Phil Ochs Interview
KPFT,
Houston, May, 1971, Studs Terkel
In this broadcast, Studs Terkel interviews Phil Ochs.
Ochs (pronounced "oaks") was a popular folk singer
whose songs often expounded opinions well to the left.
A while back, a friend reminded me
of the first time I heard Ochs. We were visiting the KFMK
studio atop the Medical Towers Building. This was in its earliest
days as an album rock station.
The DJ was playing the Phil Ochs song,
"Outside of a Small Circle of Friends." He suddenly
turned up the monitor when it got to the part about "smoking
marijuana is more fun than drinking beer." I was amazed
that something like that was in a song going out over the
air.
Of course, the song is not a promotion
of drugs. It is a criticism of the apathy that drugs tend
to induce.
The song was from Pleasures
of the Harbor, one of Ochs' least political albums. The
year was 1967, and art rock was all the rage. It seemed that
every well known musician had to have an equivalent to Sergeant
Pepper, and "Pleasures" was Ochs' response.
I continued to follow Ochs development
up to the time of this Terkel broadcast. His most recent album
was his Greatest
Hits, a record with no actual hits.
The cover shows Ochs dressed to mimic
Elvis Presley on stage. The music draws its style from country
and early rock and roll. There is more emphasis on nostalgia
than on "progressive" politics.
Many of Ochs' New
Left comrades were less than than thrilled with his apparent
homage to middle America. Ochs explains his rationale in this
broadcast.
In the five years after this interview,
Ochs went into a personal and artistic decline. Phil Ochs
took his own life in 1976.
The
Phil Ochs lyrics page
CONTEMPT!
KPFT,
Houston, May, 1971, Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel interviews Harry
Kalven, Jr, regarding his book Contempt.
The book focuses on the contempt citations in the Chicago
Seven Trials.
The defendants were accused creating
a riot during the 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago.
If you weren't around back then, bear in mind that one Hoffman
is the judge and another Hoffman is one of the defendants.
Studs
Terkel hosted one of the longest running talk programs
in history, and KPFT carried it daily during this period.
The theme music on Stud's Place is "Bells" by The
Pentangle. You only hear it at the end of the two Terkel
broadcasts because I started each recording after the program
had already begun.
Almost incongruously, Terkel was followed
by a reading of The Lord of the Ring by J.
R. R. Tolkien. Although Tolkien's fiction was then in
vogue with hippies and the New Left, many of his political
ideas would not meet modern standards for political correctness.
Ray Hill: 160 Years? It could have
been life!
KPFT,
Houston, 1980 or 1981, Ray Hill
Ray Hill hosts the "Manager's
Report" program. He manages to keep boring accounting
data at a minimum and Wagner at a maximum.
I have slightly edited the recording.
You hear some words bleeped where a caller gives out the purported
real name of a controversial guest.
Based on the mention of the Reagan
election victory, this material had to have been recorded
in late 1980 or early 1981.
I was without a stereo tuner for a
while, so this was recorded off of the FM band of a short-wave
receiver. I found this item preserved in quarter track mono.
It appears to be the last aircheck I ever tape recorded and kept.
Following Ray Hill, there is music,
including a Reggae Against Racism and a rant against
the British National Front. I'm sure the DJ chose some of
the music in response to the guests on Ray Hill's show.
By the way, Ray Hill went on to very
lively career, and he continues to boost the programming at
Pacifica. A 2008 posting on the KPFT web site states:
Ray Hill, the Host of the Prison
Show, was sentenced to 160 years in Texas prison. While
in prison he became a jailhouse lawyer and reformed his
sentence to just eight years.
Mr. Hill won four Federal suits
against the City of Houston, including a landmark First
Amendment U.S. Supreme Court Case: Houston v. Hill 107 S.
Ct 2502.
In 2005, he was awarded the Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Texas ACLU.
Perhaps Hill achieved his greatest
visibility on KPFT back in the late 70's. As I recall, the
program was on Friday afternoons, and it was hailed as "all
day, all gay."
Even at that early date, special pleading
had changed the connotation of the word "gay."
"They Bombed in Houston"
KAUM,
Houston, January 17, 1971
This is not a KPFT recording, but it
is related to the history of the station.
The above link is also listed among
the KAUM material. It is repeated here because the program
deals heavily with the two Pacifica bombings.
Houston Retro Radio is hosted as part
of VASTHEAD.COM.
You can also access these pages by
going to http://houstonretro.com. |
