The ironic part about this 4 lp/dvd set is that almost anyone who’s heard of Country Joe & The Fish remembers them for their famous anti-Vietnam War dittie “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.” Rest assured, this band epitomized musically and politically the mood of the Psychedelic 60s in San Francisco when living their meant you had a VW van and not a Mercedes. While bands like the Jefferson Airoplane and Grateful Dead had longer and more popular runs, this 4 lp of the CJATF’s first two albums (in stero and mono mixes) show that the team of Country Joe McDonald/g-voc, Bruce Barthol/b-harp, David Bennett Cohen/g-key and Gary “Chicken” Hirsh/dr had creativity, originality and musical chops to go against any of the big hitters and come out looking good.
Along with a documentary dvd entitled “How We Stopped the War,” thre is a reproduction of a Tom Weller Calender that captures the era, as well as a 24 page booklet which gives insight to the politics and culture at the time.
The two albums, Electric Music for Mind and Body and I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To Die are both musically and compositionally impressive. 1967’a debut album is overfloying with energy, with it’s patented mix of swirling keyboards and fuzzy guitar, include stratospheric jams such as “Flying High” and “The Masked Maurder” to political diatribes such as “Superbird.” Folk tunes like “Sad and Lonely Times” were for the suede jacket and faded jeans crowd, while a tribute to Jefferson Airplane’s vocalist (“Grace”) is a heartfelt closer.
The followup album continues the volcanic organ grinding as well as delves into Eastern harmonics and melodies, but the team starts getting into the more esoteric “spacey” moods and cosmic sounds. There are couple ballads that mix psychedelia with tender thoughts (“Who Am I” and “Thursday”) and the tributes continue in “Janis.” Moody musical navel gazing with long fluid guitar solos, wafting keyboards and driving drums team up with Abbie Hoffman inspired diatribes on the title track and “Rock Coast Blues” while the band stretches like Turkish Taffy on “Eastern Jam.” All you need is a black light poster, a strobe light and some hippie beads and you’re set for this collection that will impress you more than you think, and you won’t need any medical marijuana!