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.
Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald is an American singer, songwriter and musician who was the lead vocalist of the 1960s psychedelic rock group 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.
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.
Bruce Barthol was an American musician, singer and songwriter. Born at Alta Bates Hospital, Berkeley, California, he was the original bass player for the psychedelic rock band Country Joe and the Fish, from its inception through November 1968. According to the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Barthol's departure from Country Joe and the Fish stemmed from a dispute with other band members over a potential performance at the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests.
"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.
Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965–1970 is the fourth Nuggets box set released by Rhino Records. It was released in 2007 and packaged as an 8 1/2 x 11" 120 page hardcover book, the first 73 pages of which were made up mostly of vintage photographs. The compilation focuses on San Francisco Sound bands. Its title is derived from the first line of "Get Together," two versions of which open and close the four-disc set. Although the liner notes cite the 1965 Rag Baby EP as the source for the Country Joe & the Fish track "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag", it was actually taken from the 1967 LP I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die.
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.
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.
Together is the third album by the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Country Joe and the Fish, released in 1968. Country Joe McDonald had briefly left the band prior to the recording sessions. All of the band members contributed to the songwriting. Together is the most commercially successful album from the band.
Reunion is the sixth studio album by the American psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish, released in 1977. It constituted a reunion of the members of the 1967 band. It was produced by Sam Charters for Fantasy Records and recorded between January and April 1977. The music is not as psychedelic, and several tracks are country rock.
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.
Woodstock 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm is a six-CD live box-set album of the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Its release marked the 40th Anniversary of the festival.
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.
The Best of Woodstock is a 1-CD live compilation album of the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, New York. Its release marked the 25th anniversary of the festival. It contains tracks which were already released on the original Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More album. Shortly after the album's release, Atlantic Records released a much longer 4-CD box set entitled Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music, which contained tracks from the original album, Woodstock 2, and numerous additional, previously unreleased performances from the festival, but not the stage announcements and crowd noises.
Here We Are Again is the fourth album by the psychedelic rock band Country Joe and the Fish. It was released in 1969 with the US catalog number Vanguard VSD 79299. It peaked on the Billboard 200 at number 48, and stayed on the charts for eleven weeks. Only "Country Joe" McDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton remained from the original lineup, which had begun breaking up since the previous album. The past members would appear as guest musicians though. The songs were composed by McDonald and Melton.
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.
Woodstock – Back to the Garden: 50th Anniversary Collection is a live album by various artists. It was recorded at the Woodstock music festival, which took place on August 15–18, 1969, in Bethel, New York. It includes 30 songs by 21 different musical artists, in order of performance, along with a number of stage announcements. It was released as a three-disc CD and as a five-disc LP on June 28, 2019.
