The title of Phil Ochs’s 1965 song “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” can be misleading. Rather than encouraging Americans to stop marching in protest of the Vietnam War, Ochs was reflecting his generation’s anger at being asked — as many previous generations had been — to march as soldiers and sacrifice their lives for an immoral war. The song goes through the litany of American military history from the perspective of a weary soldier who has been present at every war since the War of 1812. “It’s always the old who lead us to the war, always the young to fall,” goes the chorus. To Ochs, Americans had paid too high a price for the country’s militarism. “Call it peace or call it treason. Call it love or call it reason, but I ain’t a-marching anymore.”
Ochs wrote in the album’s liner notes that the song “borders between pacifism and treason, combining the best qualities of both.” He observed that “the fact that you won’t be hearing this song on the radio is more than enough justification for the writing of it.” “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” quickly became an anthem of the antiwar movement.
Ochs never enjoyed the wide and lasting popularity of Bob Dylan or Joan Baez, but he was the most politically engaged among the folk singers who came of age in the 1960s. Like many of his generation, Ochs believed in the ideals he learned in school — equality, democracy, justice, and America’s role of promoting freedom around the world. But by his late teens, Ochs joined his peers in recognizing the harsher realities of American imperialism, deep-rooted racism, and class struggle. He devoted his short life to music and radical protest.
On April 9, 1976, Ochs succumbed to his long-standing depression, bipolar disorder, and alcoholism, and died by suicide. Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of his death. He wrote about two hundred songs and released eight albums, employing his sharp wit and moving lyrics that shimmered with optimism,…
Auteur: Peter Dreier
