Phil Ochs - Rehearsals for Retirement/Gunfight at Carnegie Hall
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Phil OchsEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2000-11-14
Music Label: Collector's Choice
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Pretty Smart On My Part
- The Doll House
- I Kill Therefore I Am
- William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park And Escapes Unscathed
- My Life
- The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns
- The World Began In Eden But Ended In Los Angeles
- Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore
- Another Age
- Rehearsals For Retirement
- Mona Lisa
- I Ain't Marchin' Anymore
- Oakie From Meskogee
- Chords Of Fame
- Buddy Holly Medley: Not Fade Away/I'm Gonna Love You Too/Think It Over/Oh Boy/Everyday It's So...
- Pleasures Of The Harbor
- Tape From California
- Elvis Medley And Encore: My Baby Left Me/I'm Ready/Heartbreak Hotel/All Shook Up/Are You Lonesome...
- A Fool Such As I
Free Music Notes for Rehearsals for Retirement/Gunfight at Carnegie Hall
Free Music Review: An odd pairing, to say the least.
Hit: 4 Stars
First of all, I'll say that I think that the pairing of these two albums is kind of strange. The only thing they really have in common is that they're both among Phil's last albums. Stylistically, they're hardly similar. Gunfight At Carnegie hall would have been better paired with Greatest Hits, both having their share of Ochsian country and classic R&R. Maybe Collector's Choice thought that Greatest Hits was actually a greatest hits album and skipped over it--I don't know. But I digress.
Rehearsals For Retirement is possibly Phil Ochs' best album, certainly his most accessible ("My Life" should have been a hit), and most certainly his most emotional. After the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Phil's psyche was in turmoil. Frustrated with politics, he channeled his pain and anger and turned it into something beautiful: this album. You can hear his anger in the rockier tracks ("Another Age," "Pretty Smart On My Part," and especially "I Kill Therefore I Am"), his sadness and desolation in piano-laden songs such as "The Doll House" and the title track, and his trademark humanity in "William Butler Yeats..." and "The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns." There's also a glimpse of the Ochs brand of humor in a short piece at the end of the fourth track called "Where Were You In Chicago?" In short, Rehearsals For Retirement is a culmination of all the best elements from Phil's previous albums.
Gunfight At Carnegie Hall is an odd album in and of itself. Most people know the basic story behind Phil's ill-fated "gold suit" tour, especially this infamous concert at New York's Carnegie Hall, so I won't get too much into that. Unfortunately, this album amounts to just a few audio snapshots of that event. A&M, I believe, were going for a "NEW" Phil Ochs album, rather than a traditional live album, much of the included songs being Ochs material that was new to the public. Phil and his band perform a rocking (albeit shortened) version of "Tape From California" and a stunning, stripped-down version of "Pleasures Of The Harbor." Phil goes solo & acoustic for "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore," which gets the best response from the audience. (Reportedly, throughout the show, the audience would loudly cheer the vintage Ochs material and boo whenever the band walked onto the stage.) The Elvis and Buddy Holly covers may be a little too faithful to the originals, but I think Phil was more concerned with paying tribute to his idols rather than playing "his versions" of their material. Say what you will about the medleys, but where else are you going to hear Phil Ochs sing a song like "Are You Lonesome Tonight?!" However, it's Phil's (drunken) humor and his conviction to the material that really makes this set interesting. His between-song banter gives the listener a slight idea of what the show was like, from getting a hearty reception from the crowd when talking about revolution to responding humorously to the boos after announcing that he's going to play a song from the `50s. At the end of the show, the audience, finally won over by Phil's heartfelt stubbornness, doesn't want him to leave. "With a gun in one hand...with a guitar in the other," he at least tamed Carnegie Hall.
Rehearsals for Retirement/Gunfight at Carnegie Hall Poster
Two of Phil's classic A&M albums. 'Rehearsals For Retirement' has a lot to do with the '68 Democratic convention, which Ochs attended. The live album 'Gunfight At Carnegie Hall' aroused controversy for the unlikely covers of Buddy Holly & Elvis Presley. 18 tracks on 2 CD's. Slimline double jewel case. 2000 release.Folk Music CDs
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