Country Joe and the Fish Biography
From San Fran to Woodstock via Monterey and the Famous Fish Cheer
Country Joe and the Fish - one of the leading psychedelic bands of San Francisco's Summer of Love. With appearances at Monterey and Woodstock, they helped define an era.
Born in Los Angeles in 1942, Country Joe McDonald was a mainstay of the Summer of Love and the 1960s anti-war movement and remains active in that same movement through to the present day. His music is recognised across the world and he is probably best known for the ‘Fish Cheer’ sequence in the film of the 1969 Woodstock Festival where he performed with his band Country Joe and the Fish.
Early Days: San Francisco, Monterey and the Psychedelic Sound
In the early 60s, Joe went to Berkeley, just across the bay from San Francisco, to study but found himself drawn more to music than to his studies. Berkeley was at the time a hot-bed of radical thought focused on the anti-Vietnam War movement and the just-across-the-bay first stirrings of the San Francisco sound starting to come together out of the folk-revival that had brought Bob Dylan and Joan Baez to national and international attention.
Out of these 2 influences came Country Joe and the Fish which Joe formed with Barry Melton. The band’s eclectic and innovative mix of psychedelia, political satire, folk, rock and ragtime made for a unique sound and a unique message.
The band played regularly at the 2 main San Francisco ‘underground’ venues, the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium, and were quickly signed by Vanguard Records.
The first album was called Electric Music For The Mind and Body. This was followed by the very successful I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die and they appeared in the first of the pop festivals, Monterey, also appearing in the film in an exceptionally memorable sequence.
In 1967, they introduced the San Franciscan ‘light show’ now indelibly associated with psychedelic music to New York with its first east coast appearance being at the Cafe Au Go-Go in New York City. A year later, they were touring Europe and had released third and fourth albums Together and Here We Are Again.
The latter of these included appearances by Jack Casady of the band Jefferson Airplane and David Getz and Peter Albin of Big Brother and the Holding Company. Both bands had helped define the San Francisco sound.
Woodstock and the 'Fish Cheer'
In 1969, Country Joe and the Fish appeared at the Woodstock Festival. Country Joe took the stage as a solo artist immediately after Richie Havens, the opening act, on the Friday. Havens had also performed a solo set. Country Joe took the stage to perform a hastily-organised set because other scheduled performers could not get to the site because the sheer numbers of attendees were blocking the roads.
Some way into the set, Joe decided to perform a very popular anti-war song ‘Fixin' to Die Rag’ which began with what was known as the ‘Fish Cheer’. On the record, the cheer starts with a dialogue between the singer who demands ‘give me an F’, ‘give me an I’, ‘give me an S’ and ‘give me an H’ with the chorus responding with each letter as asked and then answering ‘Fish’ when the singer asks ‘What’s that spell?’
At Woodstock, as he had at the Shaefer Summer Festival in New York the previous year, Joe substituted a well-known anglo-saxon expletive for ‘fish’. The resultant call and answer with the immense crowd made it into the film of the Festival and the rest, as they say, is history.
Since Woodstock
Country Joe and the Fish stopped performing when Joe turned to solo work. He continues to perform to the present day, occasionally with some of the original members of ‘the Fish’ He has also continued to support radical causes and the anti-war movement.
Country Joe and the Fish were and remain an archetypal psychedelic band. Country Joe maintains the Country Joe website with free music, video of old performances (including the 'fish cheer') photos and news and stories of this great artist.
