Phil Ochs was a folksinger, a protest singer, and as he liked to call himself, a "topical singer."
When he thought his messages weren't getting through, he changed directions, and re-invented himself for his eighth album in 1970 as part Elvis Presley and part Che Guevara, and brazenly called it "Phil Ochs Greatest Hits," even though none of the songs had ever been on other records.
Phil even went so far as to have the master tailor Nudie Cohn design him the gold lame suit you see on the cover.
He abandoned folk music on this record, and played electric guitar on Country and Rock and Roll songs instead.
Personally, I like this record, but it was not a popular move, made his career even worse, and was the last record he ever recorded.
Unfortunately, the only way that Phil Ochs would be able to play the chords of fame, was to write a song about it.
Fed up with everything, Phil Ochs committed suicide in 1976 by hanging himself, gone forever at the age of 35.
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