Silent soldiers on a silver screen
Framed in fantasies and dragged in dream
Unpaid actors of the mystery
The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free
And what’s this got to do with me
I declare the war is over
It’s over, it’s over
Drums are drizzling on a grain of sand
Fading rhythms of a fading land
Prove your courage in the proud parade
Trust your leaders where mistakes are almost never made
And they’re afraid that I’m afraid
I’m afraid the war is over
It’s over, it’s over
Angry artists painting angry signs
Use their vision just to blind the blind
Poisoned players of a grizzly game
One is guilty and the other gets the point to blame
Pardon me if I refrain
I declare the war is over
It’s over, it’s over
So do your duty, boys, and join with pride
Serve your country in her suicide
Find a flag so you can wave goodbye
But just before the end even treason might be worth a try
This country is too young to die
I declare the war is over
It’s over, it’s over
One-legged veterans will greet the dawn
And they’re whistling marches as they mow the lawn
And the gargoyles only sit and grieve
The gypsy fortune teller told me that we’d been deceived
You only are what you believe
I believe the war is over
It’s over, it’s over
Also just wanted to say that our figure head Trump should take heed in these songs because with what we have now we all go down together in this world,peace means freedom and not the other way around.
The Anniversary of his Suicide, is this month. I remember him well, and remember how heart broken we all were, that he chose to kill himself, and even made sadder that he chose do it here in Rockaway Beach, where there were so many of us, who, had we known, would have done what we could to help him.
WHAT A VISIONARY! FIFTY YEARS AGO HIS WORDS STILL RESONATE AS WAR WITH IRAN LOOMS CLOSER. WE NEED A PHIL OCHS TO SPEAK UP AGAINST ALL THESE NEEDLESS WARS!
I saw this man perform and met him briefly afterwards. He was just the kind of man you would expect him to be, kind, generous with his time and friendly to the point of explaining his new album to me. I miss him.
One of the tragedies of my life is that I never saw Phil perform. My guitar teacher (I started playing in 1964, which I was 7) introduced me to Peter Paul & Mary, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, and of course Phil Ochs. He died when I was a freshman in college. It never occurred to me that I had to rush out to see him perform - of course he had already become erratic by that point. I did see Dylan, Paxton (multiple times), Seeger/Guthrie (multiple times). But I still feel his loss all these years later.
Even when faced with such Media Manipulators as George W.H. Bush & Dumbo Trump, one must remember that ballots--and not bullets--are the truly "American way."
Words of a true patriot:"So do your duty, boys, and join with prideServe your country in her suicideFind the flags so you can wave goodbyeBut just before the end even treason might be worth a tryThis country is to young to die"RIP Phil Ochs