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Country Joe and the Fish was a rock band most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1966 to 1971, and also regarded as a seminal influence to psychedelic rock.

History[link]

The group's name is derived from communist politics; "Country Joe" was a popular name for Joseph Stalin in the 1940s, while "the fish" refers to Mao Zedong's statement that the true revolutionary "moves through the peasantry as the fish does through water." The group began with the nucleus of "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. Co-founders 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 band came to perform an early example of psychedelic rock. The LP Electric Music for the Mind and Body was very influential on early FM Radio in 1967. Long sets of psychedelic tunes like "Section 43", "Bass Strings", "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine", "Janis" (for and about Janis Joplin) and "Grace" (for singer Grace Slick) (all released on Vanguard Records) were often played back to back on KSAN and KMPX in San Francisco and progressive rock stations around the country. Their first album charted at #39 on September 23, 1967, their 2nd album at #67 on February 3, 1968, and their third at #23 on August 31, 1968. Country Joe and The Fish were regulars at the original Fillmore auditorium, the Fillmore West, Fillmore East, and Chet Helms' Avalon Ballroom. They were billed with such groups as Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, and Iron Butterfly. They played at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. In 1971 the band appeared in a Western film starring Don Johnson as an outlaw gang called the Crackers. The film, titled Zachariah, was written by the Firesign Theatre and was billed as "The First Electric Western". They also appeared in the George Lucas film More American Graffiti and in the 1971 Roger Corman film Gas-s-s-s.

Their biggest hit was the anti-war "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag",^[2] which debuted the same year as the band, but became best known after Country Joe's solo acoustic performance of it at Woodstock. Country Joe was sued in 2001 by Kid Ory's daughter, Babette Ory, who claimed McDonald's "Fixin" Rag infringed her copyright to Kid Ory's Dixieland jazz standard "Muskrat Ramble". In August 2003, the court case was decided in McDonald's favor, since Kid Ory, Babette Ory, and the Muskat Ramble publisher had all known of the song in the late 1960s, but no complaint was made for decades. Finding the complaint objectively unreasonable, the court awarded McDonald some of his attorney's fees and costs. Due to the long delay and prejudice, including death of key witnesses, the court did not even reach the lack of substantial similarity issue. Babette Ory and her attorney appealed, and the appellate court affirmed the decision in favor of McDonald.

Country Joe's anti-war activity led to his being called as a witness at the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial in 1969, where he recited the lyrics to "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag".^[3]

Country Joe continued to tour and practice with other California based bands.

Barry "The Fish" Melton was later a founding member of The Dinosaurs and has recently released new recordings of that band whose members included Peter Albin from Big Brother and The Holding Company and John Cipollina from Quicksilver Messenger Service and Copperhead. Melton studied law while on the road as a musician and was admitted to practice by the State Bar of California in 1982. In 2009, Melton retired as the Public Defender of Yolo County, California, although he continues to tour internationally from time to time.

Melton and McDonald have occasionally reunited to play music in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and as recently as 2002 in support of a Christmas toy drive in San Francisco for Toys for Tots.

2004 and 2005 saw several short United States and UK tours and the release of a live CD by the Country Joe Band, at that time comprising McDonald, Cohen, Barthol and Hirsch.

Popular culture[link]

• They are mentioned on the first page of Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel Inherent Vice.
• Characters in HBO's Generation Kill miniseries sing the song "Fixin' to Die".
• They appear in issue 15 of Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, Volume 1 (1969), apparently performing "Superbird" and "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" at a concert in Central Park.

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

1. "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" / "Masked Marauder"
2. "Janis" / "Janis (Instrumental)" (1967)
3. "Who Am I?" / "Thursday" (1968)
4. "Rock and Soul Music Part 1" / "Rock and Soul Music Part 2" (1968)
5. "Here I Go Again" / "Baby You're Driving Me Crazy" (1969)
6. "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" / "Janis" (1970)
7. "Hang On" / "Hand of Man" (1972)

EPs[link]

1. Talking Issue #1, Rag Baby (1965)
2. Country Joe and the Fish, Rag Baby (1966)

Studio and live albums[link]

1. Electric Music for the Mind and Body, Vanguard (September 1967)
2. I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die, Vanguard (1967)
3. Together, Vanguard (1968)
4. Here We Are Again, Vanguard (1969) (1)
5. CJ Fish, Vanguard (1970)
6. Reunion, Fantasy (1977)
7. Live! Fillmore West 1969, Vanguard (1994)

(1) Go to ^[4] to know album credits.

Compilations[link]

1. Greatest Hits, Vanguard (1969)
2. Life and Times of Country Joe and the Fish, Vanguard (1971)
3. Collector's Items: The First 3 EPs, Rag Baby (1980)
4. Collected Country Joe and the Fish, Vanguard (1987)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Country Joe & the Fish page
• Country Joe McDonald's Website
• Barry "The Fish" Melton's Homepage
• Country Joe & the Fish Legacy

Country Joe McDonald
Country Joe McDonald
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Allen McDonald
Also known as	Country Joe McDonald
Born	(1942-01-01) January 1, 1942 (age 70) Washington, D.C.
Genres	Alternative country, country, bluegrass, country rock, folk, psychedelic rock, acid rock
Occupations	Musician, political activist
Instruments	vocals, guitar
Years active	1959–present
Labels	Vanguard Records, One Way Records, Fantasy Records, Rykodisc, Shanachie Records
Associated acts	Country Joe and the Fish
Website	countryjoe.com
Notable instruments
Martin Acoustic Guitars

Country Joe McDonald (born Joseph Allen McDonald; January 1, 1942) is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish.^[1]

Biography[link]

Personal[link]

McDonald was born in Washington, D.C., At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Navy. After his enlistment, he attended Los Angeles City College for a year. In the early 1960s, he began busking on the famous Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California.^[1] His father, Worden McDonald, from Oklahoma, was of Scottish Presbyterian heritage (the son of a minister). His mother, Florence Plotnick, was the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants and served for many years on the Berkeley city council.^[2][3][4] As of 2009, Country Joe still lives in Berkeley, California.

Family[link]

McDonald was married to Kathe Werrum from 1965 to 1966 and married Robin Menken a year after his divorce from Werrum.^[5] In 1968, Menken gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Seven Anne McDonald, in San Francisco. Seven, currently a columnist for LA Weekly, had a previous career as a TV child actor in the late 1970s and early 1980s^[6], managed Johnny Depp's Viper Room nightclub and the alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins in the 1990s ^[7], and wrote for Details, Elle and Harper's Bazaar magazines in the 1990s and 2000s. According to Ron Cabral's biography on Country Joe and the Fish, Seven was the subject of and inspiration behind the song Silver and Gold.^[5]

McDonald has four other children, Devin (b. 1978) and Tara (b. 1982) from his marriage to Janice Taylor and Emily (b. 1988) and Ryan (b. 1991) from his marriage to Kathy Wright.^[5]

Career[link]

McDonald has recorded 33 albums and has written hundreds of songs over a career spanning 40 years. He and Barry Melton co-founded Country Joe & the Fish which became a pioneer psychedelic rock band with their eclectic performances at The Avalon Ballroom, The Fillmore, Monterey Pop Festival and both the original and the reunion Woodstock Festivals.

Their best known song is his "The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," a black comedy novelty song about the Vietnam War, whose familiar chorus ("One, two, three, what are we fighting for?") is well known to the Woodstock generation and Vietnam veterans of the 1960s and 1970s. 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?" twice, with the audience responding, and then, the third time, "What's that smell?", followed immediately by the song. The "Fish Cheer" evolved into the "Fuck Cheer" after the Berkeley free speech movement.

The cheer was on the original recording of the I-Feel-Like-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag, being played right before the song on the LP of the same name. The cheer became popular and the crowd would spell out F-I-S-H when the band performed live. During the summer of 1968 the band played on the Schaefer Music Festival tour.^[8] Gary "Chicken" Hirsh suggested before one of the shows to spell the word "fuck" instead of "fish." Although the crowd loved it, the management of the Schaefer Beer Festival did not and kicked the band off the tour for life. The Ed Sullivan Show then canceled a previously scheduled appearance by the band, telling them to keep the money they had already been paid in exchange for never playing on the show.^[8] The modified cheer continued at most of the band's live shows throughout the years, including Woodstock and the Isle of Wight Festival. In Massachusetts, McDonald was fined $500 for uttering "fuck" in public.^[9]

In 2003 McDonald was sued for copyright infringement over his signature song, specifically the "One, two, three, what are we fighting for?" chorus part, as derived from the 1926 early jazz classic "Muskrat Ramble", co-written by Kid Ory. The suit was brought by Ory's daughter Babette, who held the copyright at the time. Since decades had already passed from the time McDonald composed his song in 1965, Ory based her suit on a new version of it recorded by McDonald in 1999. 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. In 2006, Ory was ordered to pay McDonald $395,000 for attorney fees and had to sell her copyrights to do so.

In 2004, Country Joe regrouped with some of the original members of Country Joe and The Fish as the Country Joe Band – Bruce Barthol, David Bennett Cohen, and Gary "Chicken" Hirsh. The band toured the United States and the United Kingdom. In the spring of 2005, McDonald joined a larger protest against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts at the California State Capitol Building.

In the fall of 2005, political commentator Bill O'Reilly compared McDonald^[10] to Cuban President Fidel Castro, remarking on McDonald's involvement in Cindy Sheehan's protests against the Iraq War.^[11]

Discography[link]

( source http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p103837/discography Allmusic, Discography )

• Tonight I'm Singing Just for You (1969)
• Thinking of Woody Guthrie (1969)
• War War War (1971)
• Hold On It's Coming (1971)
• Paris Sessions (1972)
• Incredible! Live (Live Album) (1972)
• Country Joe (1975)
• Love Is a Fire (1976)
• Paradise With an Ocean View (1976)
• Goodbye Blues (1977)
• Rock N Roll from Planet Earth (1978)

• Leisure Suite(1979)
• On My Own (1980)
• Into The Fray (1982)
• Child's Play (1983)
• Peace On Earth (1984)
• Best of Country Joe—on Vanguard(1986)
• Classics Best Of (1989)
• Superstitious Blues (1991)
• Vietnam Experience (1995)
• Carry On (1996)
• Eat Flowers And Kiss Babies—Country Joe and Bevis Frond at the QEH-Live (1998)
• Something Borrowed, Something New (The Best Of) (1998)
• www.countryjoe.com (2000)
• A Reflection On Changing Times The Best Of (box) (2003)
• Natural Imperfections—Joe McDonald and Bernie Krause (2005)
  • Vanguard Visionaries (2007)
• Country Joe Live At The Borderline(2007)
• Tribute To Woody Guthrie (2007)
• War, War, War (Live) (2007)^[12]

References[link]

• Remembering Woodstock, by Andy Bennett, Ashgate Publishing, 2004

External links[link]

• Country Joe's official site
• CJFishlegacy.com
• Live Music Archive Country Joe's section of archive.org's free live concert recordings.
• Country Joe McDonald at the Internet Movie Database