[1] Rehearsals for Retirement saw Ochs exploring folk rock, incorporating orchestral accompaniments and electric guitar into his music.

Pichaske interpreted the narrative as a psychological analysis finding insecurity to be the source of violence in the United States.

The latter song used the 1968 disappearance of the Scorpion nuclear submarine as an allegory for a modern "Lost Generation" who abandon the U.S. in response to the Vietnam War.

[3] Rehearsals for Retirement was amongst the poorest-selling of all of Ochs's albums released during his lifetime, having been deleted from the A&M Records catalog before sales of 20,000 units had occurred.

[5] In 1998, The Wire included Rehearsals for Retirement in their list of "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)", where the staff praised it "the single most eloquent collection of protest songs in the English language."