Phil Ochs’ “The Power and the Glory” is a remarkable expression of American idealism. Building on earlier folk classics such as Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” Phil’s lyrics palnt a picture of a nation that is beautiful, strong, and free, one that remains so because of the compassion, fairness, and vigilance of the American people. As Phil would later find, none of those terms are actually very accurate descriptors of Americans or America as a whole. This version of the song—which first appeared on Phil’s 1964 Elektra album All the News that’s Fit to Sing—is a 1963 demo that ultimately appeared on the posthumous On My Way. Apparently left off the album for being too controversial, it eloquently highlights the fragility of the ideal America that Phil envisions. For those who are curious, here’s the extra verse:
But our land is still troubled by men who have to hate
They twist away our freedom & they twist away our fate
Fear is their weapon and treason is their cry
We can stop them if we try.
I realize the song was written more than fifty years ago, but it still seems oddly—almost painfully—timely. I’m afraid that sense of timeliness is reflected in the slideshow, in that a few of the slides are quite recent (I apologize if anyone is offended by the way I jumped around in history).