Post by Mitchell Shannon

Fridays With Phil Every Friday at 4:00 p.m. ET through the end of the year, we continue to count down the 36 best songs of singer-songwriter Phil Ochs, commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death. The songs appear in ascending order, just in time for weekend humming and toe-tapping. [24]. "I've Had Her" (1967.) Pleasures of the Harbor (A&M Records) The song lands very differently today than when it was released in 1967. The mid-century sexual revolution had repackaged taboos as liberation, and Hugh Hefner's Playboy empire had commercialized a damaging philosophy: the sophisticated male churns through relationships, and moves on. The narrator is exactly that man, a player, who dismissively sums up: I've had her. She's nothing. Ochs doesn't let this toxic fella off easily. The player is not triumphant; he is tragic. He is the voice of dismissive cynicism. Biographers note that Ochs never seemed able to sustain a loving relationship. The man who marched for human dignity seems not to have extended it behind closed doors, and "I've Had Her" could be his most unsettling narrative. Which makes it a shame that the rich, Sgt. Pepper-chasing orchestration—all swooning strings and nonsense psychedelic filigree—wraps the song in a lushness that contradicts its point. The music seduces while the lyrics indict. Ochs wanted this album to sound like the Summer of Love, and it did. But this was one tune that really would have been better communicated with one voice and a solo guitar. Selections #25 through #36 are archived at http://tiny.cc/Phil https://lnkd.in/eCSxMCiQ