Tom Paxton on Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs and I met when he was playing The Third Step around the corner from The Gaslight. He was flat-picking his guitar with a loud strum and singing his most recent broadside. The buzz about him had already begun and the small bunch of us who went to check him out that night became instant supporters. I’ve forgotten what songs he sang that night but I haven’t forgotten the intensity of his delivery. From Day One he was Phil Ochs