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''Rehearsals for Retirement'' is
Phil Ochs Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter, protest song, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and Political Activist, political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic h ...
's sixth studio album, released in 1969 on
A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...
.


Background

Recorded in the aftermath of Ochs's presence at the
1968 Democratic National Convention The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus making ...
in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
(where Ochs claimed to have witnessed the symbolic "death of America") it is often considered to be the darkest of Ochs's albums, exemplified not just by the lyrical matter but also by its cover: a tombstone sardonically proclaiming that Ochs had died in Chicago. ''Rehearsals for Retirement'' saw Ochs exploring
folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...
, incorporating orchestral accompaniments and electric guitar into his music. According to English studies scholar David Pichaske, songs such as "Pretty Smart on My Part" and "The Scorpion Departs but Never Returns" functioned as "
art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...
-
protest songs A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for protest and social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre. ...
". The former was written from the perspective of a
John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, right-wing populist, and ...
member who is paranoid of switchblade-toting thieves, foreign operatives, dissident hitchhikers, and dominant, large-breasted women, and acts on this paranoia by killing them and others with a rifle and his friends from the
National Rifle Association of America The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
(NRA). Pichaske interpreted the narrative as a
psychological analysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
finding insecurity to be the source of violence in the United States. The latter song used the 1968 disappearance of the Scorpion nuclear submarine as an allegory for a modern "
Lost Generation The Lost Generation was the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort that reached early adulthood during World War I, and preceded the Greatest Generation. The social generation is generally defined as people born from 1883 to 1900, ...
" who abandon the U.S. in response to the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
.


Reception

''Rehearsals for Retirement'' was amongst the poorest-selling of all of Ochs's albums released during his lifetime, having been deleted from the A&M Records catalog before sales of 20,000 units had occurred. Reviewing for ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'' in 1969,
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...
said the musical arrangements are "excellent and work for chs'voice". While observing "some predictable bummers", Christgau highlighted two flashes of greatness with "The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns" and "Another Age". In 1998, ''
The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...
'' included ''Rehearsals for Retirement'' in their list of "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)", where the staff praised it "the single most eloquent collection of
protest song A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for protest and social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre. ...
s in the English language." They further described it as a
song cycle A song cycle () is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online'' The songs are either for solo voice or an ensemble, or rarely a combinat ...
where "the political gives way to the existential", with a combination of "angry disillusion and impassioned optimism" that is "entirely disarming." William Ruhlmann, in a retrospective review for
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, felt the album imbued Ochs' poetic sense with "the conflicts of the times", and noted how, with regard to Ochs' 1976 suicide, "it is impossible not to see the evidence of the songwriter's personal anguish in ''Rehearsals for Retirement''.


Track listing

All songs by Phil Ochs.


Side one

# "Pretty Smart on My Part" – 3:18 # "The Doll House" – 4:39 # "I Kill Therefore I Am" – 2:55 # "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed" - 2:55 # ntitled(commonly called "Where Were You in Chicago?") – 0:29 # " My Life" – 3:12


Side two

# "The Scorpion Departs but Never Returns" – 4:15 # "The World Began in Eden and Ended in Los Angeles" – 3:06 # "Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore?" – 6:11 # "Another Age" – 3:42 # "Rehearsals for Retirement" – 4:09


Personnel

*Phil Ochs – guitar, vocals *Larry Marks – producer *
Lincoln Mayorga Lincoln Mayorga (March 28, 1937 – July 3, 2023) was an American pianist, arranger, conductor and composer who worked in rock and roll, pop, jazz and classical music. Life and career Pop music in the 1950s and 1960s Mayorga was born in Los An ...
– piano, accordion * Bob Rafkin – guitar, bass * Kevin Kelley – drums (rumored) *
Ian Freebairn-Smith Ian Freebairn-Smith (born March 4, 1932) is an American composer, arranger, conductor and group singer in film and TV. He spans from classical to popular music, jazz, choral music, and new music. Early life and education Ian Freebairn-Smith was ...
– arrangements


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{Authority control 1969 albums Phil Ochs albums A&M Records albums Albums recorded at A&M Studios