Tape from California

Tape from California is Phil Ochs' fifth album, released in mid-1968 on A&M Records. A step back from its predecessor Pleasures of the Harbor, a sort of cross between that album and 1966's Phil Ochs In Concert, it features folk with shades of rock, bluegrass and baroque music.

History

The best-known track is the epic "The War Is Over", a portrait of the ridiculousness of war released at a time when Vietnam seemed as if it would never end. Its upbeat, military-style backing is as ironic as the backing for "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" had been one year prior. The opening track, written as he was moving from New York City to Los Angeles, is the first truly rocking song in Ochs' catalogue, an aural comment on Ochs' own life circa 1968. "The Harder They Fall" is a reworking of nursery rhyme characters into a somewhat menacing and bewildering tale, including lines about Mother Goose stealing lines from Lenny Bruce and "killing Jews". "White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land", in line with his earlier anti-war songs, is one of the more poetic songs on the album.

Ochs' longest song, "When In Rome," calls to mind Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row," owing to the former song's length (thirteen minutes), acoustic guitar backing, and abstract lyrics. However, the content of the two songs is significantly different, as Ochs' more socially conscious song refers overtly to war crimes and a hypocritical glee taken in punishing the perpetrators of the same.

Track listing

All songs by Phil Ochs.

1. "Tape From California" – 6:45
2. "White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land" – 3:35
3. "Half A Century High" – 2:53
4. "Joe Hill" – 7:18
5. "The War Is Over" – 4:25
6. "The Harder They Fall" – 3:52
7. "When In Rome" – 13:13
8. "The Floods of Florence" – 4:52

Personnel

• Phil Ochs - guitar, vocals
• Larry Marks - producer
• Joe Osborn - bass guitar on "Tape From California"
• Lincoln Mayorga - piano, keyboards
• Van Dyke Parks - piano, keyboards on "Tape From California"
• Ramblin' Jack Elliott - flat-picked guitar on "Joe Hill"
• Ian Freebairn-Smith - arrangements

References