Country Joe McDonald

Last updated

Country Joe McDonald
Countryjoe 79 crop.jpg
McDonald performing at Parr Meadows 1979
Background information
Birth nameJoseph Allen McDonald
Also known asCountry Joe
Born (1942-01-01) January 1, 1942 (age 82)
Washington, D.C.
Genres
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, musician, political activist
Instrument(s)Vocals, acoustic guitar
Years active1959–present
Labels
Website countryjoe.com

Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942) [1] is an American singer, songwriter and musician who was the lead vocalist of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish. [2]

Contents

Early life and early career

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. [3] At the age of 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy for three years and was stationed in Japan. After his enlistment, he attended Los Angeles City College for a year. In the early 1960s, he began busking on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. [2] His father, Worden McDonald, from Oklahoma, was of Scottish Presbyterian heritage (the son of a minister) and worked for a telephone company. His mother, Florence Plotnick, was the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants and served for many years on the Berkeley City Council. [4] [5] [6] In their youth, both were Communist Party members and named their son after Joseph Stalin, before renouncing the cause. [7] [8]

Music career

Country Joe McDonald (Kralingen, 1970) CountryJoeMcDonaldKralingen1970.jpg
Country Joe McDonald (Kralingen, 1970)

McDonald has recorded 33 albums and has written hundreds of songs over a career spanning 60 years. In 1965, he and Barry Melton co-founded Country Joe & the Fish which became a pioneer psychedelic rock band with their eclectic performances at the Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore Auditorium, the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and both the 1969 original and 1979 reunion Woodstock Festivals.

"Legendary Artists: Sounds of San Francisco" at an Audio Engineering Society convention in 2012. Left to right: Mario Cipollina, Peter Albin, Joel Selvin, McDonald SF Sounds - AES Historical session 2012.jpg
"Legendary Artists: Sounds of San Francisco" at an Audio Engineering Society convention in 2012. Left to right: Mario Cipollina, Peter Albin, Joel Selvin, McDonald

Their best-known song is his "The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" (1965), a black comedy novelty song about the Vietnam War, whose familiar chorus ("One, two, three, what are we fighting for?") [9] is well known to the Woodstock generation and Vietnam veterans of the 1960s and '70s. McDonald wrote the song in about 20 minutes for an anti-Vietnam War play. [10] 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?" twice, with the audience responding, and then, the third time, "What's that spell?", followed immediately by the song. The "Fish Cheer" evolved into the "Fuck Cheer" after the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. 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. The cheer became popular and the crowd would spell out F-I-S-H when the band performed live. During the summer of 1968 the band played on the Schaefer Music Festival tour. [11] Gary "Chicken" Hirsh suggested before one of the shows to spell the word "fuck" instead of "fish". Although the crowd loved it, the management of the Schaefer Beer Festival did not and kicked the band off the tour for life. The Ed Sullivan Show then canceled a previously scheduled appearance by the band, telling them to keep the money they had already been paid in exchange for never playing on the show. [11] The modified cheer continued at most of the band's live shows throughout the years, including Woodstock and elsewhere. In Worcester, Massachusetts, McDonald was arrested for obscenity and fined $500 for uttering "fuck" in public. [12]

McDonald subsequently embarked on a solo career. One of his solo albums, the 1973 Vanguard LP Paris Sessions, was reviewed by Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), in which he said: "Amazing. The man (repeat: man) has written feminist songs that are both catchy and sensible. Despite the real/honest prison poem and the silly, outdated record fan routines, his best in about five years." [13]

McDonald at the LBJ Library in 2016 DIG13875 jjg-062.jpg
McDonald at the LBJ Library in 2016

In 2003 McDonald was sued for copyright infringement over his signature song, specifically the "One, two, three, what are we fighting for?" chorus part, as derived from the 1926 early jazz classic "Muskrat Ramble", co-written by Kid Ory. The suit was brought by Ory's daughter Babette, who held the copyright at the time. 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 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. In 2006, Ory was ordered to pay McDonald $395,000 for attorney fees and had to sell her copyrights to do so.

In 2004, McDonald regrouped with three of the original members of Country Joe and the Fish (Bruce Barthol, David Bennett Cohen, and Gary "Chicken" Hirsh) and they toured the United States and the United Kingdom as the "Country Joe Band".

In 2005, McDonald joined a larger protest against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts at the California State Capitol Building. Later in 2005, political commentator Bill O'Reilly compared McDonald to Cuban President Fidel Castro, remarking on McDonald's involvement in Cindy Sheehan's protests against the Iraq War. [14]

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. The band has performed 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.

In 2017, McDonald released an album on his own Rag Baby label entitled 50.

In 2019, McDonald was scheduled to play on Woodstock's 50th Anniversary festival, which was cancelled after negotiations between partners failed.

Personal life

Photo from Country Joe's 1968 marriage to Robin Menken Country Joe and Robin Menken wedding.jpg
Photo from Country Joe's 1968 marriage to Robin Menken

McDonald was married to Kathe Werum from 1963 to 1966.

McDonald has noted that his girlfriend at the time, Janis Joplin, showed much anger for breaking up with her to be with Robin Menken but asked him to write a song about her; the result was "Janis". [9] [15]

On 31 March 1968, McDonald married Robin Menken, a year after his divorce from Werum. [16]

In 1968, Menken gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Seven Anne McDonald, in San Francisco. Seven had a career as a TV child actor in the late 1970s and early 1980s,[ citation needed ] managed Johnny Depp's Viper Room nightclub and the alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins in the 1990s, [17] [18] and wrote for Details , Elle , LA Weekly and Harper's Bazaar magazines in the 1990s and 2000s. [17] Seven was the subject of and inspiration behind the song "Silver and Gold". [16]

Seven's name was the inspiration behind the character Six on Blossom, cited by Don Reo on PeopleTV special Blossom Cast Reunion aired 2017, timestamp 10:07-10:33. 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. [19]

McDonald has four other children, Devin (b. 1976) and Tara (b. 1980) from his marriage to Janice Taylor, and Emily (b. 1988) and Ryan (b. 1991) from his marriage to Kathy Wright. [16]

McDonald lives in Berkeley, California. [20]

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Soundtracks

Collaborative albums

Compilation albums

Filmography

Actor

Documentary

McDonald is featured in the 2024 documentary Cover Your Ears produced by Prairie Coast Films and directed by Sean Patrick Shaul , discussing music censorship. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Country Joe and the Fish</span> American psychedelic rock band

Country Joe and the Fish was an American psychedelic rock band formed in Berkeley, California, in 1965. The band was among the influential groups in the San Francisco music scene during the mid-to-late 1960s. Much of the band's music was written by founding members Country Joe McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton, with lyrics pointedly addressing issues of importance to the counterculture, such as anti-war protests, free love, and recreational drug use. Through a combination of psychedelia and electronic music, the band's sound was marked by innovative guitar melodies and distorted organ-driven instrumentals which were significant to the development of acid rock.

Claire Burch was an American author, filmmaker and poet.

<i>Electric Music for the Mind and Body</i> 1967 studio album by Country Joe and the Fish

Electric Music for the Mind and Body is Country Joe and the Fish's debut album. Released in May 1967 on the Vanguard label, it was one of the first psychedelic albums to come out of the San Francisco Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Melton</span> Musical artist

Barry "The Fish" Melton is the co-founder and original lead guitarist of Country Joe and the Fish and Dinosaurs. He appears on all the Country Joe and the Fish recordings and he also wrote some of the songs that the band recorded. He appeared in the films made at Monterey Pop and Woodstock, and also appeared as an outlaw in the neo-Western film Zachariah and other films in which Country Joe and the Fish appear. An attorney and member of the State Bar of California, Melton has maintained a criminal defense practice since 1982.

<i>Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More</i> 1970 live album by various artists

Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More is a live album of selected performances from the 1969 Woodstock counterculture festival officially known as "The Woodstock Music & Art Fair". The album was compiled & produced by Eric Blackstead. Originally released on Atlantic Records' Cotillion label as a triple album on May 11, 1970, it was re-released as a 4 CD box by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs in 1986 followed by a two-CD set released by Atlantic in 1987. Atlantic re-issued the two-CD set in 1994 correcting a few mastering errors found on their 1987 release. Veteran producer Eddie Kramer along with Lee Osbourne were the sound engineers during the three-day event.

<i>I-Feel-Like-Im-Fixin-to-Die</i> 1967 studio album by Country Joe and the Fish

I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die is the second studio album by the influential San Francisco psychedelic rock band, Country Joe and the Fish, released at the end of 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag</span> 1967 song by Country Joe and the Fish

"I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag" is a song by the American psychedelic rock band Country Joe and the Fish, written by Country Joe McDonald, and first released as the opening track on the extended play Rag Baby Talking Issue No. 1, in October 1965. "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag"'s dark humor and satire made it one of the most recognized protest songs against the Vietnam War. Critics cite the composition as a classic of the counterculture era.

<i>Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965–1970</i> 2007 box set by Various Artists

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Bennett Cohen</span> American musician

David Bennett Cohen is an American musician best known as the original keyboardist and one of the guitar players for the late-1960s psychedelic rock and blues band Country Joe and the Fish.

<i>Thinking of Woody Guthrie</i> 1969 studio album by Country Joe McDonald

Thinking of Woody Guthrie was released in 1969 by Vanguard Records and is the debut solo album of Country Joe McDonald, best known for his work with Country Joe & the Fish. It was a different approach by McDonald to release a folk music and country album in the style of Woody Guthrie. Prior to this solo release, he was known to make albums in a psychedelic style with his band. The album was a tribute to the work of Woody Guthrie, a country and folk musician who died two years earlier. All of the tracks on the album were either composed or performed by Guthrie. McDonald was heavily influenced by Guthrie since he was a child. McDonald could recall his interest of Guthrie came first when his parents played Guthrie's first album, Dust Bowl Ballads. Even though McDonald has issued several albums in his career, he looks to this album as the piece he is most proud of.

"Muskrat Ramble" is a jazz composition written by Kid Ory in 1926. It was first recorded on February 26, 1926, by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and became the group's most frequently recorded piece. It was paired on the flip side with another one of Armstrong's hits, "Heebie Jeebies." It was a prominent part of the Dixieland revival repertoire in the 1930s and 1940s, and was recorded by Bob Crosby, Roy Eldridge, Lionel Hampton, Woody Herman, Muggsy Spanier, Chet Atkins, Lu Watters, the Andrews Sisters, Harry James, and Al Hirt, among others. It is considered a part of the jazz standard repertoire.

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<i>CJ Fish</i> 1970 studio album by Country Joe and the Fish

CJ Fish is the fifth album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock group, Country Joe and the Fish, released in April 1970 on the Vanguard label. It would be the first production with Tom Wilson and Country Joe & the Fish's last studio album for Vanguard Records. Recording took place at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, California.

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<i>Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music</i> 1994 live album by Various artists

Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music is a 4-CD live box-set album of the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Its release marked the 25th anniversary of the festival. The box set contains tracks from Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More, Woodstock 2, and numerous additional, previously unreleased performances from the festival as well as the stage announcements and crowd noises. Just prior to the box set's release, Atlantic Records released a much shorter 1-CD version entitled The Best of Woodstock. In 2019, Rhino Records issued a 38-CD box set called Woodstock – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive which includes every musical performance as well as stage announcements and other ancillary material.

<i>The Best of Woodstock</i> 1994 live album by Various artists

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<i>The Life and Times of Country Joe and the Fish</i> 1971 compilation album by Country Joe and the Fish

The Life and Times of Country Joe and the Fish is a compilation album by the American psychedelic rock band Country Joe and the Fish and was released on Vanguard Records in September 1971. The album provides a summary of Country Joe and the Fish's history from their formation in 1965 to their disbandment in 1970, and also serves as a survey of their recording career during that span. Although the track listing is not in a specified chronological order, it does encompass a mixture of their most celebrated experimental and traditionally-structured compositions. All of the songs included on the original The Life and Times of Country Joe and the Fish album can all be found on the band's first five albums, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die, Together, Here We Are Again, and CJ Fish.

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The protest music that came out of the Vietnam War era was stimulated by the unfairness of the draft, the loss of American lives in Vietnam, and the unsupported expansion of war. The Vietnam War era (1955–1975) was a time of great controversy for the American public. Desperate to stop the spread of communism in South-East Asia, the United States joined the war effort. Although it was a civil war between Southern and Northern Vietnam, a larger war was taking place behind it. The Soviet Union, a communist country, was supporting North Vietnam, leading the United States to support Southern Vietnam in the hope that it adopts a democratic government. Many of the people in Southern Vietnam did not want America's assistance in the war, and many Americans did not want to be involved.

References

  1. ↑ Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 1558. ISBN   0-85112-939-0.
  2. 1 2 Richard Brenneman, "Country Joe McDonald Revives Anti-War Anthem" Archived September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , Berkeley Daily Planet , April 16, 2004, accessed July 18, 2007.
  3. ↑ "Patriots: the Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides", Christian G. Appy, p. 196.
  4. ↑ "The Jewish Standard". Jstandard.com. August 14, 2009. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Country Joe McDonald, The Country Joe Band". Country Joe's Place. Retrieved April 19, 2014.
  6. ↑ "meltoneightmiles". Cjfishlegacy.com. Retrieved April 19, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Patriots: the Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides", Christian G. Appy, pp. 195–196.
  8. ↑ "Red Diaper Babies". AP News. Archived from the original on July 12, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
  9. 1 2 Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 42 – The Acid Test: Psychedelics and a sub-culture emerge in San Francisco. [Part 2]" (audio). Pop Chronicles . University of North Texas Libraries.
  10. ↑ "Patriots: the Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides", Christian G. Appy, p. 199.
  11. 1 2 Country Joe McDonald, "That Notorious Cheer", accessed October 10, 2007.
  12. ↑ cited in Jacques Attali's Noise: The Political Economy of Music citing Pop-music/Rock by Philippe Daufouy and Jean-Pierre Sarton (Champ Libre, 1972).
  13. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: M". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved March 7, 2019– via robertchristgau.com.
  14. ↑ The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, October 19, 2005.
  15. ↑ "Country Joe McDonald, An Autobiography". countryjoe.com.
  16. 1 2 3 Cabral, Ron (March 31, 2004). Country Joe and Me. AuthorHouse. ISBN   978-1-4184-0642-4.
  17. 1 2 "Seven McDonald". LinkedIn.
  18. ↑ "Bio". Read24seven.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2014.
  19. ↑ "'Blossom' Reunion ft Mayim Bialik, Joey Lawrence, Jenna von Oÿ & More! (2017) | PEOPLE". YouTube .
  20. ↑ "Fixin' to Retire". Mercury News. July 15, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
  21. ↑ Country Joe McDonald at AllMusic: Discography
  22. ↑ Answers.com, Discography
  23. ↑ "Country Joe McDonald". IMDB. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Cover Your Ears".
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