Page 43 - All About History - Issue 53-17

Rock ‘n’ Roll

be free, some day.” More than just a song, it was a the top of the political agenda. A skirmish in the
rallying cry around which all disaffected citizens Gulf of Tonkin, just off the coast of Vietnam, had Fender
could unite. Within a year, JFK’s Presidential led to the United States stepping up its operations
successor, Lyndon Johnson, would pass the Civil in the country from a mere military presence to Stratocaster
Rights Act. The bill outlawed all discrimination open war. By early the following year, there were
— be it racial, religious or gender-based — and 16,500 American troops deployed in the country,
banned state segregation. with President Johnson giving the green light The Fender Stratocaster arguably
1964 also saw the publication of Martin Luther to ‘Rolling Thunder’, a concentrated bombing formed the image of rock ‘n’ roll and
has carried this precedent to the
King Jr’s book about the struggles, Why We Can’t campaign against the North Vietnamese that modern day. A timeless classic, it’s
Wait. In it, he stressed the would go on until November been played by many musicians
pivotal role that the freedom “AS THE 1968. As the conflict like Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and
songs — which he called “the intensified, so did the George Harrison. Its versatile
played in the drive for equality. CONFLICT protest songs. sound lends itself to all sorts of
soul of the movement” — had
The university campus at
styles, from rock and metal to
“We sing the freedom songs INTENSIFIED, Berkeley in California was jazz, blues and country.
today for the same reason the seat of American activism
the slaves sang them,” he by the middle of the decade.
explained, “because we too SO DID THE The son of Communist Party
are in bondage and the songs parents from Washington, DC,
add hope to our determination PROTEST ex-US Navy man Country Joe
that ‘We shall overcome, Black McDonald had moved there
and white together, We shall SONGS” in 1965. There he fell in with
overcome someday.’” a bunch of fellow radicals,
That day was still some way founded a counterculture
off, though — the law was one thing, but millions magazine — Rag Baby — and composed ‘I-Feel-
of African-Americans were still dealing with Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag’.
everyday racism and inferior living conditions. Over on the East Coast, meanwhile, folkie Phil
Some black leaders began to challenge King’s Ochs had become a prominent activist figure
insistence on non-violent strategies as a means with songs like ‘I Ain’t Marching Anymore’, ‘Draft
of protest. This new militant ideology would Dodger Rag’ and the drolly caustic, ‘Love Me, I’m
find greater traction later in the decade, when, A Liberal’. New York neighbour Tom Paxton was
appallingly, King was murdered by a white equally incensed, pouring his rage into ‘Lyndon
segregationist in Memphis. Johnson Told The Nation’ and the poignant ‘My
In the immediate aftermath of the 1964 Civil Son John’, about a returning soldier shattered by
Rights Act, however, another matter had risen to his experience.

Country Joe McDonald on politics, protest and the
EYEWITNESS Q&A Woodstock generation

Can you describe what the political scene at Berkeley Can you describe the experience of playing at Woodstock How did the countercultural upheavals of the 1960s
in California was like when you arrived in the summer in 1969 and bringing the crowd to their feet with ‘I-Feel- affect your life from then on?
of 1965? Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag’? It turned me into ‘Country Joe McDonald’ and allowed me to
The university had just had its Free Speech Movement All of those open-air events, like the Human Be-In in San have a career that paid the bills and was very rewarding in
happen, but I don’t think I knew anything about that. Francisco [1967], had the feeling of a picnic: relaxed and many, many ways. For me of course the lesson was — and I
I had been with people in Los Angeles State College who fun. This one seemed like a really big picnic. Of course, the knew it before because of my family — try not to get caught
were involved in protesting the Civil Rights Movement crowd was sympathetic. We were, after all, the new hippie up in history and let it ruin your life.
and making folk music, so I had some contact with like- counterculture, soon to be called the Woodstock Generation.
minded people there. I’d grown up with that kind of When it came to the politics of my Vietnam song, which I’d
thinking, but it was the first time in my life that I’d had written in 1965, it wasn’t possible from the stage to really
such close contact with other progressive-minded people see the crowd’s response. It was only later, when I saw my
like that. part in the movie, that I realised how much they’d gotten
into it. There were very few overtly political moments at
Could you detect a palpable change of opinion and Woodstock, and I was one of those.
attitude in the States as you entered the second half
of the 1960s? How come ‘Fixin-To-Die’ wasn’t included on Country Joe
This is hard to answer, because I didn’t have the luxury & The Fish’s first album, 1967’s Electric Music For The
of pausing, looking around and thinking about what was Mind And Body?
happening at the time — that only happened when it was I didn’t have any contact with Vanguard as far as the
all over. But all the demonstrations and riots made it obvious content of songs on albums. The rumour over the years is
that things were not good and, for a certain age group, the that they didn’t want the song on the first album because
possibility of being drafted and sent to Vietnam was a very they thought it was too… something. I don’t know for sure Country Joe McDonald
harsh reality. It became more and more commonplace to if that’s true. It might have just been the producer Sam performs at the Woodstock
think that we would go, fight and die there. Charters’ decision. Festival, 16 August 1969

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