Recommendations of the Editorial team
Country Joe McDonald, singer of the psychedelic folk band Country Joe and the Fish and author of the Vietnam War protest song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” died Saturday at age 84.
The band’s official social media account announced McDonald’s death on Sunday. “It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Country Joe McDonald, who died yesterday, March 7th, in Berkeley, California, at the age of 84, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease,” the band wrote. “He was surrounded by his family.”
An official obituary added that McDonald was “widely recognized as one of the defining voices of the counterculture movement of the 1960s. His music combined folk, rock and political commentary, capturing the spirit of a generation profoundly shaped by social upheaval, the struggle for civil rights and the Vietnam War.”
Roots in folk and protest
Inspired by Woody Guthrie and the folk and protest music of his time, McDonald, who was born in Washington DC and grew up in California, founded Country Joe and the Fish with Barry “The Fish” Melton. The duo performed their darkly humorous songs in Bay Area coffeehouses in the early ’60s before joining other San Francisco acts like Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
McDonald, who recorded more than 30 albums in a prolific career from the early 1960s to the mid-2010s, was best known for his 1965 protest song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” which he wrote at the start of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. McDonald said he was inspired to “write a song about how soldiers have no choice but to follow orders – but with the irreverence of rock & roll. That was essentially punk rock before punk existed,” he told The New York Times in 2017.
“And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for?/Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn/Next stop is Vietnam,” sings McDonald, a U.S. Navy veteran. “And it’s five, six, seven, open the gates of heaven/Well, no time to ask why/Yay! We’re all dying!”
From EP to classic
The song, originally released as an acoustic piece on an EP for McDonald’s magazine Rag Baby, was later re-recorded for Country Joe and the Fish’s second album, 1967’s I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag, including the band’s infamous “The ‘Fish’ Cheer.”
Country Joe and the Fish also delivered an unforgettable set at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. “I always say Woodstock was like a family picnic; it was fun,” McDonald told Rolling Stone in 2019 on the occasion of the festival’s 50th anniversary. “You shouldn’t underestimate the fact that you just had fun.”
During the set, in which the band performed their tandem act “The ‘Fish’ Cheer” and “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” McDonald encouraged the huge audience to spell the word “fuck” – an act that was considered obscene in the late ’60s and had gotten McDonald arrested at previous performances, but was nonetheless included in the documentary about the festival. “It was just unbelievable that they put it in the movie in 1969,” McDonald told Rolling Stone.
Solo career and political engagement
However, in the wake of their legendary Woodstock performance, Country Joe and the Fish fell apart and McDonald launched his solo career – starting with 1969’s “Thinking of Woody Guthrie”, a collection of songs by the folk legend. In 1970, McDonald was among the artists scheduled to testify at the trial of the Chicago Seven.
In addition to his long music career, McDonald remained politically active: he campaigned for the protection of whales and was committed to Vietnam War veterans.
