Phil Ochs - Confession

Bm A
There's nothing as cold as the freeze in your soul
G A Bm
at the moment when you are arrested.
Bm A
There's nothing as real as the iron and steel
G A Bm
on the handcuffs when you protested.
D F#
You race through the night in the prison of fright
Bm A
as you head for the quicksand of questions.
Bm A
And children unborn will see you in scorn
G A Bm
if ever you make a confession.

And the click of a lock is a shiver of shock
as you wonder what are their objectives.
Upon your guard for the voices are hard
that belong to the cops and detectives.
And it's hard to believe as they roll up their sleeves
that you're in for more than a session.
And it couldn't be true and it's not really you
that they want to make a confession.

You cannot conceal the confussion you feel
as they steadily work to out-guess you.
And some will pretend they are really your friend
who rally around to your rescue.
With frightening force your mind is divorced
to give them the guilty impression.
Every word that you hear is a weapon of fear
to win the war of confessions.

The lights shoot a glare like bullets they stare
and burn out the base of conviction.
And you squint and you blink and you try not to think
of the cobwebs of contridictions.
And your clothes will be wet with the rivers of sweat
that tells the tale of attention.
And once in awhile the clock has to smile
as it counts the time of confession.

The questions will rain and pour on your brain
with the proper speed they are driven.
The circles they pace and the sneer on their face
tells you no quarter is given.
You can salvage your mind when the paper is signed
then the crime is solved by oppression.
But win, lose, or draw, it's the rule of the law
to always work for confession.

And the balance of scales seems distant and pale
in the shadowy days of the trial.
And sometimes they die; with their name on a lie
when it's all too late for denial.
When agreement is full the switch must be pulled
and the chair leaves no hope for correction.
But the chances are large he was guilty as charged
After all, he made a confession.

[Punkin]

Phil Ochs puts things into words that so many have felt and thought but haven't been able to voice. His poetry and his skill with the guitar combined with his voice just eat away at my heart. Before I die I hope I write some music that is relevant 50 years later like Phil.

[tannerscar]

If you have more please post them. I love Phil Ochs.

[kirkhamilton]

Where did that one come from? Guess if I keep scouring Youtube, I'll keep finding new Phil Ochs songs.

[tamara]

Poignant, painful, and absolutely true. Thank you so much for this. Wouldn't have found it otherwise.

[sternstaubigeKathi]

thank you for this song
from Berlin with love

[nbenefiel]

That moment when you find that the thing you were doing that you thought was going to save the world was getting you in real trouble. Police, lawyers, judges kind of trouble. and lost's more money than you ever dreamed of having

[triplucid]

Righteous song. Wish Phil hadn't Hanna's vocal cords destroyed by an attacking in Africa leading to his eventual suicide. A great & mighty righteous voice was silenced that day( A damn fine, unequaled songwriter too.)

[SidYiddish]

if I recall correctly, Krutponken, it's from the Phil Ochs box set release, Farewells & Fantasies: The Phil Ochs Collection. You're doing a great job of uploading these songs and have won a subscriber for certain! Keep up the great work!

[izitsosongs]

Lennon's song "Working class hero" is very rhythmically similar to this beautiful song. Obviously Lennon's is later.
Also Lennon's song "The luck of the Irish" is rhythmically very similar to "Cops of the world" and this last Phil Ochs wrote it in 1966, Lennon his is from 1972. Lennon tended to "base himself" on other music ... Without going any further "Happy Xmas, War is over ..." It is a clear example of "resemblance" to a traditional Irish song that even Joan Baez sang ("Stewball") and on her LP she said that it was a song traditional Irish, as did Peter Paul and Mary, Lennon says that it was made by him and Yoko ... Obviously that "Happy Xmas, "War is over is his ... (The title nothing else) ... listen to it and you will realize ...

[leland-bobpalmer]

This should be the theme to that new -ish Netflix series about false confessions

[Krutponken]

@tml4873 As far as I know it's a demo recording, so it wasn't featured on any of his albums. I found it on the web.

[tml]

Never heard this one before, it's good. What is it from?

[kieranosullivan]

There are definitely Irish influences in this, it reminds me of the some of the songs Christy Moor sings about the Birmingham Six and Guilford Four. It may be just that I am hearing the similarity because the story is the same. God that is depressing I hope that I get to see a world where at least one Phil Ochs song is no longer relevant. Well you can be drafted if you are gay now so he would have to re-work the Draft Dodger Rag PROGRESS (He says with all the sarcasm he can muster) and Mississippi has improved but so much of his work is still relevant.

[JimGlover]

A new one for me too. Phil sings great. Sounds like an Irish tune to me. The lyrics may have been "The Confession" was written by Andrew Briggs Copeland;richard Jeffrey Beres;kenneth Alan Block;mark Trojanowski;ryan Carter Newell."

Read more: Phil Ochs - The Confession Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

[curtbarnes]

and doubts about Ochs' skills for rhyming should be wiped out.