Phil Ochs — Searching for the Fool

He was one of the musical icons of my childhood. Back then, as now, he was known primarily for “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore,” “Draft Dodger Rag,” and other overtly political protest songs of the 1960’s. But as the decade drew to a close, Phil Ochs sought a new direction. To that end, he tried writing more personal material in a style inspired by the early days of rock and roll.

Among his late work is this curiosity, which tells the story of a lavish party disrupted by one of the guests. “While we were dancing,” the narrator relates, for no apparent reason, someone ruined the occasion by tossing a gourmet food basket into a swimming pool. It was “the worst of manners” and “the worst of taste.” So “who was the fool”?

The song leaves the question unanswered. But it refers to a real incident at an actual party. And the unspoken punchline is that “the fool” was

 

Phil Ochs himself.

In September, 1969, Phil’s brother Michael, who worked for the publicity department of Columbia Records, organized a gala in honor of the British rock star Donovan, who was then touring the United States. It was held at the Hollywood Hills home of comedian Tommy Smothers. The guests included Eric Burden, Steven Still and Graham Nash, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones of the Monkees, and Johnny Rivers among dozens of others. An oversized table was piled high with seafood. Peter Fonda and Joni Mitchell shared a joint. Moma Cass Elliot fooled around with a guy in the tool shed. A raffle was held for an enormous wicker basket of cheese, fruit, and wine, and when ticket No. 401 was announced, the winner turned out to be Phil Ochs. He accepted the prize, then climbed to the end of a diving board, denounced the crowd for partying while soldiers were dying, and tossed it into the water below.

Six months later, while performing at Carnegie Hall, Ochs told his audience, “We all got very drunk…. I gave a long speech about Vietnam, about morality, about the irrelevance of Donovan’s new songs… I threw the basket in … this olympic size swimming pool…. I was as shocked as anyone else. I didn’t know what I was doing…. So I questioned myself afterward and wrote a song just to justify the occasion.”

How does the matter appear from a distance of over forty years? In a 2012 memoir, the screenwriter John Kaye wrote, “Phil Ochs exposed what had always been obvious to me: the hypocrisy of a bunch of swaggering, unquenchably ambitious, long-haired celebrities wearing ultra-freak clothes, guzzling champagne and chowing on lobster and filet mignon while they decried the daily obscenity of the war.” Donovan also recalled the incident in his autobiography (although he was under the erroneous impression that the party had been held at the home of Robert Redford, rather than Tommy Smothers). He noted that Ochs’ condemnation of “the senselessness of Hollywood” was “of course, right” — but that he (Donovan) plunged into the pool anyway and swam amid the floating fruit.

As for the music that had aroused Ochs’ ire at the party, it included this song, which was broadcast over a huge sound system at full volume.

No wonder Ochs was annoyed. It’s a goofy mystical tribute to the medicinal value of a plant used for, among other things, treating hemorrhoids!

Ochs can be seen as playing an admirable role, exposing the decadence of a pampered elite. But the truth is more complex. Although it had no ill-effects, he was potentially jeopardizing his brother’s career by disrupting the event. He was also rudely disrespecting his host, Tommy Smothers. And far from being a superficial celebrity, Smothers had seen his top-rated television show cancelled that year due to his opposition to the Vietnam War and insistence on confronting social issues in prime time.

Take another step back and the irony intensifies. “Basket in the Pool” stems from a phase in Ochs’ career when he tried to connect with American culture by performing rock and country music in a flashy gold suit modeled after one worn by Elvis Presley. Many of Ochs’ fans were repulsed and, at least commercially speaking, the move was a failure.

Who then is authentic and who is the phony? Who is principled and who is self-indulgent? Who is wise and who is truly the fool?  Perhaps there are no simple answers. Both sides are reflected in many figures of the past — and in you and me as well.
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Incidentally, if you google the lyrics to “Basket in the Pool,” you will find the following bizarre line on numerous websites: “I’ve been on the ocean swimming know poroise led the way.” There is no such word as “poroise.” This shows that online transcriptions of lyrics are often suspect — and that these sites pass on misinformation unthinkingly.  I believe that the line in question should read: “I’ve been on the ocean swimming. No porpoise led the way.” It’s presumably a reference to tales of porpoises rescuing drowning men by leading them to shore.  For Ochs, who committed suicide in 1976 at the age of 35, there was in the end no rescue.