Audio CD review:
Phil Ochs - Pleasures of the Harbor

Phil Ochs - Pleasures of the Harbor

Band: Phil Ochs Title: Pleasures of the Harbor Rating: Release Date: 14 November, 2000 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Cross My Heart 2: Flower Lady 3: Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends 4: I've Had Her 5: Miranda 6: The Party 7: Pleasures Of The Harbor 8: The Crucifixion

Customer Reviews A unique product of competition Both started out as guitar slinging folkies singing protest songs and putting out simple records with clear social messages. Phil Ochs, the so-called singing journalist, was always (to his frustration) compared to Bob Dylan. Eventually Dylan, the public's and critics' golden boy, quit putting out straight up folk and broke down the barriers between the genres of folk and rock, still dealing with similar lyrical themes but in a less direct way. Since most of the music consuming public viewed Dylan as the icon, once he made this move (though lots of people hated him for it in the beginning), all bets were off for the other folk musicians. In this climate, Phil Ochs, Dylan's worthy but always less-famous competitor, created his most progressive album and showed listeners that rock and folk could be combined in more ways than one. Pleasures of the Harbor starts off with a harpsichord-laden, jaunty pop song that's definitely NOT about social injustice lifted from the headlines. This song really sets the tone for the rest of the album--Phil Ochs decided to stretch his music and songwriting to include not only rock instrumentation and themes, but also jazz and classical elements as well, all the while painting lyrical pictures of society's ills using satire and narrative to expertly get the job done. "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" is a classic collection of witty anecdotes of hypocrisy that's right up there with "Draft Dodger Rag" as Och's funniest and cleverest works. The sound is unlike anything he ever did--rag! "I've Had Her" is a cutting, cynical love song set to a gorgeous orchestral backing, with Och's heartbreaking refrain "I've had her; she's nothing. " "Miranda" is a great character sketch of a Rudolph Valentino fan who manages to escape the pain of the world, performed with some great dixieland backup. "The Party" is also really jazzy, with plenty of types of people satirized in a party setting. "Pleasures of the Harbor" is another classic, impressionistic song that paints a scene with emotion and drama. "The Crucifixion" closes the album in a controversial way. The lyrics are stark and harrowing, supported by avant-garde classical electronic music (crazy, right?!). Also, I'd like to add that many of these songs feature a top-shelf keyboardist (can't remember the name) whose chops really add to the instrumental end of the daring arrangements Pleasures of the Harbor is a unique album in both Och's catalogue and in pop music in general. The songs are mostly quite long and the style remains unreproduced by anyone else. Phil Ochs, for all the Dylan comparisons, really doesn't sound like Dylan in voice and has a very different style of songwriting. Some critics panned this album as pretentious. I think this really fails to capture the unique nature of the music and Och's courage to put out a record that sounds completely different from anything else. What I really love about his growing approach to songwriting is his skill at showing (rather than telling) the social ills and emotions that are the subjects of his songs. Hopefully this album goes back into print very soon. Phil's greatest album.... But I really enjoy the later stuff that started with this album. I love all aspects of Phil's music. Ochs did get away from folk music like his rival Dylan, but Ochs didn't go rock. Instead, his albums became much more poetic and introspective, and they were more pop oriented than Dylan's work. This album was the first one, and it's the best. There isn't one bad song on the album. The songs are some of the most haunting ones Phil ever wrote, and the production here fits them perfectly. The title track is especially haunting (inspired by a great John Ford film, The Long Voyage Home), and Outside a Small Circle of Friends is a great song too. I do like this version of Crucifixion (with its collage of noise going against Ochs's voice). I think it works rather well, even though you have to listen to it a few times before you really get it. The liner notes are especially good, too, especially the line "in such an ugly time the true protest is beauty. ". Ochs was eventually destroyed by politics, booze, drugs, and despair, which is a shame, as he had a real gift for great lyrics and for melody. He sang better than Dylan, his songs had more of a coherent storyline, but he didn't have the mystique Dylan has. Phil was moving towards country rock with his final album, the ironically titled "Greatest Hits", and that may have been his niche. Sadly, we'll never know. We'll always miss you, Phil. . . . All change here I'd expected another solo acoustic album and was faced with the very lush orchestral sounds. I can remember the feeling of total surprise when I first heard this album. Eventually this grew on me as i realised that this was Phil's version of Dylan's experimentalism, only with Dixieland jazz and classical arrangements. Highlight of the album was the classical psychedelic setting of 'The Crucifixion' of the narrator drowning in an orchestral barrage. "Outside of a Small Circle' is Phil setting nasty protest words to breezy uptempo music and, likewise, the lounge piano setting of 'The Party' against his exposure of showbiz corruption. The other songs are very personal observations set against the mellow and reflective to the angst songs. I found that the solo folk version of Phil at Newport 66 with this orchestral version brought up the lyrics in sharp relief. This album is a test for open minds and will immensely reward you if you have one. . . You can see a complete list of all Phil Ochs discography, or go back to the Phil Ochs tabs