White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land Quiz

Answer: Bound for Glory

Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was one of America's most famous singer-songwriters, and inspired such artists as Phil Ochs, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Tom Paxton, amongst others. His autobiography, "Bound for Glory", was originally published in 1943, and recorded his experiences to that point using language that attempted to reproduce 'Okie-speak', as the desperate plight of many during the Dust Bowl years was a central theme of the book. The title has since been used for a biographical movie released in 1976, as well as for Phil Ochs's tribute song. As the last lines of the song suggest, many people can sing "This Land is Your Land", at least in part, but not many remember that he believed in the power of song to effect political change - his guitar carried a label saying 'This Machine Kills Fascists'.

"Oh why sing the songs and forget about the aim?
He wrote them for a reason, why not sing them for the same?"

All four of these songs come from Phil Ochs's first album, "All the News That's Fit to Sing" (1964). Actually, it should be called his first official album, as an album titled "Camp Favorites" (1962 or 1963) which he recorded uncredited has come to light. This album only involved him as a singer of traditional camp songs, and was not known about outside his family until early in the 21st century. It is not generally considered part of the canon (especially by those of us who were buying his albums when they were first released).

Answer: Medgar Evers

Alternatively known as "The Ballad of Medgar Evers", this 1963 song also refers to the death of Emmett Till, and laments all the deaths over many years associated with the struggle for equality in an ostensibly free and democratic society. As the chorus says,

"Too many martyrs and too many dead,
Too many lies, too many empty words were said,
Too many times for too many angry men,
Oh, let it never be again."

Bob Dylan's "Only a Pawn in Their Game" (1963) also deals with the shooting of Medgar Evers (1925-1963), the first NAACP field secretary in Mississippi, by Byron De La Beckwith. "Here's to the State of Mississippi", a Phil Ochs song originally released on the album "I Ain't Marching Anymore" (1965) offers harsh criticism of the social structures in that state which he saw as having perpetuated racism through the years.

Answer: Vietnam War

"I Ain't Marching Anymore" may well be the song for which Phil Ochs is most remembered. The song recounts some of the experiences of American soldiers in wars, starting with the Battle of New Orleans in 1812, when "the young land started growing, the young blood started flowing" and hitting 'highlights' through the years, commenting that "it's always the old who lead us to the war, always the young to fall". The final verse ends

"Call it peace or call it treason,
Call it love or call it reason,
But I ain't marching anymore,
No, I ain't marching anymore."

Answer: John F. Kennedy

While all four of these presidents were assassinated, it was the death of the man popularly perceived as a vibrant and inspirational leader on November 22, 1963 that stirred Ochs to write this tribute to JFK. Conveying the emotional atmosphere of the time, he wrote

"It's not only for the leader that the sorrow hits so hard,
There are greater things I'll never understand;
How a man so filled with life, even death was caught off guard,
That was the President and that was the man."

Answer: The Iron Lady

All four of these titles come from Ochs's second Album, "I Ain't Marching Anymore" (1965). "The Ballad of the Carpenter" is a Ewan MacColl song about Jesus as a man of the people; "Links on the Chain" is a criticism of labor unions for failing to support the civil rights movement; "Days of Decision" is a challenge to all to face the reality of the civil rights movement; "The Iron Lady" criticizes the death penalty. 'The iron lady' is a reference to the electric chair, a common form of execution. Ochs describes the death penalty as a form of legalized murder in the lines "Both the Bible and the courts agree, that the state's allowed to murder in the chair", and finishes by pointing out the social inequity of the fact that "a rich man never died upon the chair".

Answer: Bracero

"Bracero" (a Spanish word meaning farmhand or agricultural worker) is an indictment of the exploitation of illegal immigrants in the agricultural industry, describing the ways in which people desperate to earn a living wage to support themselves and their families were being harshly treated in the 1960s. The chorus sarcastically offers this greeting:

"Oh, welcome to California
Where the friendly farmers
Will take care of you."

Woody Guthrie's 1948 song "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" described the unfeeling treatment given by government officials to the illegal Mexican immigrants who were being deported when their plane crashed in Los Gatos Canyon.

Answer: Cops of the World

All four of these songs are from his third album, "Phil Ochs in Concert", which was actually a combination of live and studio recordings released in 1966. "Cops of the World" criticizes a perceived tendency of the American government to use military force to gain desired outcomes in international politics, ground also covered in "(The Marines Have Landed on the Shores of) Santo Domingo" on the same album. "Cannons of Christianity" attacks the failure of religious authorities to uphold the roots of Christianity and speak out against war. "Ringing of Revolution" offers a description of violent revolution by the desperate poor, surprising the unaware members of the middle class as well as the exploiting classes of society. "There But For Fortune", more familiar to many from Joan Baez's version, describes a prisoner, a homeless person, a drunk staggering out of a bar, and a country that has been bombed, with each verse ending with the statement that "there but for fortune may go you or I".

The title has been used for several biographical movies about Phil Ochs.

Answer: Feed the birds, tuppence a bag

The song "Feed the Birds" from "Mary Poppins", also describes an aging woman trying to make a living from street peddling, but the emphasis in the Phil Ochs song is on the self-absorption of everyone that makes this way of life necessary, and difficult, for her. He describes a range of people all caught up in their personal problems or disputes with each other, none of them aware of her desperate need for their support. Ultimately,

"the flower lady hobbles home without a sale.
Tattered shreds of petals leave a fading trail.
Not a pause to hold a rose, even she no longer knows.
The lamp goes out, the evening now is closed
And nobody's buying flowers from the flower lady."

Answer: Kitty Genovese

Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death on March 13, 1964. Initial newspaper reports described neighbors as being fully aware of what was going on, alerted by her calls for help, but doing nothing. While the accuracy of this has been questioned, it did spark research into what has become known as the bystander effect or Genovese syndrome - reasons why people might be aware of an emergency and fail to respond to the situation.

Phil Ochs describes five different situations in which bystanders notice a horrible situation (including a woman being stabbed, a major automobile accident with cars hanging over the edge of a cliff and ghetto living conditions), but decide they have more important things to do (such as finishing a game of Monopoly), and comment that "I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody, Outside of a small circle of friends". The lack of emotional empathy is underlined by the instrumentation - banjo and honky-tonk piano provide a bizarrely upbeat feel to a song about tragic situations.

Answer: American interference in another country's civil war

All of these aspects of the Vietnam War are mentioned in "White Boots Marching in a Yellow Land", but the overriding theme that ties them all together is the argument that Americans are fighting in a civil war that is none of their business, aside from imperialist imperatives. As the final lines remind listeners,

"We're fighting in a war we lost before the war began
We're the white boots marching in a yellow land."

This song was originally released on the 1968 Phil Ochs album "Tape From California", recorded as he was moving from New York to California.