Phil Ochs was a protest folk singer of the 1960s and early 1970s, in John Kiriakou’s description as popular as anyone of his era.[1][2] Kiriakou knows the story of his death at second hand, from Pete Seeger, and has told it repeatedly — not as music history but as an argument about suicide.
The story as Seeger told it
Ochs was on a concert tour of Africa when he was mugged and the mugger cut his throat. He survived, but could no longer sing high notes, and fell into a deep depression.[1][2]
Seeger was playing a folk club in Greenwich Village — the Cafe Wha?, in one telling — and the gig ran late. He lived in Beacon, New York, and had to run to Grand Central Station to catch the last train of the night. As he was packing up, one of the waitresses told him Ochs was on the telephone for him.[3][4][5] In the fullest tellings Seeger took the call himself: “Phil, I can’t talk. I’ve got to run and catch the last train to Beacon. Call me tomorrow” — and hung up.[6][7] In a shorter version the message is passed through the waitress rather than spoken.[8] Ochs killed himself that night. Kiriakou’s reading of the call is that Ochs “wanted to be talked out of it.”[6]
What stayed with Kiriakou was Seeger’s verdict, delivered to him years afterwards and unlike anything he had heard the man say: “That selfish prick. I’ll never forgive him. He had no idea how much he was hurting the people who meant the most to him.”[6][9][10] The wording varies between tellings — “selfish bastard” in some — but the anger does not.[7]
Why he tells it
Kiriakou has said he never understood that anger until a friend of his, James, took his own life — and that he remained furious with him five years later.[11][12] James had asked, in a note, that his mother call Kiriakou and tell him he was sorry; Kiriakou’s reaction was Seeger’s — “you selfish bastard, how could you do this? I told you a thousand times, call me.”[12][13]
He uses the pairing to make a direct appeal to listeners: that things get better, that people have no idea how loved they are or how badly they would hurt those closest to them, and that there are people willing to take the call.[14][13] After James’s death he posted the appeal on Facebook, and says three of his Facebook friends called him that night.[11]