Rehearsals for Retirement

__NOTOC__Infobox Album |
Name = Rehearsals For Retirement
Type = Album
Artist = Phil Ochs


Released = 1969
Recorded = 1968 - 1969
Genre = Folk
Length = 38:54
Label = A&M
Producer = Larry Marks
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ngex97w7krdt link]
Last album = "Tape From California"
(1968)
This album = "Rehearsals For Retirement"
(1969)
Next album = "Greatest Hits"
(1970)

"Rehearsals For Retirement" was Phil Ochs' sixth album, released in 1969 on A&M Records. Recorded in the aftermath of Ochs' presence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago (where his exploits included selecting and purchasing a pig for Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies to nominate for President), it is the darkest of Ochs' albums, a fact exemplified by its cover, a tombstone proclaiming that Ochs had died in Chicago.

"Pretty Smart On My Part", the album opener, is a song in the persona of a right-wing reactionary, who plans to, among other things, "assassinate the President and take over the government" (the song was noted on Ochs' lengthy FBI file). "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed" is Ochs' telling of the events that unfolded in Chicago, followed by an upbeat jaunt berating those who weren't there. "The World Began in Eden and Ended in Los Angeles" seems to portray Ochs' then-home as a hellhole, as all metropoleis eventually end up. "Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore" is the tale of a woman seeking out her ex-lover, and finding Ochs instead, telling a tale of loneliness that permeates American life.

Perhaps the most despairing track on the album is "My Life," in which Ochs states bluntly, "my life is like a death to me," which presages Ochs' suicide seven years later. He also asks the FBI to "take your tap from my phone and leave my life alone."

Track listing

All songs by Phil Ochs.

ide One

# "Pretty Smart on My Part" – 3:18
# "The Doll House" – 4:39
# "I Kill Therefore I Am" – 2:55
# "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed / Where Were You in Chicago?" – 3:29
# "My Life" – 3:12

ide Two

# "The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns" – 4:15
# "The World Began in Eden and Ended in Los Angeles" – 3:06
# "Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore?" – 6:11
# "Another Age" – 3:42
# "Rehearsals For Retirement" – 4:09

Participants

*Phil Ochs - guitar, vocals
*Larry Marks - producer
*Lincoln Mayorga - piano, accordion
*Bob Rafkin - guitar, bass
*Kevin Kelley - drums (rumored)
*Ian Freebairn-Smith - arrangements