paroles de chanson For Phil Ochs - David Harley

Groping through the wavebands for a time-check
On a local music station I caught the tail end of the news
Of a singer in New York who'd committed suicide
Too late to catch the name, still I knew that it was you

The way that bad news comes as no surprise
Though till you hear it, you can't think what could be wrong
In fact I thought of you just the week before
For the first time in years
When someone asked me for a song I'd learned from you

I don't know how to define what you mean to me now
I never met you, of course, and I don't sing your songs
Though I did long ago and even now, in a way
There are things I learned from you in songs of my own

I first heard your songs second-hand - the sweeter ones, of course
And bought an album on spec that raised blisters on my soul
In an era where 'protest' meant 'hey man, it's all wrong'
You were raising real issues and aiming at real goals

And I heard that you'd dried up, or did you just let it pass
Did you find songs weren't the weapon we were told that they could be
No doubt someone has some answers but I'll never really know
If you just decided snapshots don't alter history

I've been thinking for hours there should be better songs to write
But thinking just makes circles in my head
There's just a vague ache where my conscience ought to be
And a sour conviction that something true is dead

Only time will tell if I'm repeating your mistakes
Perhaps you'd have survived turning redneck like your peers
The romantics seem to be the real cynics after all
Could it be the escapists really have the right idea
And did you just decide living was a bind
Slops for the body and musak for the mind