Interview with a living legend

Anyone who has seen the Woodstock film will know what I'm talking about. His first album Electric music for the Mind and Body is widely regarded as a classic, and his

song I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag was the anthem for a whole generation of people opposed to the Vietnam war.

Now married with children, and living in Berkeley, California, Country Joe is still an active campaigner for a variety of political issues including Vietnam war veterans, and still writing and performing with a couple of members of his original band The Fish. He has his own record label Rag Baby and his new album will be available later this year. He has also become a leading authority on the life and work of Florence Nightingale, a subject he became interested in when he witnessed the traumatised state of female nurses returning from Vietnam.

I was privileged to see Country Joe perform (and join in with his infamous fish cheer) at two major rock festivals in the early 70,s, first at Bath (which was the best festival ever with a line-up that also had Pink Floyd debuting their Atom Heart Mother album, Frank Zappa, The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and everyone who was anyone on the progressive music scene) and secondly at Bickershaw nr Leigh (organised by Jeremy Beadle and a bit wet!), so my first question was had he any memories of that Bickershaw gig?

CJM: It rained a lot....there were as many people as there were at Woodstock....and I sang Fixing to Die three times, because people wanted to hear it three times.

AM: The pictures and recording of your performance at Woodstock must rate as one of the great cultural images of the twentieth century. One guy with long hair, a combat jacket and just an acoustic guitar communicating with a sea of people. Just what was going through your mind?

CJM: Oh shit........its too late to stop now!

AM: You must be very proud of your performance there? You seemed to start off a little nervous (understandably!), at what point did you think I've got em?

CJM: Yes, I am proud of my performance in the film, and all it stands for.I was nervous at first but no-one paid attention to anything I was doing. So I got brave! When I yelled GIMME AN F they all stopped talking and whatever and looked at me and yelled .

AM: Those giant festivals of the late 60,s/early 70,s seemed magical places, not only because of the quality of the artists who played there, but because we, as an

audience, felt we were part of the whole experience. Did you ever go to a festival as part of the audience? I ask this because I heard a lot of the artists were just flown in and out, in which case they missed out.

CJM: Well I arrived on Thursday for Woodstock, just to see the bands. I saw most of them.....that is why I was there unprepared to play after Richie Havens played......I was just watching the show! The Country Joe and the Fish band played on Saturday. I have taken my kids to modern rock festivals and find them much the

same....and lots of fun.

AM: I see you are still writing, recording and performing. Does it still give you a buzz?

CJM: I still get a buzz when I get a good idea for a song and it works.

AM: There is a train of thought that suggests all the good songs have now been written. Do you think we'll ever get to that point?

CJM: There is always room for one more song....it always seems like all the good ones have been written, but that is never true.

AM: I understand you feel the role of the songwriter is to raise issues, rather than answer them. Are there issues that are just to complex to be raised by a song?

CJM: The challenge for the songwriter is how to discuss complex issues and depressing issues in song.....It is easy to write a ,,typical song, but it seldom makes

people think. Songs can talk about things that people won't talk about in a pleasant entertaining way.........but mostly songs tell people something they already knew, but did not realise they knew.

AM: What songs do you listen to these days, and who would you go and see in concert...and why?

CJM: Well that's a hard one.........I listen to contemporary music to see wha is going on. I like black music best......I enjoy rap and modern rock, but I get bored easily. I

would go to a festival line-up, just to enjoy the crowd and the variety.

AM: How big is the following for acoustic music in the US? I'm asking that because I can't see a group of 13 year olds sitting round listening to the equivalent of Dylan's Times they are a changing as no doubt we once did.

CJM: Well music goes in cycles, and right now we are in a cycle of noisy not too intelligent songs, but due to boredon things will change....we never know to what.....but

electric music is here to stay that is for sure. But acoustic music will never go away. The music scene is larger than it ever has been in world history.

AM: How do you think the internet will affect music? I'm thinking of free mp3s via Napster. Does it herald the death or rebirth of music?

CJM: Well I dunno about how the web will effect the music industry, but the format for reproduced music is always changing...and I think getting better and better. It is easier than ever to have recorded music with you, (and listen to all kinds of music from all over the world) than ever before....and that is

good. People will figure out how to get paid.

AM: I note from your website that you are something of an authority on Florence Nightingale...how did that come about?

CJM: I got interested in Florence Nightingale through my interactions with Vietnam War Nurses. Nursing and Florence Nightingale are very interesting subjects and

incorporate all the sexual and medical attitudes we have had the last 2 centuries.

AM: Do you think the hippie ideal (whatever it was) has made the world a better place? On the one hand we have Dylan playing for the Pope and a US president that has smoked (though not inhaled) cannabis, whilst on the other we have global corporations pulling a lot of strings.

CJM: Yes....I think the world is a better place because of the 60's. Lots of people all over the world want PEACE AND LOVE, but it will take a long time to get it.

AM: Finally, you have a new album coming out this year? Will you be touring the UK? If you do, stick the Buskers Ball in Bolton down as a definite gig (we won't pay much, but we'll take you to the old Bickershaw site!).

CJM: My new solo acoustic guitar harmonica and voice album will be out on my website in a few months. It has 20 previously unrecorded songs and instrumentals that

span 30 years of writing. It is entitled WWW.COUNTRYJOE.COM and is on the RAG BABY label which I own.

The Bevis Frond and I and two members of Country Joe and the Fish band, David Cohen on keyboard and guitar and Chicken Hirsh on drums with Nick Saloman on guitar and Adrian Shaw on bass will perform on November 5th in Seattle at Terrastock 4, and no doubt will perform in the UK in 2001, but I can't say for sure where or when.

AM: Thanks for your time.......and Peace!

CJM: Cheers!