PositiveNew City LitThe late folksinger-songwriter-activist Phil Ochs will always have the misfortune of being bracketed with Bob Dylan, his fellow Greenwich Village troubadour who managed to escape the folkie ghetto and achieve the popular acclaim and critical adulation that would always elude Ochs. Reading I’m Gonna Say It Now, the collected writings of Ochs, one is struck by how different the two musicians were as artists and human beings, and how taken together they define so many of the tensions and directions of sixties music and culture. Ochs’ generous, unstinting and not always reciprocated admiration for Dylan is one of the thematic threads tying together this potpourri of articles, essays, reviews, liner notes, poetry and satire, edited by David Cohen ... What makes the book such an interesting read is the way the juvenilia here [...] and a panoply of features, straight reporting and burlesque written for OSU publications—hits many notes that echo across the artist’s more mature work ... I’m Gonna Say It Now tracks the youthful triumphs and slow downward curve of Ochs’ tragically truncated life and career. It contains many gems and interesting curiosities ... By and large, his songs are touched with a humanity, depth of feeling and keen wit that remain fresh and provocative, and one can say the same of the lion’s share of writings gathered here.
