This April 9th, it will be 35 years since we lost Phil Ochs, the best political folk singer of the sixties (much better than Dylan; Dylan not in his league).

In Montpelier this month, the Green Mountain Film Festival is featuring the film about Ochs: There But For Fortune.

To honor Phil, I am posting here one of my favorites by him: “Love Me, I’m A Liberal.”  This seems to be the appropriate blog for it.

(Hey Michael: Notice he didn’t entitle it, “Love Me, I’m A Liberal Fuck.”)

So, Here it is.  Food for (critical) thought:

      Love Me, I’m A Liberal

            Phil Ochs–1966

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers

Tears ran down my spine

I cried when the shot Mr. Kennedy

As though I’d lost a father of mine

But Malcolm X got what was coming

He got what he asked for this time

So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies

And I put down the old D.A.R.

I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy

I hope every colored boy becomes a star

But don’t talk about revolution

That’s going a little bit too far

So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen

My faith in the system restored

And I’m glad the commies were thrown out

Of The AFL-CIO board

And I love Puerto Ricans and Negroes

As long as they don’t move next door

So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

The people of old Mississippi

Should all hang there heads in shame

I can’t understand how their minds work

What’s the matter don’t they watch Les Crane?

But if you ask me to bus my children

I hope the cops take down your name

So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I read New Republic and Nation

I’ve learned to take every view

You know, I’ve memorized Lerner and Golden

I feel like I’m almost a Jew

But when it comes to times like Korea

There’s no one more red white and blue

So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

I vote for the Democratic Party

They want the U.N. to be strong

I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts

He sure gets me singing those songs

And I’ll send all the money you ask for

But don’t ask me to come on along

So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal

Yes once I was young and impulsive

I wore every conceivable pin

Even went to those socialist meetings

Learned all the old union hymns

But now I’ve grown older and wiser

And that’s why I’m turning you in

So love me, love me, love me, I’m a lib-er-al

(Thank you for that, Phil.  What do you think of Obama and what’s going on with the Left now?  “A Small Circle Of Friends?”  Right.  RIP.)

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.