Rehearsals for Retirement

Rehearsals for Retirement was Phil Ochs' sixth album, released in 1969 on A&M Records.

History

Recorded in the aftermath of Ochs' presence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago (where his exploits included selecting and purchasing a pig for Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies to nominate for President), it is the darkest of Ochs' albums, a fact exemplified by its cover, a tombstone proclaiming that Ochs had died in Chicago. Yet is is perhaps the richest in humor and sarcasm.

"Pretty Smart On My Part," the album opener, is a satirical, sardonic celebration of cultural paranoia and its violent expression in American culture. It depecits a right-wing reactionary, who plans to, among other things, "assassinate the President and take over the government" (perhaps impervious to sarcasm, the FBI noted the song Ochs' lengthy FBI file). In "The Doll House," a song about the empty passion of a visit to whore house, Ochs sings one of the refrains mimicing the 1960's vocal delivery style of Bob Dylan, underscoring the Dylanesque lyrical style of the song. The two, once friends, had become estranged in recent years. To the evident delight of a Vancouver audience, Ochs also performed the refrain this way in a recorded live performance, eventually released as There and Now: Live in Vancouver 1968 [sic]. The Rehearsals for Retirement version features the baroque piano stylings of Lincoln Mayorga, who assisted Ochs on all his A&M albums.

In the verses of "I Kill Therefore I Am" (except for the final one), Ochs ironically sings the praises of a police officer clearly guilty of brutality. "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed" is Ochs' telling of the events that unfolded in Chicago, followed by an upbeat jaunt ("Where Were You in Chicago?") playfully berating those who weren't there. The 1968 disappearance of the USS Scorpion was the inspiration for "The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns," the lyrical style of which contrasts sharply with Ochs' other song about a lost nuclear submarine, "The Thresher," from his debut album. Whereas "The Thresher" is a simplistic, preachy, moralizing ballad, "Scorpion" is filled with inegmatic symbolism, deep passions, and mixed with very cinematic descriptions, most of which express the imagined conditions and changing states of mind (apprehension, fear, denial, etc.) as the Scorpion crew realizes its rapidly declining fate. "Scorpion," along with "When in Rome" from Ochs's previous album is often cited as a masterpiece of Och's songwriting.

"The World Began in Eden and Ended in Los Angeles" seems to portray Ochs' then-home as a hellhole, as all metropoles eventually end up. In "Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore," the singer, while in loneliness and despair prepairs his suicide, is visited by of a woman seeking out her ex-lover.

Perhaps the most despairing track on the album is "My Life," in which Ochs states bluntly, "my life is now a death to me," a line which perhaps presages Ochs' suicide seven years later. using a simple structure the lyrics rock on a precarious balance between hope and despair. He also asks the FBI to "take your tap from my phone and leave my life alone."

Track listing

All songs by Phil Ochs.

Side One

1. "Pretty Smart on My Part" – 3:18
2. "The Doll House" – 4:39
3. "I Kill Therefore I Am" – 2:55
4. "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed / Where Were You in Chicago?" – 3:29
5. "My Life" – 3:12

Side Two

1. "The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns" – 4:15
2. "The World Began in Eden and Ended in Los Angeles" – 3:06
3. "Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore?" – 6:11
4. "Another Age" – 3:42
5. "Rehearsals For Retirement" – 4:09

Personnel

• Phil Ochs - guitar, vocals
• Larry Marks - producer
• Lincoln Mayorga - piano, accordion
• Bob Rafkin - guitar, bass
• Kevin Kelley - drums (rumored)
• Ian Freebairn-Smith - arrangements

References