Phil Ochs’ Secret Anonymous Racist Kid Record
Folk singer Phil Ochs’ first album was 1964′s All the News that’s Fit to Sing. Only it wasn’t.
Sometime in the next few months we’re going to sail unknowing past the 50th anniversary of the recording of Ochs’ real first album, a record he appeared on anonymously and kept secret until his death. Released in 1963 — nobody knows when in 1963 — under the name of a non-existent band called The Campers, “Camp Favorites” was a cheap quickie album of kids’ camp songs that Ochs recorded for hire with a (still anonymous) female singer, a banjo player, and a small kids’ chorus.
Ochs biographer David Cohen first stumbled across the existence of the album in 1998, and wasn’t able to actually confirm its existence until two years later. If you’re an Ochs fan it’s a great story, told in full here. And
Sometime in the next few months we’re going to sail unknowing past the 50th anniversary of the recording of Ochs’ real first album, a record he appeared on anonymously and kept secret until his death. Released in 1963 — nobody knows when in 1963 — under the name of a non-existent band called The Campers, “Camp Favorites” was a cheap quickie album of kids’ camp songs that Ochs recorded for hire with a (still anonymous) female singer, a banjo player, and a small kids’ chorus.
Ochs biographer David Cohen first stumbled across the existence of the album in 1998, and wasn’t able to actually confirm its existence until two years later. If you’re an Ochs fan it’s a great story, told in full here. And
