Country Joe and the Fish
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Country Joe and the Fish was a rock music/folk music band known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1965 to 1970.
The lead singer was "Country" Joe McDonald. The lead guitarist was Barry "The Fish" Melton. Co-founders McDonald and Melton added musicians as needed over the life of the band.
The band was an early example of Psychedelic music. 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" (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. Country Joe and The Fish were regulars at Fillmore West and East and the Family Dog at the Avalon. They were billed with such groups as Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, 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, entitled 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", which debuted the same year of 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 Joe's "Fixin" Rag infringed her copyright to Kid Ory's Dixieland jazz standard "Muskrat Ramble". In August of 2003, the court case was decided in Joe's favor, since Kid Ory, Babette Ory, and the Muskat Ramble publisher had all known of Joe's 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 Joe McDonald.
Barry 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.
Contents |
[edit] Discography
[edit] EP's
- Talking Issue #1, Rag Baby (1964)
- Country Joe and the Fish, Rag Baby (1966)
[edit] Studio & live albums
- Electric Music for the Mind and Body, Vanguard (September 1967)
- I Feel Like I'm Fixin to Die, Vanguard (1967)
- Together, Vanguard (1968)
- Here We Go Again, Vanguard (1969)
- CJ Fish, Vanguard (1970)
- Reunion, Vanguard (1977)
- Live! Fillmore West 1966, Vanguard (1996)
[edit] Compilations
- Greatest Hits, Vanguard (1969)
- Life and Times of Country Joe and the Fish, Vanguard (1971)
- Collector's Items: The First 3 EPs, Rag Baby (1980)
- Collected Country Joe and the Fish, Vanguard (1988)
[edit] External links
Uncle Steve Played with country joe and the fish at Woodstock
