Country Joe & the Fish ~
I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die
In addition to my 20,000 Vinyl LP collection I'm selling, I have reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes for sale as well (see link below). If interested, contact me by email please, not by a comment.
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Country Joe and the Fish was a
jug band from the
San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960's that was one of many music groups to protest against the war in
Vietnam. It was a fusion of blues and rock with a touch of country thrown in.
Born to a Jewish mother and a communist father in Washington, D. C., in 1942, Joe McDonald moved to Berkeley
in 1962 after four years in the Marines.
The origin of the name,
Country Joe & the Fish, appears to have come from the band's
manager,
ED Denson, who coined the phrase drawing from Mao's saying
about "the fish who swim in the sea of the people;" the Country Joe part
has numerous variants, the most oft-told refers to Joe's parents having
named Joe for Joseph Stalin, whose nickname during World War II was
"Country Joe."
In 1968, Denson said, "How it happened was simplicity itself. At a rally for a radical
candidate for Congress, we saw the
Fugs put on what was then a really
mind-blowing show — the audience was stunned, and we were overjoyed.
Contacting them, we arranged for a concert on the
Berkeley Campus
presented by the
Pretentious Folk Front."
The group began with
"Country Joe" McDonald (lead vocals) and
Barry "The Fish" Melton (lead guitar), recording and performing for the "
Teach-in"
protests against the Vietnam War in 1965. McDonald and
Melton added musicians as needed over the life of the band. By 1967, the
group included
Gary "Chicken" Hirsh (drums) (born March 9, 1940, in
Chicago,
Illinois);
David Cohen (keyboards) (born August 4, 1942, in
Brooklyn,
New York) and
Bruce Barthol (bass) (born November 11, 1947 in
Berkeley, California). The 1967 lineup lasted only two years, and by the 1969
Woodstock Festival, the lineup included
Greg 'Duke' Dewey (drums), Mark Kapner (keyboards) and Doug Metzler (bass).
The opener for the album,
The "Fish" Cheer / I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag, is one of the most delightful
anti-Vietnam War protest songs
ever written. Bouncy and fast, it propells right along with the aid of
a whacky and irreverent kazoo. It is sometimes also referred to as the
Vietnam Song. It was supposed to be on the first album of the group,
Electric Music for the Mind and Body, but
Vanguard Records vetoed it, so it wound up on the second album. The song was never a big hit, but was nonetheless well-known, and in the film,
Woodstock, the audience can clearly be heard singing along. It was supposedly written in less than 30 minutes.
The song begins with a "Fish Cheer", in which the band spells out the word "F-I-S-H" in the manner of cheerleaders at
American football games ("Give me an F", etc.).
The "Fish Cheer" later gave way to the "
Fuck Cheer", winning widespread approval from audiences and disapproval from others.
In 1970, Country Joe was arrested for giving the "Fish Cheer" in public, and was charged with obscenity.
The song was regularly broadcast into
Hỏa Lò Prison (the "Hanoi Hilton"), in
North Vietnam, to American
prisoners of war by their captors. The prisoners later reported it actually boosted their morale as they sang along.
Pat's Song is a phenominal tune. It starts with a quiet acoustic guitar played b
y Barry "The Fish" Melton, then goes into a slow dreamy waltz with a quiet
celeste accompaniment. It wanders around and has some nice electric guitar work by
McDonald. It gets a bit crazy for a few seconds then settles back to the waltz for a total length of 5:25.
Then there is
Janis, a tender serenade with a harpsichord and harmonica that fuses waltz, rag,
country and western.
The song was written for
Janis Joplin; they were lovers at one point.
Magoo fits
into the quiet retrospective category with thunder accompaniment to
echoey, processed vocals by McDonald. It gets a bit strange before it
fades back to the quiet mode; then it ends with a short (ten seconds),
kind of
bossa nova feel to it.
Thought Dream starts as a spiritual with organ then goes into a slow
rock ballad. It is dreamy, thoughtful, a bit of an odd ball and strange.
The organ, played by David Cohen, continues throughout the song.
Thursday starts off whacky but goes into a moderate speed, kind of syncopated beat with some great guitar work.
Eastern Jam has a kind of
White Rabbit by the
Jefferson Airplane feeling to me. It is an instumental that is prog rock at its best with some fantastic guitar work.
There is an envelope/promo form for information about other music available on open reel (
reel-to-reel) and eight-track Ampex tapes.
"Steve Miller won’t work with me. Steve Stills won’t work with me. The
list of people is really, really long. Mickey Hart is afraid of me
because I talk about vets and the Vietnam War all the time. I’ve become
larger than life and there’s really nothing I can do about it. For
example, when I played this year at the 30
th anniversary of
the
Kent State killings, the administration was worried about two people
on the program: Country Joe and
Mumia Abu-Jamal."
New From Ampex!!
Stereo Tape '68
Ampex envelope back
Track list:
Side 1:
"
The "Fish" Cheer / I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag"" (McDonald) – 3:44
"Who Am I" (McDonald) – 4:05
"Pat's Song" (McDonald) – 5:26
"Rock Coast Blues" (McDonald) – 3:57
"Magoo" (McDonald) – 4:44
"Janis" (McDonald) – 2:36
Side 2:
"Thought Dream" (McDonald) – 6:39
"Thursday" (Cohen, Hirsh) – 3:20
"Eastern Jam" (Bartol, Cohen, Hirsh, Melton) – 4:27
"Colors For Susan" (McDonald) – 5:58
Personnel:
Country Joe McDonald:
vocals,
guitar,
bells,
tambourine
Barry Melton: vocals, guitar
David Cohen: guitar, organ
Bruce Barthol: bass, harmonica
Gary "Chicken" Hirsh: drums
Credits:
Producer:
Samuel Charters
Recorded: 1966 – March 1967
Released: November 1967
Genre:
Psychedelic rock
Length: 44:56
Label:
Vanguard - VG 9266
Reel-to-Reel Tape
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