I know very, very little about him. My only real connection is from the Woodstock album that a college friend and I played regularly for 4 years. Specifically the last few seconds of Rock and Soul Music (cued up to that part, but the entire song is great).
Also, this, from the same album:
It’s a sad day when I have to say goodbye to the man who taught me to spell FUCK.
I just found an old video I recorded and sent to my above mentioned college friend over 20 years ago (uploaded to youtube 16 years ago).
I never saw Country Joe but I saw Barry Melton (The Fish) perform at a small venue in Sunnyvale California, probably around 1988. Surprisingly, he is an attorney in his day job. I remember a friend of mine playing the Fish Cheer from the Woodstock album on a turntable at a grammar school event. We all snickered while the teachers were oblivious. RIP Joe.
Interesting guy. He was a bit older than most of the Woodstock era popular acts. He had joined the Navy, served his time and was discharged before the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He spent a considerable amount of his life helping veterans, in particular Vietnam veterans.
Well, I’m not surprised, he’d been feelin’ like he was fixin’ to die since 1967.
I remember in fourth grade we did a history unit on the Vietnam War and ended every class with a Country Joe dance party. Gotta love progressive public education.
Like many others my introduction to Country Joe was the “Fish Cheer” performance at Woodstock. Later on I heard Save The Whales! listening to headphones late at night on KFOG and it became a favorite.
This is sad news.
I saw him at Woodstock, and later with a group called Country Joe and The All-Stars, sharing a bill with Commander Cody at an outdoor venue.
Many, many substances were consumed while enjoying his music.
Here is my favorite.
I worked in Sweden for a while. On my first job, a photostudio in a mail order house, we had a fairly rubbish record deck that needed a weight on the cartridge to keep the needle in the groove, plus three LPs; Country Joe’s “Here We Are Again”, the Savage Rose “Travellin’ “ and a Cream one.
Management then replaced all the stereo kit in the three studios and art department. I inherited the LPs and the rubbish stereo, with a Philips 2½W valve amp that had to have one of the valves flicked with a finger to start it.
Still have the above mentioned LPs that are rarely played these days, mostly it is the CDs that replaced them or more likely from YouTube.
This still my favourite:-
Edit went all wrong and link won’t display
