Phil Ochs - Greatest Hits (1970)

My first post is an album I just managed to track down recently. It seems that a lot of Phil Ochs other albums are pretty easy to find, but this album didn't seem to be anywhere. I managed to find a torrent for it, and it managed to download after sitting on it for almost 2 weeks. So to save someone else who has been hunting for this album the annoyance of waiting for a torrent, I figured my first upload here my as well be this.

This is Phil's last studio album (not actually a 'greatest hits'), recorded in 1970 and produced by Van Dyke Parks. Gone are the politcal overtones that was the mark of the majority of his previous songs, and in their place are glossy, superficially cheery country songs, which were more accessible than almost anything Ochs had recorded up to this point. However when you look past the upbeat songs and sunny production, you find a very depressing undertone which is hard to ignore:

The rebels they were here
They came beside the door
They told me that the moon was bleeding
Then all to my suprise,
They took away my eyes.
And it seems that there are no more songs.
A star is in the sky,
It's time to say goodbye.
A whale is on the beach,
He's dying.
A white flag in my hand,
And a white bone in the sand.
And it seems that there are no more songs.

--No More Songs

This is a great country album, and a decent place to start if you are not aware of Phil Ochs. It is a real shame this album is out of print.

Link in the comments.