Come and take a walk with me through this green and growing land
 Walk through the meadows and the mountains and the sand
 Walk through the valleys and the rivers and the plains
 Walk through the sun and walk through the rain

   This is a land full of power and glory
   Beauty that words cannot recall
   Oh her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom
   Her glory shall rest on us all

 From Colorado, Kansas, and the Carolinas too
 Virginia and Alaska, from the old to the new
 Texas and Ohio and the California shore
 Tell me, who could ask for more

 Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of her poor
 Only as free as the padlocked prison door
 Only as strong as our love for this land
 Only as tall as we stand

Chiming in on the American patriotism theme:

Ever since I first discovered Phil Ochs, I have been mystified at his relative obscurity and lack of popularity. Personally, at his best he’s every bit as good as his contemporary Bob Dylan (and a lot more pleasant to listen to!), and seems to inspire an intensity of appreciation in his fans - myself included - that many more popular singers would be hard-pressed to match.

Today’s song, while not really among his best lyrically, is nonetheless nicely representative of his style. Ochs’s songs were informed by his journalism background; indeed, he described himself as a “singing journalist”, a description that Dylan echoed rather more disparagingly with his “You’re not a folksinger, you’re a journalist”. Either way, the assessment was accurate, and even his less topical songs, like today’s, have a refreshing clarity and directness to them.

This is, predictably enough, a much better song in performance - it still suffers a bit from inconsistency of quality, but the first and last verses are both catchy and memorable, and lyrics that seem flat and trite on the printed page acquire a vibrant energy with music added. While it might not have been the song I’d have selected if asked for a Phil Ochs piece at random, it’s usually the first song I think of on the current theme, and definitely worth a listen.

— Martin

Links

Wikipedia on Ochs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Ochs

Some retrospectives:
http://www.furious.com/perfect/philochs.html
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/nov97carter.htm

Collections of Ochs links:

http://philochs.pitas.com/

http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/