🎵 AotW Classics Phil Ochs PLEASURES OF THE HARBOR SP-4133

[Harry]

Phil Ochs
PLEASURES OF THE HARBOR
A&M SP-4133

Released as mono LP-133, and on CD from Collectors' Choice CCM-137-2

Tracks:

Side One
1. Cross My Heart (Phil Ochs) 3:23
2. Flower Lady (Phil Ochs) 6:06
3. Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends† (Phil Ochs) 3:37
4. I've Had Her (Phil Ochs) 8:03
5. Miranda (Phil Ochs) 5:17

Side Two
1. The Party* (Phil Ochs) 7:57
2. Pleasures Of The Harbor (Phil Ochs) 8:05
3. The Crucifixion (Phil Ochs) 8:45

Produced by: Larry Marks
Arranged by: Ian Freebairn-Smith, Joseph Byrd*
†Piano Accompaniment by: Lincoln Mayorga
Liner notes by: Phil Ochs
Cover Photography by: Jim McCrary
Liner Photography by: Alice Ochs
Album Designed by: Peter Whorf Graphics

 

[Harry]

An amazing album - and one I'd long dismissed. I knew of Phil Ochs as a folk singer and had essentially no interest in his stuff, even on A&M. I even used to skip over his track on FAMILY PORTRAIT for a lot of years.

Then, abuot four or five years ago, I was making a CD-R version of FAMILY PORTRAIT and had to use the actual vinyl for source, since I had nothing else. As I listened to the track, I was amazed at how good it was. Phil not only sang well, but the arrangement was superb. There were vocal overdubs and interesting accompaniment that just fit the song perfectly, and I found that I liked the repetitious structure of the song.

It didn't take long for me to run out to the store to find the album. Initially I had to be satisfied with the 20th Century Millennium Collection disc, and found the full PLEASURES OF THE HARBOR a few weeks later.

What a great collection of tracks and a superb album. This one isn't to be missed. My favorite track though, remains "Cross My Heart".

Harry

 

[Mr Bill]

Harry,

"Cross My heart" has additional verses not used on the album. There are live versions out there with the missing verses. And they're included in both his song books...

Like you, I did not care for nor agree with his politics as evidenced in his first three "folk" LPs for Elektra, but his A&M sides are truly fabulous exercises in arrangement and harmony. Kudos to Larry marks production and the skills of folks like Lincoln Mayorga, Ian Freebairn-Smith and others.

No matter wht you think of Ochs'views, his music is both a snapshot of a country in a time of turmoil and a damend good listen...

--Mr Bill

 

[Moritat]

Nice to see a thread on this lp. A very interesting album. I think Ochs was a really nice addition to the A&M catalog. Small Circle Of Friends is my choice here. Great tune, great words, funny, and I love the piano!

Years back I took out a Phil Ochs cd from a local library. It had an very pretty version of Cross My Heart with only guitar backing him. As much as I like the lp version, this stripped down version just knocked me out.

I also think the album cover is outstanding.... great photo!

 

[Dave]

A creative force in Folk, it seemed just natural for Phil Ochs to come to A&M as folk became more like pop... Although hardly one to embrace the spirit of any competition, Ochs just seemed content, on this still-newly formed record label, to blaze a new trail of his own...

"Cross My Heart" seems to be his best song; had it on Family Portrait and seems to be the most cheery and lyrically cohesive... And so profoundly prophetic... --I voted for that one, like a couple of you here did, too...

"Pleasures Of The harbor" & "Crucifixion" makes a nice combo of tunes, one following the other; Glen Yarbrough had done both that way, too...

Especially the jovial nature of the former vs. the alertness and awareness of history repeating itself in the latter, Ochs' mythically narrative chronicles about the politics of assassination from Christ to Kennedy... The calmness of being introspective, to the sudden spiraling upward and outward makes this one--or two--quite an odyssey...!

And you gotta love the humor of th following four: "Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends", which bookended by a commentary of the murder of Kitty Genovese, a New York City woman, it encourages, if not mandates awareness and the need of divine intervention and getting involved, as in short, it could be your life, too--and also accurately chronicled in a few other similar, yet much lighter incidents of concern... It demonstrates the need to put ones own personal needs aside to uphold American values of helping one another, especially in crucial situations such as this... (We can start a NEW game of Monopoly, if not try to remember where we left off...)

And the dixieland of "Miranda" as well as the bitter cocktail lounge ennui of "The Party"... Ooh, gotta love the catchy lines of the former: "Oh, Miranda...she's the queen of the belly dancers..." and the catch-phrase of the latter: "...And my shoulders had to shrug, as I crawl beneath the rug, and return to my piano..." --Classic!

And lastly, the bitterness of "I've Had Her", a sexual innuendo, describing an affair that turned out to be "sour grapes" to the narrator, never experiencing true love from that temporary encounter...

Yes, an essential addition to the ever-growing roster of A&M's fine talent, as a whole, Phil's works can be a valuable entity, or at least commodity, and equally on the same political scale as his works for Elektra, where there, too, he doesn't miss a trick and belongs in any record library...



Dave

 

[Mr Bill]

"...And my shoulders had to shrug, as I crawl beneath the rug, and return to my piano..."

It's actually: "...And my shoulders had to shrug, as I crawled beneath the rug, and retuned my piano..."

--Mr Bill