# I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag (Redux)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 11, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257 "2003-02-11T01:54:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257/1 "2003-02-11T01:54:47Z")
I had a few spare minutes at the office, so I’ve altered some words in Country Joe & the Fish’s “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag”.
I know some Dopers are against a war in Iraq, and some are for one. I don’t want to start a debate here. Just a little light comedy.
> [@](#):
>
> I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag (Redux)
>
> Yeah, c’mon on all you big strong men
> Uncle Sam needs your help again
> He’s got himself in a terrible jam
> Just to the west of ol’ Iran
> So put down your books and pick up a gun
> We’re gonna have a whole lot of fun!
>
> Chorus:
> And it’s 1, 2, 3, what’re we fighting for?
> Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn
> Next stop’s west of Iran
> And it’s 5, 6, 7, open up the pearly gates
> Ah, ain’t no time to wonder why
> Whoopee! We’re all gonna die!
>
> Well c’mon Dubya, let’s move fast
> Your big chance has come at last
> Gotta go and get Saddam
> He tried to kill your daddy, man!
> And you know that peace can only be won
> When we’ve blown 'em all to kingdom come!
>
> chorus
>
> Well c’mon on Wall Street – don’t move slow
> Why man, this is war-a-go-go!
> There’s plenty good money to be made
> By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade
> Once we start there’s no going back
> We might have to nuke Iraq!
>
> chorus
>
> Well c’mon mothers throughout this land
> Pack your boys off to the sand
> C’mon pops, don’t hesitate
> Send 'em off before it’s too late
> Be the first one on your block
> To have your boy come home in a box!
>
> chorus
I didn’t change much; just enough to fit the song to the current situation.
Anyone else want to make up verses?
---
### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257/2 "2003-02-11T02:50:01Z")
Hehe I like that song, ever since I first heard it watching the Woodstock videos (I am nowhere near old enough to have gone myself!). I don’t think I have it in me to come up with a verse, though!
Regarding your sig…I have read _Le Petit Prince_ a gazillion times in French, but every time I see your sig I can’t figure out where the equivalent french line is! When does he say that?
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257/3 "2003-02-11T02:56:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Regarding your sig…I have read _Le Petit Prince_ a gazillion times in French, but every time I see your sig I can’t figure out where the equivalent french line is! When does he say that?
Would you believe it’s from _Wartime Writings_? 🙂
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### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257/4 "2003-02-11T03:11:17Z")
No wonder I couldn’t figure it out! It just didn’t seem right, and I couldn’t imagine how badly the rest must have been translated! :). _Wartime Writings_…is that _Lettre à un hotage_? I have never read anything else by him, but want to. I was thinking of checking out the bookstores back home for them, as I’m pretty sure I won’t find anything here in French.
Sorry for the hijack 🙂
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257/5 "2003-02-11T03:25:51Z")
I don’t know how it translates into French. It’s been years since I’ve read it, but this is what I recall:
St. Ex. wanted to be a fighter pilot with the Free French in WWII, but his commanders said he was too old – He was in his fourties, when most fighter pilots were in their twenties. He was very depressed. Here was a chance to use his expert flying abilities to strike a blow against the German invaders, and they weren’t letting him fly. I don’t recall the context where he penned this line, but I think it might have been when he was lamenting his grounding.
Eventually he wrangled a spot as a reconaissance pilot flying a Free French Lockheed P-38. One day in 1944 he failed to return from a mission. It was believed he had been shot down by a Focke-Wulf FW-190 over the Med. As I said, he was very depressed at the time. He talked about shunning the World after the war and becoming a monk. Who knows? He may have killed himself. Or he could have just crashed.
But I prefer to believe he was shot down by enemy action. That seems more likely to me.
A couple of years ago some fishermen pulled up a scrap of a flightsuit and an identity bracelet. The bracelet belonged to St. Ex. As far as I know, the P-38 was never recovered, nor do I know of any plans to find it.
> [@](#):
>
> _ **From Publishers Weekly** _
> These mostly private writings by the author of The Little Prince, who died on a reconnaissance flight in North Africa in 1944, reflect his mental torment over France’s 1940 defeat and his own perceived exile, first in New York and then Algeria. PW maintained , “These edited fragments, philosophical and at times poetic, are intriguing, but add little to the literary stature of a legendary voice in aviation.”
>
> Copyright 1990 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
I did find the book rather depressing. Here was a man who had flown all of his adult life, trapped in an aging body in a young man’s game. I like to think that he died in a valiant struggle against the enemy. That’s the way he would have wanted to go. And I thought the book – although depressing – is a good read.
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### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257/6 "2003-02-12T01:23:39Z")
Sounds interesting - I only know what the biography thing in my copy of _Le Petit Prince_ said about him. It doesn’t explain his death, either - just that de disappeared. It lists his works, and I’ve wanted to read some of them for some time now, even though I know that none of them are like the Prince. I absolutely love that book.
Heck of a hijack this is! Still, at least I learned something - thats what were here for, right? 😃
Back to the tread title:
Not a new verse to your song, but I just remembered during the Gulf War in 91 CFN radio on the military base in Germany where I was at the time (civilian dependent) played a couple of songs. I don’t remember them much, other than “Deck the Halls with Nuclear Weapons”, the Milli Vannilli Classic “Blame it on Hussein” and of course,
“Bomb bomb bomb
bomb bomb Iraq
Bomb bomb bomb
bomb bomb Iraq
Bomb bomb bomb
bomb bomb Ira-a-aq!
We should attack!
Set our people free
or your country’s history
bomb iraq, bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iraq…”
(Sung to the tune of “Barbara-Ann”.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257/7 "2003-02-12T02:46:54Z")
My song is posted [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2979935).
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-feel-like-im-fixin-to-die-rag-redux/154257/8 "2003-02-12T03:37:57Z")
I did this back during the last Iraq war
Mine went (let’s see if I can remember)
Well come on all you big strong men
Uncle Bush had drawn a line in the sand
(can’t remember the next two lines)
Just hope when they drop that bomb, they drop it ol’ Saddam
and it 1 2 3 what are we fighting for
don’t ask me I dont’ give a fuck
Lets kick Saddam’s big but.
and it 5 6 7 open up the pearly gates
Well its un-American to question why
whoopie they’re all gonna die