Unlike his rival Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs continued writing and performing political music and protest songs after they passed out of style. “I Ain’t Marching Any More” in 1965 was definitely the music of the moment, and it represented the zenith of Ochs’s career. This eloquent song is sung from the point of view of all the soldiers who have served in wars throughout history, conflicts that were planned by powerful people behind the scenes who didn’t have to fight themselves. Ochs calls attention to the generational issue of war in the song too: “It’s always the old who lead us to the wars, always the young who fall.” Although Ochs never abandoned his political purposes, as other protest singers did, he did try his hand at love songs and other forms of social commentary with some very strong results, such as “Changes,” “Outside a Small Circle of Friends,” and “Pleasure Of The Harbor.” His later music was sometimes overproduced, and his state of depression was obvious to anyone who knew him. Ochs committed suicide in 1976, perhaps because he could never be the pop artist that he both did, and did not, want to be.

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Phil Ochs’s career on A&M Records with gallery, international discography