Country Joe's Rag

January 29, 2003 2:25 PM

Fixin'to Die after all these years Woodstock-era protest singer Country Joe McDonald still keeps an active pulse on today's events on his website. One of what eventually came to be perhaps his most famous song, the "I-Feel-Like-Fixin'-to-Die rag" has taken new life in light of current events, which is quite simple to deduct: just substitute all the Vietnam references with "Iraq" and there you have it - as many people have been happy to do by submitting their own lyrics versions to the site, somehow confirming that the world actually hasn't changed much in that respect 30 years after Vietnam...
posted by betobeto (7 comments total)

Isn't it during the "Fixin to Die Rag" that one of those sublimely ironic moments of the 60s occurs, where the performer on stage says to the audience (something like) "You all can't expect to stop the war if you don't sing louder than that"?
Then there's the famous "Give me an F, give me a U... What's that spell? Fuck!" cheer, which a high school teacher of mine once solemnly said was one of the greatest moments of public rebellion ever, man.
posted by jokeefe at 2:45 PM on January 29, 2003

Whoops... should have specified that I was talking about the Woodstock Soundtrack
posted by jokeefe at 2:52 PM on January 29, 2003

Pete Seeger on the Folk Process.
Sure beats intellectual property!
posted by sheauga at 3:09 PM on January 29, 2003

I saw Country Joe at Clearwater Folk Festival a couple of years -- at that time, he was singing,

"Well it's 1, 2, 3, what're we dying for?
Don't ask me cause I don't know
Next stop is Kosovo."

The rest of his songs were about how great nurses were, if I remember correctly. The man is a hack, unfortunately.
posted by tweebiscuit at 3:24 PM on January 29, 2003

Melodic Source:

Muskrat Ramble - Louis Armstromg and His Hot Five.
posted by y2karl at 4:21 PM on January 29, 2003

Of course there was a draft then. I'd say that's a pretty big difference. Today you only go if you want to.
posted by HTuttle at 10:47 PM on January 29, 2003

I remember seeing Country Joe at an English rock festival in the 70's when he got the whole audience, stoned and wallowing in mud, to sing, over and over again without a trace of irony, 'we love Chairman Mao.'
Rock music, at its best, can be a celebration of dissent but don't expect much political insight.
posted by rolo at 1:35 AM on January 30, 2003