Revisiting A&M Records No. 39
Phil Ochs: ‘Tape from California’ (July ’68)
When last we encountered the increasingly troubled, ultimately tragic antihero of the ‘60s folk scene, he had shed some (but never all) political skin in a bold leap away from his headlines-driven Elektra past and headlong into an expansive A&M era in which his allegorical approach might reach new sonic heights to match his imaginative wordplay.