Changes - chords, tab and comments


Some songs are so ethereal that they implant a real strong wish to live forever, and this one belongs to this exclusive collection. Strange to say, I didn't notice it until lately. A friend of mine, an author and photographer whose homepage I edit, used this song as a recurring quotation in an interview. Ochs? Didn't we play a few Ochs' songs back in the early seventies? I started digging, and spent the night on the internet ... mostly on YouTube. It all came back to me. In the early morning this song was detected, adopted and drilled, and my neighbours most probably driven to distraction.

Yes, we sure played Phil Ochs those days, and I found the "Draft Dodge Rag" in a very early version of the Khawaga Album. He was one of the many artists in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, in essentials performing talkin' blues and anti-war songs. But the times changed, and Phil Ochs changed, too. He was appreciated in many ways except monetary matters - he never had one single commercial success. As clouds grew darker, his songs became darker ... and fewer. As the seventies went by, he faded into oblivion. In 1976 he committed suicide, a disillusioned and haunted person. A tragedy, indeed.
D          E7            A           F#m
sit by my side  come as close as the air
Bm          E7        A7
share in a memory of gray
A#dim         Bm      E7             A
wander in my words  dream about the pictures
Amaj7   D  E7    A
that I play of changes
A major
A
A seventh
A7
A major seventh
Amaj7
A sharp diminuished
A#dim
D major
D
E seventh
E7
B minor
Bm
F sharp minor
F#m
Phil Ochs