Phil Ochs won his first guitar by betting on Kennedy in the 1960 election while attending Ohio State. In 1961, he wrote his first song, "The Ballad of the Cuban Invasion" (about the Bay Of Pigs) and joined a radical singing group called The Sundowners, or sometimes, The Singing Socialists.
In 1962, Ochs dropped out of school and relocated to New York City to start his folk-protest career. His first album, All The News That's Fit To Sing, was released by Elektra in early 1964 and contained all protest songs, such as "Talking Vietnam".
Later albums produced "The Ballad of the AMA", "Draft Dodger Rag" and "I Ain't Marching Anymore", among others. Ochs practiced what he preached and believed. He not only participated in marches and demostrations, he went to "hot spots" such as the deep South and Hazard, Kentucky, to openly get involved with the civil rights workers or striking miners, often putting himself in harm's way.
Tom Paxton sometimes played with Ochs at various benefits and concerts. Paxton, a former Army veteran, also relocated to New York City in the early '60s, where he joined the folk/protest crowd. He was signed to Elektra in 1964, and inspired by Dylan, produced Ramblin' Boy, his first album. In 1965, came the album, Ain't That News, one of his most political, which included "Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation" "Buy A Gun For Your Son", and the title song.
Joan Baez was the female Bob Dylan. Her empathy for civil rights and other social causes may stem from her childhood; she knew racial discrimination and prejudice first-hand. Her father was Mexican, her mother Scotch-Irish. Baez lived in a small town in New York, and with her coloring, she was considered "dark-skinned". And caught hell.
Her family later moved to Boston, where, during the late 1950s, she began performing traditional folk songs in various coffeehouses abround Harvard. In 1959, Baez debuted at the first Newport Folk Festival. And a star was born. She sold out Carnegie Hall two months in advance. By late 1962, she made the cover of TIME. Baez didn't compose many of her songs, but she or her manager, or both, selected wisely.
She was also an activist, involved and participating in many social causes, most notably the civil rights and the anti-war movements. She also rejected big money offers at times if she felt that the music would be compromised. She's played at Woodstock and Live-Aid, among countless others. Her first Top 40 hit was a no. 3 smash, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (1971).
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