"No More Songs" is a song by American folk singer-songwriter Phil Ochs.
He wrote it to encapsulate his own feelings about the broken dreams of the
Sixties Movement. Released as the final song on his 1970 Greatest Hits LP,
it was somewhat prophetic, as Ochs would only release five more studio
tracks in his lifetime after 1970, never completing another studio album.
The song was retrospectively seen by many as a form of “suicide note”,
as Ochs indeed took his own life six years later at the age of 35
amidst battling bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and depression.
Greatest Hits is Phil Ochs' seventh and final studio album released in
his lifetime, issued in February 1970 by A&M Records. Contrary to its title,
it offered ten new tracks of material, mostly produced by Van Dyke Parks.
Focusing more on country music than any other album in Ochs' canon, the
album included members of The Byrds and Elvis Presley's backing group,
alongside mainstays Lincoln Mayorga and Bob Rafkin. The cover of the
LP is an homage to Elvis Presley's 1959 album 50,000,000 Elvis Fans
Can't Be Wrong. The back cover of Greatest Hits featured the phrase
"50 Phil Ochs Fans Can't Be Wrong".
Philip David Ochs (December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American
songwriter, protest singer (or, as he preferred, "topical singer"), and
political activist. Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor,
and political commentary. He wrote approximately 200 songs
throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and released eight albums.
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