Negative Positive
Title: The best representation of Phil Ochs
Review: It has to be said; Phil Ochs' aspirations exceeded his talents. He was good, but Bob Dylan he wasn't. For that matter, Tim Buckley and Arthur Lee wrote circles around Ochs whenever he'd try to wax poetic. But he still left several songs that stand with the best of the Sixties and this live album catches him at his solo best. His greatest song, "Crucifixion," is given here in a chilling rendition that reeks of sorrow and rage; this was, after all, the year that Robert Kennedy joined his older brother as an assassin's victim. And so many others on here--"There But For Fortune," "The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns" and the masterly "Pleasures Of The Harbor"--roll off Och's tongue with an ease and grace seldom displayed in his studio work. He was a troubled man with more than a few pretentions, but this album does prove that he was also a very powerful artist on several occasions.
Is the review positive or negative? 