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Since his performance at Woodstock, Country Joe McDonald has remained an outspoken activist for social and political causes that he believes in. Except its true. McDonald straddles the two polar events of the 60s -- Woodstock and the Vietnam War. It was the mid-1960s, just as the Free Speech movement on campus was morphing into the antiwar movement. Later that year through a series of "Vet Tapes," provided to Veterans Administration Outreach Centers, he helped to bring the gap between the Vets "being home" and "coming home". Country Joe McDonald: Yeah, he did that! The first release from this new union was the best selling-highly acclaimed 1975 release Paradise With An Ocean View. The second act on Day 3 was Country Joe and the Fish. . Countryjoe_79.jpg: Rtsandersonderivative work: SilkTork, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Country Joe and the Fish was an American rock band of the 1960s, fronted by United States Navy veteran Joe McDonald. "The music spoke for us. 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. Captured in Michael Wadleighs Oscar-winning 1970 documentary Woodstock, the three rousing minutes of Mr. McDonalds acoustic version of The Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-Im-Fixin-to-Die Rag became the premier Vietnam War protest anthem. Were all going to die capper. Country Joe McDonald is an American singer/songwriter and a Navy veteran. Country Joe McDonald was born on January 1, 1942 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. 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. With both numbers preserved on film and record--complete with bouncing ball for the sing-along--they remain among Woodstocks most recognized moments. More than any other American war, Vietnam had a soundtrack, and you listened to it whether you were marching in the jungle or in the streets. His first big audience was at a V.V.A.W. With the crucial exception of combat, music was ubiquitous in Vietnam, reaching soldiers via albums, cassettes and tapes of radio shows sent from home; on the Armed Forces Vietnam Network, featuring songs from stateside Top 40 stations; and on the legendary, if short-lived, underground broadcasts of Radio First Termer, a pirate station operated out of Saigon. The audience largely ignored his eight-song set. AKA Joseph Allen McDonald. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Opinion | Country Joe's Obscene Truths - The New York Times This album was a production collaboration of Fantasy's Chief Engineer Jim Stern, Joe and Bill Belmont. Street Spirit Interview with Country Joe McDonald Part 1 (April 2016 . Starting in 1982 Joe began actively working with and for Vietnam Veterans Against The War, Swords To Plowshares and Vietnam Veterans Of America to further the cause of the thousands of veterans who had become disenfranchised by the system's neglect. McDonald has recorded 33 albums and has written hundreds of songs over a career spanning 60 years. But hey -- 2023 is going to be fabulous . PHOTO AND ART CREDITS He started performing at folk clubs and coffeehouses, and even started his own magazine called "Rag Baby" which featured the San Francisco folk music scene. twice, with the audience responding, and then, the third time, "What's that spell? Tonights show is the first fund-raising event sponsored by Welcome Home Inc., a nonprofit organization supporting various Vietnam veteran outreach and counseling programs and public consciousness-raising projects, including Gov. Associated Press writer Michael Hill contributed from Albany, New York. [2] Thinking back, Breda rues that "subsequent generations didn't have the opportunity to experience something that I consider to have been so beautiful. Over six summer Sundays, an estimated 300,000 people in total gathered to see acts including Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & the Pips and like the upstate Woodstock crowd Sly and the Family Stone. 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. "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. Jefferson Airplane had finished their set just after 08:00 a.m., allowing the crowd to finally get some shut-eye. The next night, some 75 police officers with billy clubs, sidearms and mace welcomed the band to Boston. Historians of the 60s have recognized the importance of music as a lens for understanding movements, attitudes and opinions. He has become a well-respected scholar on the subject of her life and recently traveled to Turkey to further research her activities there during and after the Crimean War, as well as visiting sites relevant to her life in England. That spring along with wife Kathy and bass player Peter Walsh, he toured the US in a VW bus playing for vet groups and winding up at the vet camp-out cum convention (called Dewey Canyon IV) on the Mall in Washington. 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. His anti-war I Feel Like Im Fixin To Die Rag became a memorable Woodstock moment. . Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. A scheduled, prepaid appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was canceled, and they were banned for life (although they got to keep the money). In Worcester, Massachusetts, McDonald was arrested for obscenity and fined $500 for uttering "fuck" in public. 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. . 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. [7]. 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. Five Musical Facts About Country Joe McDonald. The band has performed The powerful sister of North Korea's leader says her country would stage more provocative displays of its military might in response to a new U.S.-South Korean agreement to intensify nuclear . By now he had decided that his records were to come out on his label, and a series of them did. 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. Its a soldiers song from a soldiers background and point of view. [20], For discography of Country Joe and the Fish, see that entry. Anyone can read what you share. A half-century later, the Harlem Cultural Festivals anniversary is being marked with events including a concert in the same park, hosted by rapper and activist Talib Kweli. The first official act on Day 3 was the mad Englishman, Joe Cocker. The same reaction took place across the country when the documentary and its accompanying three-L.P. soundtrack were released in 1970. Mostly as a vehicle for raising money for Vietnam Veterans Against The War, it featured members of local band Grootna and pointed political songs included the anti-draft "Kiss My Ass." If you were fortunate enough to return home from Vietnam, music echoed through those secret places where you stored memories, including some you never shared with your parents, spouse or children for decades. 2.Country Joe and the Fish As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Header image: LBJ Library photo, C2491-14A. ")[8] is well known to the Woodstock generation and Vietnam veterans of the 1960s and '70s. For Mr. Earle, though, Fixin-to-Die was more than simply a foul-mouthed goof. Music was the key to survival and a path to healing, the center of a human story thats too often lost in the haze of politics and myth that surrounds Vietnam. King as she encouraged G.I.s to lay down their weapons. 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. Among the four more albums delivered during these years were Love Is A Fire, Goodbye Blues, Rock And Roll Music From The Planet Earth and Leisure Suite. There are conflicting reports about when McDonald performed at Woodstock. Jay Graydon and David Foster teamed with singer Bill Champlin to write a string of 70s hits and drummer Steve Pocaro became LA's most in demand player. Don's son went to school with Seven, Don asked his son if she would be cool with him naming a character Seven, Seven said no, so it was either Six or Eight. Chile07. It became an underground favorite throughout Europe and the title track is still played on French radio. Publication date 1971-06-26 (check for other copies) Topics Live concert. Sam Charters, noted blues writer, producer and poet, was in charge of the record which was entitled Electric Music For The Mind and Body. That was a revelation to me., https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/opinion/country-joe-vietnam-woodstock.html. 2. Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942) [1] is an American musician, singer and political activist. 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. "Patriots: the Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides", Christian G. Appy, p. 199. McDonald's music spans a broad range of style and content. On the same day his band, Country Joe & the Fish, played at Woodstock, another audience of thousands was in a Harlem park for a concert with its own sense of community and yearnings to challenge the status quo. They also had a penchant for self-promotion and printed up posters and calendars using the style of the times. The first, a solo effort On My Own, was referred to by San Francisco Chronicle critic Joel Selvin as "masterly" and the live effort Into The Fray was by and large his biggest seller overseas. 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. Country Joe and the Fish: Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die Rag - Vietnam War This was later released in 1972 as Incredible Live. Since the players on the session made few mistakes and worked at this all the time, the recording was over very quickly; there was time left over so some country standards were tracked and both albums released the following year as Thinking Of Woody Guthrie and Tonight I'm Singing Just For You. In the summer of 1967, they were offered a series of gigs on the East Coast. 5.Back in Berkeley For Vietnam veterans and those who listen to their stories, the iconic music of the 1960s and early 70s provides access to a truer, deeper story of what Vietnam meant, and continues to mean. After some abortive attempts at reuniting the original Country Joe and the Fish, he formed the "Country Joe Band" with original members David Bennett Cohen, Bruce Barthol, and Gary "Chicken" Hirsh; the Country Joe Band toured throughout 2004 and 2005. In the 2008 HBO mini-series Generation Kill, a group of Marines on Humvee patrol belt it out in unison. Joseph Allen McDonald had been steeped in progressive politics long before he took the Woodstock stage. The song's anti-war message seems more timely than ever, with its savagely satirical attack on the arms merchants, the military and the White House. He found himself banned from appearing at most municipal buildings due to the "Fish Cheer" and a reputation of a performer with an "attitude," mostly due to outspoken political views, and his to the point, but off-color topical songs. Reticent at first because his band was slated to play later that weekend, the singer acquiesced after he was handed a Yamaha FG 150 guitar, tied with a rope in lieu of a strap, and ushered onstage. It was to have contained Joe's most topical song "Fixin' to Die Rag" but it was left off at the urging of the Vanguard's president Maynard Solomon who felt that it would become a "thorn in their side and prevent the band from getting any single play on the radio." Grove won its fight to gain the film's entry and the film opened in New York in 1971. Imagine this scenario: Woodstock, 1969. Performers included Country Joe McDonald, a Navy veteran who served mainly in Japan. Performers included Country Joe McDonald, a Navy veteran who served mainly in Japan. The familys middle-class life was upended when his father, a lineman for Pacific Bell, was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and lost his job, just as his son was entering his teenage years. C ountry Joe McDonald was born in Washington, D. C., in 1942, but grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte, California. McDonald, 44, never served in Vietnam. Political and ecological issues were set to musical accompaniment by Country Joe McDonald, who co-founded and led the psychedelic folk-rock band Country Joe & the Fish, the leading left-wing band of the '60s. . To many who went or wished they did, the pivotal festival of "peace and music" 50 years ago remains an inspiring moment of counterculture community and youthful freethinking. Country Joe McDonald is an American singer/songwriter and a Navy veteran. Country Joe McDonald, WWII Plaque Peace. He did say that! Joe left the troupe in late 1971 feeling that Fonda had missed the point; she did not seem to understand the problems the GIs and the returning Vietnam veterans were going through, and perhaps never would. [11], McDonald subsequently embarked on a solo career. "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine," released as the band's first 45, only made it to #98 on Billboard's "Top 100," but became a staple of American college radio. For those born after the last helicopters sank beneath the waves of the South China Sea, movies, documentaries and TV shows have repeatedly used music as a sonic background for depicting Vietnam as a tug of war between pro-war hawks and pro-peace doves. Don't Threaten. It was a trek to get near the stage. Free shipping for many products! They liked I was a kid doing Fixin-to-Die, Mr. Earle said. That act of defiance fired up the crowd of 20,000, but cost the band major exposure. Electric Music and the follow-up LP, I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die, remained on Billboard's album charts around #32 for about two years, while the group increasingly toured the "ballroom" circuit and colleges around America. [19], McDonald has four other children, Devin (b. News; . Joe's parents, Florence and Worden, had moved there after the War, World War II that is, when they began to have difficulties of a political kind. Likewise, For What Its Worth by Buffalo Springfield, the song frequently played to accompany film depictions of antiwar protests, had nothing to do with Vietnam per se Stephen Stills wrote it about a riot on the Sunset Strip yet it was as treasured by scores of Vietnam soldiers as it was by protesters in America. Rock n roll, soul, pop and country. Though he has no qualms about his veteran status now, he believes the climate has not improved significantly. Then something changed, Killer Mike goes off: Right now, in this country, your freedom of speech is at risk, Rihanna has Smurfs on the brain for her next movie: Hope this gives me cool points, Sexual assault began at 13, Runaways songwriter says; her suit names ex-KROQ DJ, band manager, Smokey Robinson on love, Motown and sex at 83: I feel as good as I felt when I was 40, Fugees rapper Pras found guilty of political conspiracy. Formed in Berkeley, California in 1965, the band was founded by Country Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton. ED, who also wrote for the weekly Berkeley Barb, concocted with Joe the idea of letting the audience know what was happening at all times; so they took out a 52 week 1/4 page ad in the Barb informing their audience where they were going to be in the coming week -- even if it was in Canada. 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.. 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. Just out of the Navy, he left us a lasting record of Woodstock, Army Special Ops Command welcomes first female command sergeant major, UN envoy says Sudans warring sides agree to negotiate, Russia missile attack on Ukraine injures 34, damages homes, Turkey claims its forces killed ISIS chief in Syria, Committee votes on major defense policy bill expected in May, Your next tech and incoming AI | Defense News Weekly Full Episode 4.28.2023, Home Improvement Loans What are my options? However, she stressed that the Welcome Home event will not be a look back at tragedy, but rather a positive step forward. Country Joe McDonald - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia As Michael Kramer observes in The Republic of Rock, the music of the 1960s and early 70s gave the generation a sonic framework for thinking, feeling, discussing and dancing out the vexing problems of democratic togetherness and individual liberation.. 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. The show was part of the Harlem Cultural Festival, a concert series that would later be dubbed a "Black Woodstock.". In fact, McDonald and a host of other musicians, actors and athletes will be cheered as they lead an event billed as the official welcome home celebration for our Vietnam veterans.. But what she remembers most was happening in the crowd concertgoers meeting each other, sharing what they had, playing guitars together. After his enlistment, he attended Los Angeles City College for a year. That Woodstock generation takes care of its own, McDonald quipped. Although his parents would later renounce Communism, Mr. McDonald had already seen firsthand how people could pay a price for their beliefs. Discover Best of Country Joe McDonald by Country Joe & the Fish, Country Joe McDonald released in 1998. "The Fish Cheer" had already gained popularity among kids in the New York City area due to McDonald's earlier Central Park performance and underground radio play. Before Country Joe McDonald galvanized the '60s protest movement with his zany antiwar anthem "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" in . 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. Country Joe McDonald - IMDb The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. The second featuring on the cover a picture of Joe and his wife of a year Robin and his daughter Seven Ann. 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Country Joe McDonald - Hold On It's Coming - Used Vinyl Record - J16280A at the best online prices at eBay! Country Joe McDonald live at Woodstock - YouTube President Joe Biden announces 2024 reelection campaign The band worked regularly in Berkeley at the Jabberwock coffee house on Telegraph, and became familiar faces at the two San Francisco ballrooms, the Avalon and the Fillmore Auditorium. The former Navy pilot would later earn the nomination. 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. America needs closure on the Vietnam experience, McDonald said. 6.Recent Work, The origin of the name 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.". Poland building Europe's BIGGEST military with 300,00 - The Sun Innovative, sarcastic, and political, Country Joe and The Fish was a prominent psychedelic rock band in San Francisco Bay Area in mid- to late 60s. [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?" Old Joe Corey03. [4][5][6] In their youth, both were Communist Party members and named their son after Joseph Stalin, before renouncing the cause. Woweven today, that gives me chills. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. His parents really laid the foundation. Country Joe Band, Country Joe McDonald - AllMusic 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. Al Sharpton sent a letter to McDonald's as they face . Between that and the communist card carrying stuff, trying to get the ROTC kicked off campus, etc. McDonald, 44, never served in Vietnam. It contained the greatest number of radio and commercial hits since the first two Fish LPs and gave Joe his first clear solo success. rally in front of the Alamo. There are going to be no speakers, no awards, no soap box, she promised. It, along with "Masked Marauder" and the other instrumental added to the album "Section 43," were notable in that they were instrumentals and were not only played on the radio, but played in performance as well. ; In a video, Biden framed next year's . [16] Seven was the subject of and inspiration behind the song "Silver and Gold". 1.The Early Years That got their attention. Vietnam. The word comes camouflaged in music. It's one of those indelible images from the Vietnam War era -- 1969, Woodstock, Country Joe McDonald up on the stage, belting out the era's anti-war anthem to more than half a million gyrating . 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. Their best known single, an anti-Vietnam War song called Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die Rag, was recorded and released in late 1967. 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. The man (repeat: man) has written feminist songs that are both catchy and sensible. 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. I had wished for a great virus-free year in 2022, but it's not looking so good. Country Joe McDonald Live at Celebration Of Life Festival on - Archive Breda didnt go to Woodstock looking for a societal vision. His upcoming album is titled The Vietnam Experience, and the latest issue of Tape Talk, Rag Babys audio cassette magazine, features music of 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. This series of articles32 in allcovers each of the artists who performed at the original Woodstock festival August 1518, 1969. The label was intended as a vehicle to release records by West Coast artists; since there was renewed interest in Europe at the time. The picture dealt with the intrigue and drama surrounding the election of Salvador Allende as President of Chile and the forces attempting to prevent it. George Deukmejians drive to build a Vietnam memorial in California. 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." See how this article appeared when it was originally published on NYTimes.com. "It was embarking onto 'what do we have already here where we can have people gather?'" Talley and McDonald characterized this as a first step in healing the wound left on the United States by the trauma of Vietnam.