39adamstrand:Folksinger Phil Ochs, like his father, struggled with depression and alcohol abuse for
39adamstrand:Folksinger Phil Ochs, like his father, struggled with depression and alcohol abuse for years, but by the mid-1970s it had started to take its toll. Friends were concerned about Ochs’ persistent talk that he was being watched by the CIA and FBI, that they wanted him dead. He began carrying a lead pipe or scissors to protect himself, and then insisted that he was John Butler Train and Phil Ochs didn’t exist.His family tried to get him psychiatric help. Ochs lived on the streets of New York City for awhile before moving in with his sister in Far Rockaway. He did little more than watch TV until his sister convinced him to see a doctor. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed medicine, which he didn’t take. On 9 April 1976, 35-year-old Ochs hanged himself.Years after his death, it was revealed that the FBI had been monitoring him, and had a 500-page file on Ochs, who they considered “potentially dangerous.”On 29 April 1976, New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug entered a statement into the Congressional Record:“[A] few weeks ago, a young folksinger whose music personified the protest mood of the 1960s took his own life. Phil Ochs… apparently felt that he had run out of words.“While his tragic action was undoubtedly motivated by terrible personal despair, his death is a political as well as an artistic tragedy. I believe it is indicative of the despair many of the activists of the 1960s are experiencing as they perceive a government which continues the distortion of national priorities that is exemplified in the military budget we have before us."Phil Ochs’ poetic pronouncements were part of a larger effort to galvanize his generation into taking action to prevent war, racism, and poverty. He left us a legacy of important songs that continue to be relevant…” -- source link
#phil ochs#famous suicides#bella abzug