UPDATED with VIDEO – Ochs gives the song more vulnerability

Changes by Phil Ochs (rare short clip)

Changes was the first love song we’d heard from protest folk singer Phil Ochs. Ochs was well known for his anti-war songs and broadside ballads. Changes is haunting. The words almost overpower the tune and over-all lyric. That they don’t is the artist’s trick.

The full Amchitka version plays on the next page.

Changes by Phil Ochs (Audio from Amchitka)

Sit by my side, come as close as the air,
Share in a memory of gray;
Wander in my words, dream about the pictures
That I play of changes.

Along with his protest songs, Phil Ochs had a gentle side. This performance of Changes at the concert for Amchitka is amazingly beautiful. He captures the song better than any previous version I remember.

At the start of each verse he takes a rest, almost a stop, and then starts into the guitar picking and singing. His singing is warm and vulnerable. The effect is very natural and haunting.

At the time Ochs was having serious performance problems with depression, which was later diagnosed as bi-polar disorder. His father had bi-polar disorder as well. Ochs was reported to be using drugs and alcohol to get up for performances but almost everyone and probably still is using a series of uppers and downers.

Gordon Lightfoot covered Changes and does an excellent job. This version has Red Shea picking the song perfectly on guitar and Terry Clements on bass. Lightfoot’s warm vibrato is just the right touch.

I always thought Lightfoot had the best version until the Amchitka concert CD. Ochs is more vulnerable and human, but that is a matter of taste. Here is Lightfoot.

The double CD Amchitka the 1970 Concert Launched Greenpeace costs about $25 including taxes and delivery. The Lightfoot version is found on the United Artists Collection. It was released on his first album Lightfoot which is out of print.

For more about Phil Ochs life and music see Wikepedia .