www.countryjoe.com/cjb.htm
Sixties Museum of Chicago will hold its Hall of Fame awards, fe aturing the Band, on September 24 at the New Kinetic Playground. Country Joe will receive an award for his music and his work with Vietnam veter ans. The Country Joe Band at the Woodstock Reunion in August 2004.
A B O U T T H E C O U N T R Y J O E B A N D History was made one night in 1965 in Berkeley, California, when five men whose drive for political change and love of music would join forces in the first public appearance of Country Joe & The Fish -- a band that wo uld change the sounds and sights of 1960s rock and roll culture. Country Joe & The Fish created a style of music that captured the feeling s of many youth at the height of the Free Speech Movement. With songs su ch as "Sweet Lorraine" and "Section 43," Country Joe & The Fish became o ne of the first bands to create the distinct psychedelic sounds of the 6 0s era. One song in particular skyrocketed the band into stardom: "I-Fee l-like-Im-Fixin-to-Die Rag" drove the band into notoriety with its saucy lyrics and its description of the harsh reality of a nation divided by war.
Gary "Chicken" Hirsh, and Joe McDonald, back together ag ain in the form of The Country Joe Band. Minus Barry Melton, these four musicians have reunited to capture the psychedelic sound that has been b anished to "oldies" radio stations and basements full of warped vinyl. E ncouraged by the nations political division caused by the war in Iraq, T he Country Joe Band is back with an edgy sound that is strengthened by a political voice. After Country Joe & The Fish parted ways in the early 1970s the band memb ers went on to become successful in their own right. Barthol went on to become an award winning composer/lyricist in the Tony-Award-winning poli tical theater group the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Cohen moved back to his native New York and is an accomplished composer a nd pianist. Performing in clubs across the nation and working with Broad way musicals like Rent have fed Cohens love of music. He is also a pract icing Buddhist and political activist, who has been recently honored by the Harpers Ferry NAACP. Hirsh also owns a very successful graphics company that indulges his passion for the arts. McDonald went on to have a successful solo career throughout the 70s and early 80s, releasing over 20 albums. In early 1990 McDonalds passion for history connected him with the life and times of Florence Nightingale. His extensive knowledge on the subject has made him a nationally recogni zed scholar on the life Florence Nightingale. Now back together, the members of The Country Joe Band have taken their e xperiences from their lives after the 60s and have them applied to this new union. Reunited in the summer of 2004 The Country Joe Band has rekin dled a sound and force that is needed in this 24-hour pop culture driven by Britney Spears and questionable wars in foreign countries. During their initial time back together the band began recreating and dev eloping a once-lost sound. With their new single "Cakewalk to Baghdad," written by Bruce Barthol, the band is picking up right where it left off .
O U R N E W S O N G To hear our new CD single "Cakewalk to Baghdad" click on Richard Perle. Cakewalk to Baghdad Lyrics and music by Bruce Barthol 2003 I remember back, before we whacked Iraq I was watching the news, were we gonna attack? A man named Richard Perle came on and talked He said going to Baghdad would be a cakewalk Cakewalk to Baghdad, Cakewalk to Baghdad It went real easy, Took a couple of weeks Tore down that statue Set those Saddamites free The Frogs and the Krauts, they feel real bad, They missed out cakewalkin' into Baghdad Cakewalk to Baghdad, Cakewalk to Baghdad Next we're gonna cakewalk into Teheran, Gonna cakewalk to Damascus and Pyong-yin-yang When we strut on in, Everybody's gonna cheer They'll be wavin' old glory, We'll have kegs of beer, just like that... Cakewalk to Baghdad, Cakewalk to Baghdad Cakewalk to Baghdad, Cakewalk to Baghdad Now moms and dads don't worry 'bout Your soldier boys and girls We're just sending them cakewalkin' Around the world When the coffins come home and the flag unfurls Cheer for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Perle Cakewalk to Baghdad, Cakewalk to Baghdad Do you think we'll see those Bush boys patrollin' the streets Like our soldiers got to do in Basram and Tikrit? We gonna see Richard Perle cakewakin' 'round The streets and alleys of Baghdad town? Cakewalk to Baghdad, Cakewalk to Baghdad Easy to cakewalk in ... F A N F A Q S 1 Birth information: where, when, time, circumstances, etc. BRUCE DAVID CHICKEN JOE Born at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley CA, November 11, 1947 NYC, 8/4/42 , 3:35PM Circumstances? I was born in Chicag o, Jewish and anxious in the year 1940. I was not the first born of the year in the hospital s o I did not get a prize. My parents were not married but got married a y ear and a half later when my grandmother came to see the new baby. BRUCE DAVID CHICKEN JOE One older brother (who built a boat and sailed it around the world), Moth er was social worker and father a Professor at UCLA. My father died of Alzheimers in 2000, and my mother d ied remembering in 2003. My moth er was the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants. My father was the son of a Presbyterian minister farmer and school teacher. BRUCE DAVID CHICKEN JOE Started fooling with the guitar when I was 11, clarinet at 13 and bass at 18. But when I discovered the guitar, it was like a love affair. I would get home from school around 3:30, go to my room and play my guitar for about 6 hours, do maybe 15 minutes of homework and go to sleep. I didnt own a drum, and I wa s taking lessons on a practice pad. I found pots and pans and furniture much more interesting to play on. I bought my first set of drums @ Frank s Drum shop in Chicago in 1954. My father told me that my first instrume nt was the Hawaiian guitar and that I took lessons when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I s tarted the piano at about the same age but did not continue. BRUCE DAVID CHICKEN JOE First gig was with a banjo playing friend. The Lane County Bachelors, wit h Artie Traum and Eric Nagler. Artie and Eric were friends from the Washiington Square Folk Music scene. My fir st steady gig was weekends @ the Kerosene Club in San Jose, CA. The first mu sical group was the Cherry Lee School Orchestra. I saw the two Beatles' movies, Hard Day's Night and Help! back to back in 1965 and decided to become a rock and roll st ar. Went to California from NYC and joined a band called Blackburn and S now, playing guitar. Fooled around with a bunch of other musicians in Be rkeley and hung out at a club called "The Jabberwock." I was really only interested in playing guitar, but I used to bang out some boogie-woogie on an old piano they had there. Barry Melton liked the way I played the piano and when Joe decided that he wanted an organ sound in his band, B arry said, "Well, David can play the organ." Of course, I never played o rgan before, but I joined the band, anyway, doubling on guitar and organ , which I learned "on the job." I would steal my own licks from the guit ar and play them on the organ, and I'd get these reviews that said, "Wha t a unique style." So much s o, that I have an instructional video on Homespun Tapes, but that's anot her story.... My first rock band was Blackburn and Snow in, I think 1965 . BRUCE DAVID CHICKEN JOE Joe and Barry and I were living in a house in Berkeley in '65-'66. We we re all hanging around the club and sort of played together but not as CJ and F That happened later. I joined Country Joe and the Fish shortly b efore we recorded the first Vanguard LP.... We spent a week rehearsing a nd performing nights at a place called the Barn in Santa Cruz. It was an intense amazing process since the band had been playing with another dr ummer with a different playing style. I got to play with mallets, b rushes, in 6/8, 3/4, eastern, Dixieland, rock, blues, psychedelic, and J oes material had content. In 1966 Barry Melton and I started the group C ountry Joe and The Fish. At first we had a different drummer than Chicke n Bob Dylan had gone ele...
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