His tour manager said that since nobody was paying attention, why not do the number he was saving for tomorrow night? Among its many fans was the singer-songwriter Steve Earle, then a teenager in San Antonio. Dr. Hip02. 1 song of 1966, is as much a reflection of the shifting politics of the country as it is about changes in musical tastes. The "Fish Cheer" evolved into the "Fuck Cheer" after the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. Old Joe Corey03. Although the crowd loved it, the management of the Schaefer Beer Festival did not and kicked the band off the tour for life. An unusual move by the company that staged the Weavers' reunion concert at Carnegie hall during the height of anti-left sentiment in the United States. There are conflicting reports about when McDonald performed at Woodstock. [11], McDonald subsequently embarked on a solo career. Joe's last album for Vanguard was recorded in New York and later released as Country Joe. I served three years and change, two in Japan, and it wasnt a bad experience, I didnt come out with anti-military views. 3. The band's popularity was further enhanced by the release in the summer of that year of a second EP -- called the "white EP" -- which contained three songs: "Bass Strings," "Section 43" and "(Thing Called) Love." During the recording session, Mr. McDonald made a spur-of-the-moment decision to kick off the song, and thus the album, with a bit of the old rah-rah. His "Tribute to Florence Nightingale" website has become a major resource for grade-schoolers. This series highlights the artists who performed at Woodstock August 15-18, 1969. Its going to be one big celebration. His first big audience was at a V.V.A.W. 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. He sang one of the great anthems of the era, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," to an audience of half-million at the Woodstock Arts and Music Festival in 1969. 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 first release from this new union was the best selling-highly acclaimed 1975 release Paradise With An Ocean View. I was only a young teen back then but I imagine some of the performers were amazing and made history. 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. [2] His father, Worden McDonald, from Oklahoma, was of Scottish Presbyterian heritage (the son of a minister) and worked for a telephone company. The first Country Joe and the Fish record was released in 1965, in time for the Vietnam Day Teach-In anti-war protest in Berkeley, California. . There were no reports of violence, and a local police chief called the crowd "the most courteous, considerate and well-behaved group of kids" he'd encountered in his career. 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. This lead to the 1988 Rag Baby release, Vietnam Experience which along with the film and video of the same name were to be Joe's "bookends" on the war in Vietnam. His leading of the F . She sang backup, Live from Willie Nelson 90 tribute: Keith Richards joins Willie at the Bowl, At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show. He didnt realize Fixin-to-Die had reached the grunts in the jungle until he worked with Jane Fonda on a U.S.O.-style antiwar tour called Free the Army (coincidentally, it was also known by the other F-word), and vets started telling him how much they loved his American blasphemy. Its strictly a show., (Tickets--priced at $16.50 and $17.50--are still available through TicketMaster and the Forum box office. I was tied up at the time, the late Sen. John McCain famously said in 2007. That Woodstock generation takes care of its own, McDonald quipped. I dont think that being a veteran is acceptable today in any mainstream sense, and I find that a very strange contradiction in the American mind-set, he said. In 2006, Ory was ordered to pay McDonald $395,000 for attorney fees and had to sell her copyrights to do so. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. Joe and his band had signed a recording contract with Vanguard Records in December of '66 and, having recorded it at Sierra Sound in Berkeley, were unaware of and more or less free from the watchful eyes of a record company. Peace. Free shipping for many products! Woweven today, that gives me chills. News; . I had wished for a great virus-free year in 2022, but it's not looking so good. 4. In 2015, McDonald (with assistance from Alec Palao), formed The Electric Music Band; the intention of the group was to perform the early psychedelic material of the early career of Country Joe And The Fish. It inpsired his career as a singer-songwriter and progressive activist. 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. The New York City show, at the Cafe Au Go-Go was the first time a light show had been brought to New York. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. Electric Music For The Mind And Body in its entirety, and band members include Palao, the Rain Parade's Matt Piucci and Derek See of the Chocolate Watchband. At its best during the Fete de L'Humanite in Paris it had eight members but for most of its life it was a quartet. Joe McDonald may have written the most in-your-face anti-war, anti-military song to come out of the '60s, but he was also one of the very few musicians on the San Francisco scene who'd served in uniform. 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. After serving in the Navy, McDonald moved to California and became heavily involved in the protest movement at Berkeley. A folk rock flavored album, it featured songs from the Chile film and "Memories," a long introspective song about growing up in the 60s. McDonald's music spans a broad range of style and content. Country Joe performing at the 1979 Woodstock reunion. . In need of someone to entertain the crowd while they waited, Joe McDonald, who happened to be backstage, stepped up to perform. 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. Country Joe McDonald, Soundtrack: Taking Woodstock. 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. By the next year Joe and his wife Robin had agreed to take part in an agit-prop theater group The F.T.A. Joseph Allen McDonald had been steeped in progressive politics long before he took the Woodstock stage. Free shipping for many products! 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. King as she encouraged G.I.s to lay down their weapons. He was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish. "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. Thinking back, Breda rues that "subsequent generations didn't have the opportunity to experience something that I consider to have been so beautiful. Max Yasgur, the dairy farmer who leased his land to the festival, said meeting them "forced me to open my eyes. C ountry Joe McDonald was born in Washington, D. C., in 1942, but grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte, California. Although McDonald had played then-recent anti-Gulf War rallies, the album is made up of personal, not political, songs.McDonald considered making Superstitious Blues his final album; it was his first album in 12 years to be distributed by a label other than his own. [19], McDonald has four other children, Devin (b. Concertgoers werent the only ones struck by the fellow-feeling and calm in the crowd despite scores of drug arrests, medical problems ranging from cut-up bare feet to LSD freakouts, and two deaths, one from a heroin overdose and another when a teen was run over, according to The Associated Press reporting from the time. Associated Press writer Michael Hill contributed from Albany, New York. There was no one baby boomer generation. Its a sentiment he has heard repeatedly. "Bass Strings" became one of the most popular songs played on the new up-and-coming radio format then simply called "progressive" radio. That was a revelation to me., https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/opinion/country-joe-vietnam-woodstock.html. The suit was brought by Ory's daughter Babette, who held the copyright at the time. Im sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. 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. Country Joe McDonald Live at Celebration Of Life Festival on 1971-06-26. by Country Joe McDonald. He considers the song to be essentially punk before punk existed. [10] Gary "Chicken" Hirsh suggested before one of the shows to spell the word "fuck" instead of "fish". says Beatty Barnes, who became a Broadway actress and singer. The cheer was on the original recording of "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag", being played right before the song on the LP of the same name. When Woodstock, the movie hit the theaters, "Fixin' To Die Rag" was in the middle of the film, with its lyrics spelled out, highlighted with a bouncing ball, including the "Cheer" and copious remarks about how many people seemed to be in the audience. And for some, Woodstock would serve as an enduring symbol of the divides of the Vietnam War on one side a throng of young people gathered for "peace and music," on the other more than a half-million of their peers fighting in Vietnam. The climax of the evening will see all the participants singing Welcome Home, a song McDonald wrote for the occasion. Born on January 1, 1942 to a leftist-oriented family, McDonald was named in honor of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. 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." [2] 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. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Navy for three years and was stationed in Japan. [Part 2]", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Country_Joe_McDonald&oldid=1142008307, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 01:20. It was a trek to get near the stage. Music was more than just background for us. Country Joe McDonald composed one of the most acclaimed peace anthems of the Vietnam era, "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag," a rebellious and uproarious blast against the war machine. Anyone can read what you share. 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. [14] In 1968, Menken gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Seven Anne McDonald, in San Francisco. 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. 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. Its not a pacifist song; its a soldiers song. The most radical line in the song, he added, is, Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box. Its military humor that only a soldier could get away with. "It was a really great thing.". 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. Little did he know that this impromptu set would include one of the most iconic anthems of the festival. Talley and McDonald characterized this as a first step in healing the wound left on the United States by the trauma of Vietnam. ), Plaschke: Lakers live up to their legacy with a close-out win for the ages, L.A. Affairs: I had my reasons for not dating white men. But he says hes more or less retired. They accepted and took with them a "light show," that curious by-product of the ballroom scene. Rain and mud abounded. Subscribe Log In Manage. 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. "Coyote" also from this LP was a 12" dance club hit in France and Germany when it was released there in 1978. 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. Kaili Bisson (author) from Canada on April 07, 2019: Hippie stuff for sure! Soldiers played it in their hooches on top-of-the-line tape decks theyd purchase cheap at the PX or via mail order from Japan; they listened to it over headphones in helicopters and planes. 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. 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. 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. Naturally, this is reflected in McDonalds music. It's Finally Over Joe at 75. Publication date 1971-06-26 (check for other copies) Topics Live concert. 1988) and Ryan (b. [7]. This series highlights the artists who performed at Woodstock August 15-18, 1969. 1. 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. 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. I met a soldier who was in the Hanoi Hilton for five years who said the Viet Cong would sometimes let them listen to music, he said. McDonald traveled to Turkey to research Nightingale's activities during and after the Crimean War and visited sites relevant to her life in England. [2], McDonald was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in El Monte, California, where he was student conductor and president of his high school marching band. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Country Joe McDonald The Early Years Rare 1978 Picc-A-Dilly Records Vinyl LP at the best online prices at eBay! He played Fixin-to-Die from the back of a flatbed trailer. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. McDonald makes it clear, though, that the veterans issue is not just one of a long list of causes for him, and that it is vitally linked to his first cause: peace. The group organized by Fonda and actor Donald Sutherland featured theater skits created by Ann and Roger Bowen, alumnae of the famed Chicago improvisation group "Second City". At Woodstock there was such a negative feeling toward the military that I subconsciously blocked it (his service) from my mind, McDonald said from the Berkeley office of his Rag Baby record company. Ive always believed that the veterans are a basic element to the understanding of war, he said, and the understanding of war is the only path to peace.. In April of 1971, Joe agreed to take part in coast-to-coast anti war demonstrations. He began his solo career with a collection of Woody Guthrie songs. He is still alive and performing, as I will note in my article on "Country Joe and The Fish." Historians of the 60s have recognized the importance of music as a lens for understanding movements, attitudes and opinions. Like some of his earlier material, the songs he performed and wrote were a reflection of changing times. Country Joe McDonald is an American singer/songwriter and a Navy veteran. If I had known what the end result of that clip being in the film would have been, I dont know if I would have done it, McDonald said. I never had a plan for a career in music, so Woodstock changed my life, Mr. McDonald, now 75, said in an interview from his home in Berkeley, Calif. An accidental performance of Fixin-to-Die, a work of dark humor that helps people deal with the realities of the Vietnam War, established me as an international solo performer, then the movie came out and the song went on to become what it still is today.. PHOTO AND ART CREDITS Country Joe McDonald was born on January 1, 1942 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Taking Woodstock (2009), Woodstock (1970) and Hamburger Hill (1987). The more liberal European artist climate did not prepare him for the conditions he returned to. His remark an allusion to his 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam got a standing ovation from a Republican presidential primary debate audience. This demonstration, the beginning of what was to be a week of protests throughout the Capitol, proved to be one of the pivotal popular manifestations of disenchantment with the Nixon administration's conduct of the war. This series highlights the artists who performed at Woodstock August 15-18, 1969. Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942) [1] is an American musician, singer and political activist. Before Country Joe McDonald galvanized the '60s protest movement with his zany antiwar anthem "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" in . Though he has no qualms about his veteran status now, he believes the climate has not improved significantly. Performers included Country Joe McDonald, a Navy veteran who served mainly in Japan. President Joe Biden formally announced he's running for reelection Tuesday, setting the stage for a potential rematch against his predecessor, Donald Trump. 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. That got their attention. Barry Sadlers The Ballad of the Green Berets, the No. 2. Still, the song lives on. 1. 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. Five Musical Facts About Country Joe McDonald. Security was thin. It was the mid-1960s, just as the Free Speech movement on campus was morphing into the antiwar movement. Jesse James09. HI 1001 (PD, copyright has expired or ineligible for copyright.). Country Joe and the Fish sounded a political note. This troupe performed at alternative coffee house near military installations, catering to GIs who were disenchanted with the military but had no formal mode of expressing it. Issue number one of the magazine was a talking version released as an EP, with 100 copies produced. Those who wish to make donations or purchase tickets to be used by veterans can call (213) 281-7817 for information.). 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." 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. The second broke new ground in its use of horns and strings as "sweetening," a common device in standard pop, but until this record, not used at all in new "progressive" rock. Although his parents would later renounce Communism, Mr. McDonald had already seen firsthand how people could pay a price for their beliefs. The singer walked back out, alone, and called to the masses, Give me an F!. The show went on to make a film of a Far Eastern tour, F.T.A., released theatrically in '72, then withdrawn. 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. 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.. 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. March 13, 2018 101 Navy veteran Country Joe McDonald, lower right, and his band Country Joe and The Fish. Relatively unknown, Santana was a festival hit. ", A portion of the 400,000 concert goers who attended the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival held on a 600-acre pasture near Bethel, N.Y. in 1969. In Worcester, Massachusetts, McDonald was arrested for obscenity and fined $500 for uttering "fuck" in public. 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.