Gunfight at Carnegie Hall

About Gunfight at Carnegie Hall

Gunfight At Carnegie Hall is the final album by Phil Ochs released during his lifetime, comprising songs recorded at the infamous, gold-suited, bomb-threat shortened first show at Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 27, 1970, though it contains less than half of the actual concert. The shows recorded that day served to surprise Ochs' fans, from his gold lamé Nudie suit, modeled after Elvis Presley's, to his covers of Presley, Conway Twitty, Buddy Holly and Merle Haggard songs, to his own re-arranged songs. Some fans loved it, but some attendees at the show were unhappy with the music he was playing, wanting only to hear "old" Ochs. Before he had a chance to convince them, the concert was cut short by a telephoned bomb threat. Some angry fans who had paid for a full concert confronted Phil at dinner between shows. He took their names, promising to get them into the second show for free, but the box office was locked and Ochs smashed the glass, severely cutting his thumb. He appeared onstage at the second show with a bandaged hand, telling the audience the story. Breaking into the lockbox was the last straw. While they let Ochs perform the second show, he was banned immediately afterwards from performing again at the venue. On the Gunfight album, before performing a medley of Buddy Holly songs, Ochs describes Holly's influence on the songs for which he would become famous, such as "I Ain't Marching Anymore". Ochs says that Holly's songs were "just as much Phil Ochs as anything else". When some of the audience shout and boo, Ochs admonishes them to "not be like Spiro Agnew", saying that their prejudice against certain forms of music was bigotry: "You can be a bigot from all sides. You can be a bigot against blacks; you can be a bigot against music". Many in the audience cheer at this sentiment. more »