If Bob Dylan is the king of protest—and some might say he's already abdicated—Phil Ochs … is the president.

Still in his mid twenties, he has reached a position where Dylan can say of him: "I just can't keep up with Phil. And he's getting better and better and better."…

Unlike some other protesters, his attacks aren't safe and generalised. He chooses his targets well, and he hits them hard—so hard, that when in one recent song he invited the State of Mississippi to "find yourself another country to belong to" he got protests from outraged liberals who said that the people of Mississippi aren't all bad.

In spite of this, Phil sees himself as primarily an artist….

Phil's songs have a tremendous impact, not the least because his protest isn't against the same old safe subjects, the Bomb, race hate and so on. It's easy...