Dylan versus Ochs:
who would win?
Dylan versus Ochs,
who would win?
One goes out
after two go in.
Dylan versus Ochs:
who would win?

Phil Ochs was this reporter with a guitar
just telling it like it is
informing all the masses
of the issues of the day
until Dylan traipsed along
into town
just some hobo with a way with words.

Dylan the cyclone.
Dylan’s the behemoth.
Dylan the ravenous
before whom all things must fall
and be ravaged
or ravished
or ragged upon.

Dylan beat Ochs.
Dylan beat everyone
within his league
and many in any other league
he could find.

But did Dylan beat Elvis?
Did Dylan beat Picasso
or Hemingway or Marilyn
or
Cher (all right
he totally beat Cher.
Her hair’s all right
but that beat did not last long enough
to get us through the night.
Dylan’s rhythm stays
as long as winds whistle through windshields).

Dylan wins a lot
ignoble as he is.
Ochs saw it, years ago
and could take it no more.
He quit once he had his fill of it.