Country Joe & the Fish

A band of that name were first put together to do a flexi-disc in a "talking"-themed issue of a magazine McDonald was editing, "Rag Baby," in 1965. McDonald and Barry Melton performed as a folk duo under the name for a while, and then put together a different group of people from those who played on the first disc: Paul Armstrong on bass, tambourine and other percussion instruments, Bruce Barthol on bass, David Cohen on guitar and keyboards, and John Francis Gunning on drums. They played around Berkeley and were signed by Vanguard Records in 1966. Armstrong left, and Gunning was replaced by "Chicken" Hirsh.

They had already written what was to become their most famous song, The Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag, but it was left off their first album for being too political. The single "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" got on college radio and they toured the ballroom circuit, appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival, and released a second LP, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die."

Two more albums, "Together" and "Here We Are Again," by 1969 (by which time Barthol, Cohen and Hirsh had left), when they played at Woodstock. They had been altering "The Fish Cheer's" lyrics in concert for several months (and lost at least one booking because of it), but "Back at Woodstock, when Joe yelled 'Gimme an F!' at the end of the cheer the sound of all these people yelling 'fuck' was astounding or better yet, hard to believe; it was as if a rather large cross-section of America's youth was telling the world 'get stuffed.' Things were never the same, in more ways than one."

The Fish recorded one more album, "C.J. Fish" with Mark Kapner on keyboards, Doug Metzler on bass and Greg Dewey on drums, and got the message of their songs out through the Woodstock film. After that Country Joe and Barry Melton both had solo careers.

Some quotes from Country Joe McDonald's website, http://www.countryjoe.com

My dad (aka Captain Jach) put out one of his cd's, called: "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Sing... ...Some Songs and Tell Some Stories, Some X-Rated"

It was recorded live at Oakland Community College, Auburn Hills, Michigan (near Detroit) on October 22, 1999, by Captain Jach of Honey Radio. This cd can be purchased on Country Joe's website.

In May, 2000 he & my dad shared a hotel room in Ohio, while covering the 30th anniversary of the Kent State Shootings.

Joe is a really nice, funny guy. He has a cool family, & talking to him about Vietnam, music, the 60's & pretty much everything is really great, because he's extremely articulate and isn't afraid to say how he feels.