further, add "All the News That's Fit to Sing," and "I Ain't Marching Anymore." Then stop. You'll have all of Ochs' best songs.

You'll notice in amazon's listings a Phil Ochs box set. The box set will cost you more than the four CDs I mentioned above together, and it doesn't include one important song, "Days of Decision".