Customer Reviews

Collected 1965-1970

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

WOW! This collection sounds as good to me now as it did 30 yrs. ago. The songs, especially the original "Fish Cheer" and "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" brought back alot of memeries of simpler times and the ideals of an entire generation. A word of caution though: Be prepared for some introspection as you wonder what happened to the ideals we had. It can be very disturbing. This collection is not just for music fans of the '60s and '70s. There are a lot of cuts on here that are definitely the blues. Country Joe and the Fish were highly underrated as there music was uniquely innovative for the times. This CD is a must for serious collectors and entertaining for music fans of all ages--just ask my 6 year old.

This is, so far, the best commercially available album that chronicles "the band from Berkeley."Though no live tracks are included, several cuts from every studio album performed by Country Joe and the Fish is included here.
The band Country Joe and the Fish started out as a "jug band" from Berkeley,CA.The leader of this band is a musician and social activist named Joe McDonald. Anyway, as the 60s era progressed, CJ&F became a band of protest and psychedelia.To illustrate my point, let's look at the first few tracks.
The first track well demonstrates the overall theme of the band's future work and is a tune which was aimed at then President Lyndon Johnson-which may had created a lot of controversy at the time.
On this CD, you are exposed to jugband, psychedelia, and folk rock,not to mention anti-war satire.Let us explore some of the psychedelia.The song "Bass Strings," the Rag Baby single version, is an excellent example of the band's psychedelic side. Here, you hear the playing of the harmonica-which f a d e s into the sound of a dreary organ.In addition,the lyrics,well, has cryptic references to hallucinatory drugs-that is all I am going to say. The next track, Section 43, is another trippy song/Rag Baby single.An instrumental, Section 43 is organized in such a way that you may compare it to weaving in and out of a dream-beautiful piece. The song "Not so Sweet Martha Lorraine" is an organ-drenched classic that is about a reclusive woman who is unpredictable and is obsessed with death.
The landmark theme, in my opinion, is the band's anti war stance.The controversal "Fish Cheer/Fixin To die Rag" is a song mainly about satire and giving an "in your face" approach to expressing their anti-war attitude. On a serious side, the song "An Untitled Protest" is a song of both poetry and tragedy. Here, McDonald goes into extreme graphical detail about the atrocities of the Vietnam war.
These are just some of the highlights of this CD. There are other tracks included which contains references to hard luck(Sad and Lonely Times,Janis) and substance abuse (Flying High, track 4) which exhibit the common qualities of the sound of the 1960s. Though it would be nice if some live tracks or some outakes were included in this CD, this CD is a good place to start.

i give this collection 5 stars- not because every single track is excellent, but because this group was, along with moby grape one of the very, very best to come out of the san francisco late 60's scene, and some country joe is essential for fans of that period's music. there's plenty of gems from the band's first two classic lp's, and some of their later work is rather underrated-for instance " here i go again" , the title track from their 4th record is a nice song. of course, i do feel that the early country joe stuff is indisputably their greatest- the ep version of section 43, which predates their 1st album, is actually the better of the two. this, along with eastern jam, is proof that barry melton and the rest of the band can really play. almost all the country joe classics from the first two records, like the fish cheer, not so sweet martha lorraine, janis, flying high,and others are on this cd, which i would recommend for people who are just getting into psychedelic rock,, 60's fans, and people who don't want all of his music.

There is good music here, but the cd compiler failed to 'edit' the sound volumes from the sources. Upto about track 8 the volume is low, then for the rest of the cd (from later recordings), the volume is significantly higher.

To make a consistently listenable compilation, some volume tweaking would have been desirable.

The only other disappointment for me, is that one song I remember having on an LP didn't make this compilation. I think it contained the line "the subway is not the underground" but I can't remember the title.

Hard to convey how much I love this album. It stands the test of time and then some! It's unlikely you will ever find it dated. It's simply a wonderful experience of song, dance and inspiration. The music flows, the sound driven by an "in your face" musical wittiness from Country Joe. Not often do you find such fun and musical satisfaction in one swell package. It IS original, spilling over into blues and country, with a little jazz thrown in. Definitive San Francisco sound. Country Joe was on CSpan a year or so ago...doing good works for Sonoma County where I presume he lives.
WHAT A GUY!

The best psychedelic band of the era. The music is still great 35 years later.

I am a bit uncomfortable with some of the lyrics in these songs (especially Superbird) and at the time these songs came out I probably was on the opposite political spectrum from Country Joe. I did my duty and went to Vietnam and was never a war protestor. I did NOT consider the "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" as offensive; more of an almost funny novelty song. I don't think many guys were thrilled to be going to Vietnam and the song really was kind of a morbid "in your face" way of dealing with it, regardless of one's feelings about the war. That song might possibly have meant more to some who went than those who didn't. All that being said, forget that one song and forget the politics and just listen to the music on the remainder of the album. Good music is good music, regardless of what message is trying to be conveyed. What you have here is really good music. I am really surprised this band didn't have more hits as they certainly know how to make appealing music with a variety of sounds. I didn't quite get the point of the good guys/bad guys cheer, which is not a song. Rock & Soul Music has a little too much crowd noise; it might be live; the other selections don't appear to be live. In spite of some things I didn't like, this is still a solid 5-star album.

the track listing has several errors (in the sequencing). I did the digital download, and the track list from 13 through 18 are wrong. Here's the real sequence:

13 Good Guys/Bad Guys cheer
14 Rock & Soul Music
15 Untitled Protest
16 Here I Go Again
17 Maria
18 Crystal Blues

other than that, this is a fantastic snapshot of an era.

The CD came in excellent quality. I love it.
Roxann Hill
Gecko Girl

The title says it all. They could have put a better group of songs togather.