Electric Music for the Mind & Body

Country Joe & The Fish | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vanguard Records
• ASIN: B000000EJE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,687 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Given their origins, both geographically (San Francisco) and stylistically (founder Joe McDonald and lead guitarist Barry Melton first hooked up in a jug band), it wasn't surprising that the ragtag Fish sounded like an acid-soaked, plugged-in folk band when they debuted in '67. Simultaneously the most political and funniest of all the Northern California bands, the Fish's yippie-hippie philosophy was reflected in songs like "Superbird" (about Lyndon Johnson), "Flying High" (about getting you-know-what), and the bluesy free love saga, "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine." That they could periodically wax serious as well (the wide-angled instrumental "Section Forty Three" and the moody "Bass Strings") only added more bite to their satiric pungency. --Billy Altman

Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH
Title: ELECTRIC MUSIC FOR MIND & BODY
Street Release Date: 07/07/1987
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Rosetta Stone" of Psychedelic Music., February 25, 2000

By 

Dan Swan (Lincoln City, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Electric Music for the Mind & Body (Audio CD)

Whenever one sees a movie from the 60's; the music almost always seems like a cheap imitation of the music that was actually being heard in those days. This record is the "Rosetta Stone" for psychedelic music. If you want to hear the real deal; this is it. Nothing has ever been it's equal in this genera. The music, blends blues, folk, and rock, in ways only dreamed of. Not even the Jefferson Airplane could match it's complex mix of old and "Never Heard of Before". "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" stands as a testement to where a love song can actually go, without really being a love song at all. The dense yet rich "Death Sound" is just plain creepy. "Super Bird" slaps "then" President Johnson right square in the jaw with some biting satire. And, "Grace" is a "TRIP" in every sence of the word. The sounds and words played hear are like a time capsule of it's time. Truly one of the GREAT albums from an entire decade of truly great music. Enter the "Electric Music for the Mind and Body" and be prepared to be forever changed.....for the better.

63 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic psychedelic rock, July 27, 2001

By 

FairiesWearBoots8272 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Electric Music for the Mind & Body (Audio CD)

The 1967 debut by Country Joe and the Fish is truly one of the most important albums to come out of the psychedelic era. It's a bit dated in spots, but overall, still, it's a great piece of 60's rock and probably the best example of the San Francisco sound at that time. The album's single, "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine" is one of the strongest racks, a biting anti-romantic love song. Other highlights include the opener, "Flying High", the bluesy "Death Sound", the psychedelic instrumental, "Section 43", the rocking "Love", and the very trippy "Bass Strings", and "Grace". Instrumentally, the album is tight. Barry Melton's lead guitar is great, and the organ gives the album a mellow, trippy vibe. I would recommend Electric Music for the Mind and Body to anyone who is interested in 60's psychedelic rock, or anyone looking for something good to listen to while stoned. No one else need apply.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Psychedelia at its finest, August 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Electric Music for the Mind & Body (Audio CD)

Electric Music is perhaps the greatest psychedelic album of all time. Different aspects of the psychedelic experience(except those of the brown acid variety) are represented here from the crazed caotic energy of "Superbird", the deeply meditative( or stoned) "Bass Strings", the soulfully flowing "Section 43", to the sheer fun of this album. During a psychedelic experience, one is often able to percieve or rather hear colors in music. Electric music is replete with them and examples can be found on the organ solo of "Love" to Barry Melton's guitar solo on "The Masked Marauder". The mix of different tones on this album has been seldom paralled especially in the digital ninties. Chicken Hirsh's resonant tom tom drums, Bruce Barthol's rich bass, David Cohen milky organ and Barry Melton's guitar provide a nice rich timbre palete throughout the album particular evident on the instrumentals "Section 43" and "The! Masked Marauder". Barry Melton's vocals on "Love" sound like Satchmo on acid and add to the fun of this masterpiece. Country Joe once told me that the songs were arranged so that you would forget the tune you just hear before the one you were hearing. He also said that the band "tested" the album out themselves. Now if that's not quality control I don't know what is. An analog masterpiece for those curious to know what music sounded like before the digital age. A high recommend.