I'm a singer and songwriter, I used to be in Country Joe & the Fish, and I live in Berkeley, California, Planet Earth. What started for me as an interest transformed into an issue, and the issue transformed into something of an obsession, Talley said, tracing his involvement to the Agent Orange-related death of a close friend several years ago. Plans for a sprawling commemorative Woodstock 50 event elsewhere collapsed amid permitting and other problems . After all these years, what Mr. McDonald holds closest about the song is the way it was received by Vietnam veterans. After 30 albums and more than four decades in the public eye as a folksinger, Country Joe McDonald qualifies as one of the best known names from the 60s rock era still performing. McDonald wrote the song "Janis" about his former girlfriend Janis Joplin, who also performed at Woodstock on Day 2. One of his solo albums, the 1973 Vanguard LP Paris Sessions, was reviewed by Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), in which he said: "Amazing. They also appeared in and performed music for underground cult film Zachariah where Joe is the leader of a band of outlaws in the old west, carrying amplifiers on their horses and calling themselves "The Crackers.". There was no one baby boomer generation. He befriended members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, including conscientious objectors who were sent over as unarmed medics, only to find themselves in the thick of combat. COUNTRY JOE McDONALD 1970 original POSTER ADVERT HOLD ON ITS - eBay Country Joe McDonald sits in the kitchen of his Berkeley home, a few miles and more than four decades removed where he got he got his start in the music business, hawking self-released EPs on the University of California campus. 1991) from his marriage to Kathy Wright. [14] McDonald has noted that his girlfriend at the time, Janis Joplin, showed much anger for breaking up with her to be with Menken but asked him to write a song about her; the result was "Janis". Countryjoe_79.jpg: Rtsandersonderivative work: SilkTork, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The lineup includes 1969 performers Santana and John Fogerty, but the arts center has made clear it isn't hosting a freewheeling festival: Spectators will need tickets and checkpoint travel passes to get to the site. HI 1001 (PD, copyright has expired or ineligible for copyright.). Superstitious Blues - Wikipedia He did and the resulting songs, "Mara," "Ny's Song," "Hungry Miller and the Hungry World" and the title song "Quiet Days In Clichy" were released on a Vanguard album as part of the soundtrack. thats some liberal hippie stuff. ")[8] is well known to the Woodstock generation and Vietnam veterans of the 1960s and '70s. 2023 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. Born a red-diaper baby he was named after Joseph Stalin he grew up in a Communist. PHOTO AND ART CREDITS
In 2007, he put together a song-and-spoken-word one-man show about Woody Guthrie, and followed it up with another about Florence Nightingale. Love. Headliner Nina Simone delivered a set infused with songs of black empowerment and a militant poem that asked black people are you ready to instigate social change. The show went on to make a film of a Far Eastern tour, F.T.A., released theatrically in '72, then withdrawn. By December 1966, they had a recording contract with Vanguard Records, the home to progressive acts like the Weavers and Joan Baez. Mr. McDonald considered putting Fixin-to-Die on the first, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, but Vanguards president, Maynard Solomon, believed the songs anti-establishment bent would prevent the band from getting radio play. Country Joe (McDonald) - Country Joe (1974) [Full Album] 1980) from his marriage to Janice Taylor, and Emily (b. Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942)[1] is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish. Billboard magazine in 1967 referred to the Country Joe EP as "unique," and the airplay it received brought them to the attention of New York City in general and the music business in particular. Best of Country Joe McDonald - AllMusic PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. McDonald wrote his iconic song "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" in just 30 minutes. By 1968 they had released a third album Together and were touring successfully around the world. The psychedelic sound of Country Joe & the Fish captivated the Bay Area scene. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/opinion/vietnam-war-rock-music.html. [3] At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Navy for three years and was stationed in Japan. His first big audience was at a V.V.A.W. Organizers had sold 186,000 tickets; ultimately an estimated 400,000 people showed up for the festival on farmland in Bethel, New York, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of New York City. It contained the greatest number of radio and commercial hits since the first two Fish LPs and gave Joe his first clear solo success. McDonald's stage name included "Country Joe," which was Joseph Stalin's nickname. [14] In 1968, Menken gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Seven Anne McDonald, in San Francisco. 195196. Born: 1-Jan-1942 Birthplace: Washington, DC Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Musician Nationality: United States Executive summary: Country Joe and the Fish Military service: US Navy (1962-65) Reportedly named after Josef Stalin.. Father: Worden (Presbyterian minister) Mother: Florence Were all going to die capper. It was time for the second act on the second day of a 1969 music festival in upstate New York, but the band, Santana, was having trouble getting it together. He travels the world and continues to sell records. Every time he heard Fixin-to-Die, it boosted his morale. It was our lifeline, a link to our existence back in the world, connecting us with the things that enabled us, as the Impressions urged us, to keep on pushing. From the peaks of the Central Highlands and the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta to the air-conditioned jungles of Danang and Long Binh (where I served as an information specialist in 1970-71), soldiers used music to build community, stay connected to the home front and hold on to the humanity the war was trying to take away. People can correct me if Im wrong, McDonald continued, but I thought that military service to your country was an honorable thing to do and recognition of those who served is also an honorable thing.. By Joe McDonald, AP Thursday, Apr 27 FILE - China's President Xi Jinping arrives to attend the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC summit, Nov. 19 . "Patriots: the Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides", Christian G. Appy, pp. The court, however, upheld McDonald's laches defense, noting that Ory and her father were aware of the original version of the song, with the same questionable section, for some three decades without bringing a suit. Despite being handed a guitar tied to a rope instead of a strap, McDonald put on an impressive 30-minute set in his army shirt and sunglasses. Ever wonder who played at Woodstock? Why China is trying to mediate in Russia's war with Ukraine The combination of the obscenity and the sneeringly rebellious vibe of the lyrics hurt Mr. McDonald career-wise, but of that song, he has no regrets. While appearing in New York, Vanguard recorded a series of shows at the Bitter End nightclub in Greenwich Village. The next night, some 75 police officers with billy clubs, sidearms and mace welcomed the band to Boston. Country Joe McDonald, WWII Plaque Berkeley World War II Plaque The City of Berkeley plans to install a bronze plaque honoring all those citizens from Berkeley who died fighting in World War 2 on the Berkeley Veterans Memorial Building. His early exposure to leftist politics and music at rallies would later shape his views and passion for music. When Craig and I met Joe at the North Berkeley BART station in 2008 to interview him for our book, he introduced himself by saying, I consider myself a veteran first and a hippie second., Although the pro-war hawks who flooded him with hate mail he still receives it were unaware of the crucial fact that Joe McDonald was a Navy veteran, one whod realized that, as he put it, all military experience, all combat experience universally is the same not good/bad, moral/immoral. The F-I-S-H Cheer was lighthearted, as was the sound behind the pitch-black lyrics of Fixin-to-Die. Country Joe & the Fish played up the songs soldier-as-carnival-barker aspects, putting a hurdy-gurdy organ front and center, dropping kazoo bits throughout and capping it off with sounds of machine guns and a bomb dropping. It inpsired his career as a singer-songwriter and progressive activist. His "Tribute to Florence Nightingale" website has become a valuable resource for grade-schoolers. Since the group's breakup in 1971, McDonald has continued to musically espouse his political views through his original folk-like songs. The hits were our hits: I Feel-Like-Im-Fixin-to-Die Rag, Fortunate Son and the song more than one Vietnam veteran has called our national anthem, the Animals We Gotta Get Out of This Place.. I wrote the song Who Am I? for a play I was working on, and after I was done, I literally paused, sat down, and banged out Fixin-to-Die in a half an hour, he said. Poland building Europe's BIGGEST military with 300,00 - The Sun His road manager gave him the go-ahead, and McDonald's anti-war anthem was met with a frenzy of clapping, singing, and standing ovations. [9] The "Fish Cheer" was the band performing a call-and-response with the audience, spelling the word "fish", followed by Country Joe yelling, "What's that spell?" Later in 2005, political commentator Bill O'Reilly compared McDonald to Cuban President Fidel Castro, remarking on McDonald's involvement in Cindy Sheehan's protests against the Iraq War.[13]. I had wished for a great virus-free year in 2022, but it's not looking so good. They appeared on Day 3 of the festival. The band recorded and released two albums over the following year. On Saturday, Santana was set to take the stage, but the organizers were still working to set it up. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. By 1979 Joe and Bill Belmont had re-started Rag Baby records and released, in Europe through various licensing arrangements, Barry Melton's Level With Me. cheer and his quintessential anti-war sing-along, Feel-Like-Im-Fixin-to-Die Rag were intended merely to fill time left by a tardy performer. He learned to play the guitar and trombone, but his father's loss of employment due to suspected communist ties before the House Un-American Activities Committee changed his world view forever. Country Joe: Singing Louder Than the Guns - Street Spirit The meaning of songs often changed for individual vets whose personal (and in several cases, political) perspectives underwent seismic shifts in the years during and after the war. Sometimes the music was live: soldiers strumming out Bob Dylan and Curtis Mayfield songs at base camps; Filipino bands pounding out Proud Mary and Soul Man at enlisted-mens clubs and Saigon bars; touring acts from Bob Hope and Ann-Margret to Nancy Sinatra and James Brown granting momentary calm. With both numbers preserved on film and record--complete with bouncing ball for the sing-along--they remain among Woodstocks most recognized moments. He has continued to write and record, having issued 36 albums since his start as a solo artist in 1969. Country Joe McDonald Live at Celebration Of Life Festival on 1971-06-26. by Country Joe McDonald. It was at Woodstock that McDonald, whose band Country Joe & the Fish had risen to prominence on the San Francisco psychedelic scene, inadvertently became a counter-culture spokesman. Country Joe McDonald live at Woodstock Roger Krook 874 subscribers Subscribe 4.8K Save 794K views 13 years ago Notice Age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines) It's cable reimagined No. and one that would become his signature song, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin'-to-Die Rag.". When McDonald called out for an "F" and then a "U," instead of an "F" and then an "I," the Woodstock audience went wild. He played Fixin-to-Die from the back of a flatbed trailer. Free shipping for many products! After being discharged, Mr. McDonald tried college for a few semesters before dropping out and landing in Berkeley. Two years later, the Veterans of Foreign Wars' magazine marked Woodstock's 40th anniversary with a cover story spotlighting some 109 service members who died in Vietnam during the festival and "are never lauded by the illustrious spokesmen for the 'Sixties Generation.'". Goes Out newsletter, with the week's best events, to help you explore and experience our city. Returning to the Bay Area after his discharge from the Navy, Joe threw himself into the growing counterculture. Ironically two records released later that year -- The Doors' 45, "Touch Me," and the Rolling Stones' LP Let It Bleed, also made use of horns and strings. But Woodstock became an aspirational vision of what countercultural youth thought they could achieve in the United States., In this Aug. 16, 1969 photo, a young woman naps on top of her car while trying to reach the Woodstock Music and Art Festival in Bethel, N.Y. (AP). After his enlistment, he attended Los Angeles City College for a year. Fish which with a new keyboard player and rhythm section was produced by Tom Wilson. Formed in Berkeley, California in 1965, the band was founded by Country Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton. Its strictly a show., (Tickets--priced at $16.50 and $17.50--are still available through TicketMaster and the Forum box office. If you werent there, its possible to imagine this as so much postproduction editing, imposing a relationship between the sounds and the experience of the war. I served three years and change, two in Japan, and it wasnt a bad experience, I didnt come out with anti-military views. Some other Americans saw Woodstock as an outrageous display of indulgence and insouciance in a time of war. In the summer of 1967, they were offered a series of gigs on the East Coast. The show was part of the Harlem Cultural Festival, a concert series that would later be dubbed a "Black Woodstock.". The singer walked back out, alone, and called to the masses, Give me an F!. Joe at 75. McDonald's Woodstock performance was a momentous occasion for both him and the festival-goers. It became an underground favorite throughout Europe and the title track is still played on French radio. This was unusual in an era of short three-minute singles. I believe if we had the music of all these different armies, all the infantries everywhere, youd have the same attitude expressed within their songs that we expressed in ours.. Although his parents would later renounce Communism, Mr. McDonald had already seen firsthand how people could pay a price for their beliefs. twice, with the audience responding, and then, the third time, "What's that spell? The man (repeat: man) has written feminist songs that are both catchy and sensible. Its been impossible for the mainstream to treat it in a noncontroversial way, even now, which is odd when you think of rap and grunge, but the cheer and the song married together made it art., By the time Mr. McDonald got to Woodstock, the cheer was well known among Manhattan hippie circles through the Central Park performance, bootleg recordings and underground radio, and thousands of his fans in New York made the trek to the festival. Peter Fonda will serve as emcee, with Whoopi Goldberg and John Voight hosting. Sam Charters, noted blues writer, producer and poet, was in charge of the record which was entitled Electric Music For The Mind and Body. We can make some of it into a sociological thing, and some of it we can make into the fact 15-year-old boys like to curse.. Breda and her friends slept in their car after getting separated from another vehicle carrying their camping supplies. Nancy Sinatras These Boots Are Made for Walkin became an anthem to the grunts who humped endless miles on patrol in the jungles, adding layers of meaning to the story of a young woman turning the tables on her cheating boyfriend. In 1966, Mr. McDonald and his partner Barry Melton, whose nickname was the Fish, decided to move away from their folk music style and form a full-time rock band. Not recorded under the best of circumstances, it was produced by Vanguard president Maynard Solomon who after various attempts to find someone to work on the record (including an ill-fated trip to New Orleans to see Allan Toussaint) did it himself. Country Joe McDonald live at Woodstock - YouTube [14], McDonald lives in Berkeley, California. Country Joe McDonald Al Sharpton sent a letter to McDonald's as they face . Bruce Lint (L) of Meriden, Connecticut and another Marine (unidentified) provide a little musical entertainment for fellow leathernecks at a fortress in northwestern south Vietnam. 01. In this Aug. 17, 1969 photo, workers carry medical supplies that arrived by helicopter on the grounds of the Woodstock Music and Art Festival in Bethel, N.Y. (AP). How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! Kaili Bisson (author) from Canada on April 07, 2019: Hippie stuff for sure! In 2007 he perfected his "Tribute to Woody Guthrie" show, a mix of music and spoken word, and has since taken it around the country to great acclaim. They skipped the chant that night, but according to a story Mr. McDonald told on a live album, he shouted the expletive at the cops right after the show. During the summer of 1968 the band played on the Schaefer Music Festival tour. 1976) and Tara (b. Joe at 18 mos. She was fresh out of high school and liked rock concerts, and the three-day lineup was packed with acts including The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. says Beatty Barnes, who became a Broadway actress and singer. [16] Seven was the subject of and inspiration behind the song "Silver and Gold". Navy veteran Country Joe McDonald, lower right, and his band Country Joe and The Fish. Five Musical Facts About Country Joe McDonald. Mr. McDonald doesnt recall reading about Vietnam in the newspapers or seeing combat scenes on television yet; protest was just in the Bay Area ether. News; . The first official act on Day 3 was the mad Englishman, Joe Cocker. Much of the band's music was written by founding members Country Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton, with lyrics pointedly addressing issues of importance to the counterculture . The album had no fewer than five songs that played constantly on FM radio including two major singles "Breakfast For Two" and "Save The Whales." His anti-war I Feel Like Im Fixin To Die Rag became a memorable Woodstock moment. Between that and the communist card carrying stuff, trying to get the ROTC kicked off campus, etc. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. He once wrote a tongue-in-cheek song titled Bring Back the 60s, Man, poking fun at his image as a lingering hippie. Issue number one of the magazine was a talking version released as an EP, with 100 copies produced. His anti-war "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag" became a memorable Woodstock moment. I wanted to be known as a sensitive poet, not a leader of obscene cheers and a protest singer.. I Served in Vietnam. The Guthrie album won him critical acclaim and a spot the following year at the Hollywood Bowl celebration in honor of Guthrie featuring Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie and many who had worked with him while he was alive. Ironically, he noted, he appeared at Woodstock wearing a military shirt. Both LPs contained novel approaches to music -- the first, "Rock and Soul Music" Joe's paean to James Brown and the second, a dry, cutting, almost minstrel-show-like song about Harlem, "The Harlem Song." This last song appeared at a time of growing national awareness of the plight of whales worldwide spurred by the efforts of the Canadian activist group Greenpeace to whom the song was dedicated. (In the context of World War . "Oh, Jamaica" conjured up images of lush lazy days in the Caribbean sun, but the song's pointed lyric highlighted the terrible conditions that faced most people living on the island. Country Joe & the Fish had their moment in the sun Led Zeppelin, still mostly unknown, opened up for them at the Fillmore West in 1969 but they fought constantly, and the band was effectively finished by 1970. Military recruitment will also ramp up, aiming to double the number of people in the army from 150,000 in 2022 to 300,000 by 2035. . In 1982, McDonald began working with organizations such as the Vietnam Veterans of America to raise awareness about issues affecting veterans and their families. In 2017, McDonald released an album on his own Rag Baby label entitled 50. It was about being together. Collection CountryJoeMcDonald Band/Artist Country Joe McDonald. In addition to McDonald, scheduled musical performers include Kris Kristofferson, Brian Wilson, Herbie Hancock and Charlie Daniels. At that point, red, white and blue balloons and confetti will be released as if it were a ticker-tape parade that the Vietnam veterans never had, Talley said. Ring of Fire, Nowhere to Run, Riders on the Storm all of them shifted shape in relation to the war. It features liner notes by Studs Terkel and Joe's parody of Nixon "Tricky Dicky". But Beatty Barnes feels the city-sponsored Harlem festival, which was showcased in two network TV specials, showed people didn't have to go far to come together around music. "It was like a mini-Woodstock to a lot of people," says Ethel Beatty Barnes, who saw the Sly and the Family Stone concert that July, when she was an 18-year-old New Yorker. chorus part, as derived from the 1926 early jazz classic "Muskrat Ramble", co-written by Kid Ory. Last edited on 28 February 2023, at 01:20, The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag, Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies, The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, "Country Joe McDonald Revives Anti-War Anthem", "Country Joe McDonald, The Country Joe Band", "Show 42 The Acid Test: Psychedelics and a sub-culture emerge in San Francisco. And on many a weary war night, Hanoi Hannah, the North Vietnamese equivalent of World War IIs Tokyo Rose, would play classic tunes by Ray Charles and B. Day 2 at Woodstock meant the rock acts were up, and the 11th act to appear on Saturday (actually Sunday a.m.) was already a legend. For those who watched the war unfold on the evening news, the music of Vietnam blurred with the sounds rising from the streets of America during a time of momentous challenge and change. His parents really laid the foundation. They were the same songs our friends were listening to back home, but the music took on different, and often deeper, meanings in Vietnam. Country Joe McDonald - Best of Country Joe McDonald The Vanguard - eBay It became a cause celebre when the US distributor, Grove Films, attempting to import copies for movie theaters, found all of their prints confiscated by customs as "obscene." Satisfactory10. Harkening back to his days as the high school band leader, Mr. McDonald included a call-and-response with the other four band members. King as she encouraged G.I.s to lay down their weapons. They toured Europe in the fall of 1968 and recorded a fourth LP, Here We Are Again, in the late spring of 1969. Seven had a career as a TV child actor in the late 1970s and early 1980s,[15] managed Johnny Depp's Viper Room nightclub and the alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins in the 1990s,[16][17] and wrote for Details, Elle, LA Weekly and Harper's Bazaar magazines in the 1990s and 2000s. The suit was brought by Ory's daughter Babette, who held the copyright at the time. Opposition to the draft helped fuel the sounds of protest Draft Dodger Rag, Universal Soldier, It Aint Me Babe. But they were songs we G.I.s knew and often sang in Vietnam. Day 2 at Woodstock meant the rock acts were up, and the 12th act to appear on Saturday (actually Sunday a.m.) was funk-rock band, Sly and the Family Stone. Ever wonder who played at Woodstock? In Worcester, Massachusetts, McDonald was arrested for obscenity and fined $500 for uttering "fuck" in public. Joel Brodsky/Vanguard Records, via GAB Archive -- Redferns -- Getty Images. On Saturday April 23rd he played at Kezar stadium in San Francisco and on Sunday, on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington, DC. That got their attention. Country Joe McDonald is an American singer/songwriter and a Navy veteran. The more liberal European artist climate did not prepare him for the conditions he returned to. 5.Back in Berkeley
[7]. Chile07. I was tied up at the time, the late Sen. John McCain famously said in 2007. and it's only 5 days away. They led prayer rallies against the building of new U.S. military facilities in the country. [19], McDonald has four other children, Devin (b. I was inspired to write a folk song about how soldiers have no choice in the matter but to follow orders, but with the irreverence of rock n roll. Don't Threaten. [20], For discography of Country Joe and the Fish, see that entry. After lying to her parents about her destination, Breda arrived from Boston to find a mind-boggling mass of people, tents, blankets, pot smoke, patchouli and under-preparedness. But having enlisted in the Navy at 17 and been stationed as an air traffic controller at the Atsugi, Japan, air facility until his honorable discharge in 1962, he refers to himself as a Vietnam era veteran.. He has performed at various rallies and benefit concerts for environmentalism, anti-war activism, and workers' rights. One for sure was Hendrix and his version of "The Star Spangled Banner." As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. C ountry Joe McDonald was born in Washington, D. C., in 1942, but grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte, California. That was a revelation to me., https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/opinion/country-joe-vietnam-woodstock.html. Before Country Joe McDonald galvanized the '60s protest movement with his zany antiwar anthem "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" in . "We went for the music and found something so much more, and so much more important camaraderie," says Karen Breda, who was 17 when she went to Woodstock. Their song I Feel Like Im Fixin To Die Rag holds a special resonance for Vietnam veterans as well as the antiwar movement.
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