I’m not sure why, but for the past week or so “There But for Fortune” has been rattling around my head. The song was written by Phil Ochs in 1963, but is probably best known for Joan Baez’s cover from a year later.
Perhaps
it’s because we live in such unstable times—60 years ago people in the first world
might have thought that at least their trajectory was secure, even with wars in
former colonies across two continents. But now I think we all know at some
level that nothing is vouchsafed to us: not clean drinking water, not
education, not uncontaminated food, not protection from hostile attacks, not
shelter. Those of us who are honest must also admit that much of the insecurity
is self-inflicted.
So
Ochs connecting the listener to the prisoner, the unhoused, the addict, the
invaded nation seems perhaps even more on point now than it was in the 60s.
Here’s Baez singing it back in the day.
©2024 Bas Bleu
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