#i can't get over how much they look like phil ochs

[hellostranger1961]

nothing but the girl: the blatant lesbian image, by susie bright and jill posener, 1996

[pleasuresoftheharbor]

what are the best phil ochs books/documentaries in ur opinion?

well there are really only four big ones in total so i'll just give my opinions on all of them :) for books:

there but for fortune - i personally much prefer this one, i think it's a pretty solid/mostly accurate biography that's well written, and if you're looking to read a phil ochs biography i would recommend this one! in terms of quality of writing + accuracy i think this book is the much better option

death of a rebel - i really did not like this book, to the point where i had to make myself read the second half in one sitting just to get it over with 😭 i read a lot of biographies and i'm just not a fan of the style this one was written in, with lots of made up dialogue almost like a fictional story. it felt really dramatized and tabloid-y to me, and it seemed to focus unnecessarily on his flaws/more miserable years. obviously you've got to include the facts in a biography, but i think it's one thing to tell the harder truths, and another to really linger and lean into those rougher stories in order to tell a more dramatic story, which is how this book felt. personally i found that it felt a bit exploitative, and i also know that it's got a bit of misinformation in it. all this being said, i know some people did quite enjoy it, and if you ever do read it, i would just take specific details with a grain of salt!

for documentaries:

there but for fortune (no relation to the book) - i forever have mixed feelings on this one. for starters, at times it feels a bit more like a documentary on the 60s in general rather than phil's life + his work. it's not very thorough, and i really don't like how it leaves off on his death without any sort of conclusion about his legacy/whatnot. it makes the film feel very bleak, and i don't really like how it somewhat feels like the main takeaway is "look at how fucked up this guy's life was." with all this being said, there is some really great unreleased footage of interviews and whatnot that you can't find anywhere else in this one, and for this reason only i would say it's worth watching

chords of fame - this one is so low budget and cheesy but it has heart okay... you have to go into it with an open mind and acknowledge that you are watching a slightly bad documentary/biopic fusion from the 80s and then you can truly appreciate it. the choice to have the actor playing phil cover all of his songs up until the credits is certainly something but it's fun. also if you already know a bit about phil ochs/his life the interviews with his friends in this one are especially interesting!

okay this is so long i'm so sorry... and i'm sorry for being such a hater i tried to be positive but it's such slim pickings when it comes to phil ochs content. i think if i were less insane i might like some of these more but i care about phil ochs to such a religious extent that it pains me to see him misrepresented in any sort of way. my final statements are that 1) there but for fortune (book not movie) is the best out of all of these in my opinion and 2) i know a lot of people have enjoyed the books/films that i dislike so do not take my word as gospel ! okayy that's all<3