Country Joe McDonald - Definition and Overview

"Country" Joe McDonald (born 1942 in Washington, D.C.) was the leader and lead singer of the 1960s rock & roll group "Country Joe and the Fish".

His best-known song is his "Fixing to Die Rag", a black comedy novelty song about the Vietnam War, whose familiar chorus ("One, two, three, what are we fighting for?") is well known to the Woodstock generation and Vietnam Vets of the 1960s and 1970s.

Country Joe has recorded 33 albums and has written hundreds of songs over a career spanning 40 years. He and Barry Melton co-founded Country Joe and The Fish which became a pioneer psychedelic band with their eclectic performances at The Avalon, Fillmore, Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock. In 2004 Country Joe reformed some original members of Country Joe and The Fish as the Country Joe Band - Bruce Barthol, David Bennett Cohen, and Gary 'Chicken' Hirsh. The band toured Los Angeles, Berkeley, Bolinas, Sebastopol, Grants Pass, Eugene, Portland and Seattle. They then made a 10 stop tour of the United Kingdom and played at the Isle of Wight and London. Following that came the New York tour which included a Woodstock reunion performance followed by an appearance at the New York State Museum in Albany. Returning to the West Coast the band played in Marin and Mendocino Counties, the World Peace Music Awards in San Francisco and at the Oakland Museum as part of an exhibit on the Vietnam War.

External link

• CountryJoe.com (http://www.countryjoe.com/)