"Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", which was originally released on Ochs' 1967 album Pleasures of the Harbor, became one of Ochs' most popular songs.
The best known track is "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", a sarcastic jab at the apathetic nature of people in certain situations, at its base the story of the Murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City (which numerous people witnessed, doing nothing to help), set to a Dixieland backing.
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The song is said to have brought Kennedy's brother Robert to tears when Ochs performed it for him a cappella in early 1968, months before the younger Kennedy's own assassination.
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Ochs composed it after watching a screening of John Ford's 1940 film The Long Voyage Home, which starred one of Ochs' movie idols, John Wayne.
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Nine songs that appeared on his second, third and fourth albums are supplemented by three tracks that had up to that point never appeared on any Ochs album, two of them, "United Fruit" and "On Her Hand A Golden Ring" only available on this compilation (the third, "What Are You Fighting For", later appeared on the 2000 compilation The Early Years.
"Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", a 1966 song on the Phil Ochs album Pleasures of the Harbor