SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 3.8.2026
The blogger is well aware that Country Joe McDonald’s most well traveled song ‘I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag’ became a people’s anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement.
The first Country Joe and the Fish album released in 1967 on the Vanguard Records label is a classic. Reading of Country Joe McDonald’s death at age 84 I took the album off the shelf and had some happy memories listening to the 11 tracks. In particular ‘Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine’.
McDonald recorded 33 albums and wrote hundreds of songs over a career spanning 60 years. Country Joe & the Fish were a pioneer psychedelic rock band known for their eclectic performances at the Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore Auditorium, the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and the original 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1979 reunion.
Top photo: An older Country Joe McDonald
Lee's Perspective 