Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...

Subject: Country Joe
From: Bugsy
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 03:42 AM

A friend of mine emailed this to me last night.
Old Joe can still tell it like it is.

CHeers


Bugsy

COUNTRY JOE: NO MONEY IN MAKING PROTEST SONGS

by JOHN BECK/THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

Country Joe McDonald,
``The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Rag,'' (1965)

It's not as if he doesn't care anymore, but Country Joe McDonald hasn't made it to the latest round of anti-war rallies.

``Nobody's asked me,'' he says. ``It sounds ridiculous, but I've had stuff to do and I've got kids and they don't all want to go ... I really didn't think my presence would make a difference.''

Such is the plight of the middle-aged folksinger turned house husband.

But he's impressed by the numbers, the hundreds of thousands who marched recently in cities such as San Francisco and Washington D.C. ``I think George W. Bush would have started this ----ing war months ago if he could have,''he says, talking on the phone from his longtime home in Berkeley.

At the age of 61, it's not like he hasn't paid his dues. At 1960s Bay Area protests, and festivals such as Woodstock, his caustic ``Fixin' To Die Rag''was a focal point in an anti-Vietnam War movement that included Bob Dylan,Joan Baez and Phil Ochs.Sing along: ``It's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam.''

When McDonald penned the song in 1965, ``there were about 30 hippies in Berkeley at the time,'' he remembers. He pressed only 70 copies of the self-produced song and still couldn't sell all of them.

``There wasn't a store to sell it in so we left it on a bookstore counter and sold it for 50 cents,'' he says. ``When I performed, if we had an audience of 20 it was pretty good.''

The taunting protest song ``didn't go mainstream'' until 1970 when the
Woodstock film came out nationwide.

Now, as the country teeters on the brink of war, he feels it's time for another generation of musicians and activists to sound the rallying cry.

``They can have the reins,'' he said with a laugh. ``Whatever that means.God bless them.''

He is amused by obvious press stunts like Mickey Hart's recent trip to
Cuba ``to drink wine and smoke cigars with Fidel'' and Sean Penn's Iraq junket.

He cringed at last year's post-Sept. 11 Super Bowl halftime spectacle.

``I thought it was so offensive that Bono lined the inside of his jacket with an American flag. It made me want to puke ... and to scroll all those names during a Super Bowl halftime show.''

``I don't see many people who impress me in the way they're using their celebrity status to advocate realistically for the safety of military personnel and for peace and understanding in the world.''

Why?

``It's bad for business. When you're really protesting, you're offending.
And you're not offending the rank and file. You're offending the powers that be.
When you offend the powers that be, you can ruin your career.''

Defining the powers that be, he lumps the politicians in with the media conglomerates that control not only radio stations, but booking agencies and concert venues.

``I think musicians would be scared to come out with an offensive protest song today because Clear Channel would be offended by it,'' he said.

Just in the Bay Area alone, Clear Channel owns more than a dozen radio
stations, Bill Graham Presents and exclusively books venues like the
Fillmore, the Chronicle Pavilion and Shoreline Amphitheater.

Far removed from the public eye, McDonald still plays about three dozen shows a year. He's a self-described ``house husband'' who spends a lot of time watching his kids while his wife works as a nurse. He does steady mail-order business off his website at www.countryjoe.com. He's been teaching songwriting, and working on a Woody Guthrie tribute show for about a year.

Nearly 40 years old, ``Fixin' to Die Rag'' never made much money.
"Nor was that the intention,'' he said. ``It was to address an esoteric problem in a specific way. The surprise of it is that I've heard so many Vietnam vets tell me they love the song -- that it provided a link of sanity to an insane reality.''

Beyond raising awareness about Vietnam, part of his legacy will be opening the door for other musicians to feel comfortable voicing their opinion.

"Music today is full of complaining about the system, not just in rap
music but in everything,'' he said. ``There's a permissibility in language that's perhaps acceptable today because of my lyrics and content and other people's 30 years ago.''

Can he envision a song like Bob Dylan's ``Masters of War'' coming out
today?

``Someone might be writing that song right now and we don't know.''

Country Joe McDonald, forever linked to Vietnam War protest, had a 4-year tour of duty in the Navy during the early 1960s.

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 05:13 AM

Well, I sang "Fixin' to die" a couple of months back, and it went down well; mainly because most of the listeners were old enough to remember it the first time. I said I wanted to get it in while there was still time: it wouldn't be funny soon.

I think today's protests are going to be made by demonstrators, not musiscians. A good song would be a very useful tool for them -- remember "We shall overcome" -- and would spread easily by word of mouth and on the 'Net.

Steve

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 05:16 AM

I'm in England, BTW; things are a bit different over here, but nt that much!

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:39 AM

I would agree with Joe's assessment of some celebrities, but frankly, I'm getting fed up with the people who keep publicly bashing actors, writers, musicians, filmmakers, etc. for taking stands on issues they care about, and doing an admirable job of being accountable for their citizen duties.

The government/media propagandists have done a good job brainwashing everyone into believing the only people who serve the nation are soldiers and politicians.

I'll repeat (I think) Saul Alinsky's words again--the cost of freedom is daily citizenship. Not military service, or padding your wallets and resumes in Washington DC.

Besides, how committed to citizen activism is Country Joe? Apparently not very, if he can't contribute unless he is asked to be play the star (which is how this interview reads). I'm pretty disappointed in this article. It just takes a cheap shot at artists who have been involved in citizen activism for decades, like Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, god the list is just too long.

He sounds like a bitter man--bitter that his celebrity didn't last longer than it did.

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 07:48 AM

Fixin' to Die never made much money? For goodness sake, I must know several hundred people in Ireland alone who had the Country Joe album! Multiply that across the world...

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From: GUEST,Woodsie
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 10:19 AM

Saw Country Joe at QEH Southbank three or four years ago superb!!!

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From: GUEST,Benjamin at College
Date: 14 Feb 03 - 05:31 PM

I heard a story that when Country Joe was asked if liked Janis Joplin (or someone of that nature) or Courtney Love better, he replyed "Who's Courtney Love?" I wish I could say the same thing personally.

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From:
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 11:07 PM

GUEST,Benjamin at Colleg, "I wish I could say the same thing personally." Do you mean about Courtney Love, or Country Joe?

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 12:38 AM

I've enjoyed exploring http://www.countryjoe.com/ - Country Joe's Website. He's done a good job on it.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Country Joe Tells It Like It Is...
From: voyager
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 01:04 PM

Re: Fixing To Die Rag (FTDR) -

A few years back when my son was studying High School
trombone I encouraged him to listen to KID ORY from the
Jazz era and Louis Armstrong's Hot Five band. Bottom
line - Country Joe sent me a note saying that his Dixieland
Band had picked up on the Muskrat Ramble tune and one thing
led to another...

Here is some more recent chatter about the estate of Kid Ory
and Country Joe mixing it up in copyright law.

Fixing to Sue Rag

voyager