Rehearsals For Retirement was Phil Ochs' sixth album, released in 1969 on A&M Records. Recorded in the aftermath of Ochs' presence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago (where his exploits included selecting and purchasing a pig for Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies to nominate for President), it is the darkest of Ochs' albums, a fact exemplified by its cover, a tombstone proclaiming that Ochs had died in Chicago.
"Pretty Smart On My Part", the album opener, is a song in the persona of a right-wing reactionary, who plans to, among other things, "assassinate the President and take over the government" (the song was noted on Ochs' lengthy FBI file). "William Butler Yeats Visits Lincoln Park and Escapes Unscathed" is Ochs' telling of the events that unfolded in Chicago, followed by an upbeat jaunt berating those who weren't there. The 1968 disappearance of the USS Scorpion was the inspiration for "The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns," the lyrical style of which contrasts sharply with Ochs' other song about a lost nuclear submarine, "The Thresher," from his debut album. "The World Began in Eden and Ended in Los Angeles" seems to portray Ochs' then-home as a hellhole, as all metropoles eventually end up. "Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore" is the tale of a woman seeking out her ex-lover, and finding Ochs instead, telling a tale of loneliness that permeates American life.
Perhaps the most despairing track on the album is "My Life," in which Ochs states bluntly, "my life is now a death to me," which presages Ochs' suicide seven years later. He also asks the FBI to "take your tap from my phone and leave my life alone."
