"Be the first one on your block/ To have your boy come home in a box" was a bitter and angry joke that absolutely captured the way that unjust and wrong war was sold with rah-rah 'patriotism' to Americans."

Of course it was, very mordant. However, for my friend Mark, whose buddies did go home in boxes, it was nothing to joke about in any way. ("Doo-wacka-doo!") I briefly thought about trying to "explain" to Mark that it was a joke and that he and Country Joe were "on the same side," but I realized it would be futile and arrogant. You wouldn't sing it at the funeral of a Viet Vet against the War, and Mark carried their funerals with him.