Nonfiction writer Jim Bowers is chatting with me about his new biography, That Man in the Gold Lamé: Phil Ochs’s Search for Self.
Bio:
Jim Bowers is a retired professor of Political Science and Legal Studies. Among the courses he use to teach was “Music & Politics.” Over the course of his long career Jim has written or edited a number of books on topics ranging from mayoral leadership to campaigns & elections to constitutional theory & abortion. That Man in the Gold Lamé Suit is Jim’s first book about music. Jim is also a singer/songwriter and brings that sensibility to That Man in the Gold Lamé Suit.
Welcome, Jim. Please tell us about your current release.
Well, there’s a lot to unpack here, but I’ll try to be brief.
That Man in the Gold Lamé Suit is a nontraditional biography. It is more of a psycho-biography. In it, I let 1960s folksinger and political activist Phil Ochs set the record straight as to who he was, who he wanted to be, and how he wanted others to see him. To do that I use the theory and method of Self Psychology which allows Phil to tell his story in his own words as much as possible. Through this approach, the book provides readers with new and special insight into how Phil’s search for self defined his music, his politics, and his entire life. Along the way, Phil takes us on an exploration of his early childhood trauma of a distant mother, the comfort he found in the heroes of the Silver Screen, his own need to be and be seen as heroic, his difficult and ultimately detrimental relationship with Bob Dyan, his political activism, his eventual suicide, and why he became that man in the gold lamé.
What inspired you to write this book?
Phil did. I’ve written other books, but this one was the first time I felt the subject of the book was calling me. I know that may sound strange but there was a sense of destiny in writing this book.
It all began in my class on music & politics. Over the years it went through a number of iterations. One of those had me concentrating on artist such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and a number of 1960s Greenwich Village folksingers & songwriters. Phil’s name kept popping up in that group.
At the time, I wasn’t really familiar with Phil, his music, or his politics. But the more I dug into those things the more I found myself wanting to know who Phil was, what made him tick. Then one day I had the epiphany that Phil Ochs was really the person that people thought Bob Dylan was. Phil, not Dylan, was the real voice of the 1960s.
That epiphany was the start. Then I met and got to know Phil’s older sister, Sonny. She has worked tirelessly to keep his music and legacy alive. Sonny is a force of nature in her own right. After meeting her, I knew I had no choice but to write about Phil.
What exciting project are you working on next?
That Man in the Gold Lamé Suit has taken up nearly 7 years of my life, so in the immediate I have no book writing projects on the horizon. Still, I’m toying around with several possible subjects for some future book–Kris Kristofferson, Michael Nesmith, the late U.S Congressman Pete McCloskey–but I haven’t been hit by the “why” yet, so I haven’t committed to any of them right now.
Right now, I’m trying to get back into songwriting. I’ve got three albums of original songs out there (which can be streamed on all the major streaming services). But I haven’t written many songs since 2013. My creative energy seems to get wrapped up in one major project. And, as I have said, Phil and That Man in the Gold Lamé has taken that energy for the last 7 years.
I have put a band together called Calico Bunny. We perform what I like to call “Vintage Cosmic Americana Plus.” We play a range of singer/songwriters from Guthrie to Zevon. Part of the “plus” is my own original songs.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I was taught to be a writer in graduate school. More precisely and without wanting to sound pretentious, grad school trains you to be a researcher and a scholar. That means you write too. Researching, writing, and publishing were the path to tenure. So, I did all three. Up until That Man in the Gold Lamé Suit, all of my writing has been in the more scholarly vein. Even it doesn’t escaped that entirely. It’s just written in a style more reachable to and hopefully enjoyed by a general reading population.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
No, writing is just one of a number of things that I do that make me who I am. Until I retired, I was a teacher for 34 year. I’ve been a political commentator and analyst. I was a city-wide elected official for a term. I am also what I call a “not-often-enough singer/songwriter.”
So like many things I do, I write when it calls me.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I don’t really think I have one. When I write I do have a tendency to wander around a bit, stress eat some, and maybe even play my guitar as I’m trying to figure out what the words on the page should be, but no real quirks.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
That one is easy. Since middle school, I always wanted to be a teacher which I was and always will be, just not in the classroom.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Maybe a couple of things. First, I’m a cat person—nothing against dogs. I just like a pet that challenges me with its indifference. Also, cats and I share a common trait. We are both misanthropes in some ways.
More seriously though, for those who read That Man in the Gold Lamé Suit, they may find that the method of Self Psychology employed in telling Phil’s story triggers in them questions and a trip through their own discovery of who they are. I’ve had a number of readers tell me this is what happened to them. As they read Phil’s story, they saw and thought about their own search for self. I guess in some unintended way, That Man in the Gold Lamé Suit was a type of self-help book for them.
Thanks for being here today, Jim.