Somewhere I heard this when I was a small kid. I was probably over at a cousin’s home when I heard it. It would not have been in my sister’s Osmond or David Cassidy collection. I remember hearing it again when I listened to the Woodstock soundtrack. It’s a super dark song about a dark time. Joe McDonald was from Washington but he played in San Francisco with different Frisco bands.
I was just commenting in the last few weeks on a post and I said that the times influenced or helped make the music. This song is a perfect example of that. One of the most traumatic times in our history was going on. I can’t imagine what 17 or 18-year-olds were going through then. I remember in the 80s there was a rumor that the draft would start again. My friends and I couldn’t imagine it…for the 60s and 70s generation, it was no rumor but cold hard facts.
The studio version has “The Fish Cheer” which was basically Gimme an F, Gimme a I…and spelled Fish. The Woodstock version…not so clean. His real name is Joseph Allen “Country Joe” McDonald. He got sued in 2001 by the heirs of Jazz musician Kid Ory over the song that sounded like a song he wrong called Muskrat Ramble performed by such musicians as Louis Armstrong. Country Joe won because the court said they shouldn’t have waited over 3 decades. They sued after hearing a new version of it by McDonald in 1999. Ironically the family had to sell the copyrights to pay McDonald for his legal bills.
He wrote the song in 1965 and played it live quite a bit. The song was released in 1967 on the I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die album. The song wasn’t a hit but was known by the counterculture at that time. While at Woodstock…he was asked by the festival promoters to kill some time between changing sets of bands. He found a guitar backstage and brought it out and played the song along with the “F*ck Cheer.” When the movie was released it caught on right away because of the sing-along style of it.
I’m glad McDonald came out and said the song wasn’t against the soldiers in any way…more about the politicians and the ones that made money off the war.
The album peaked at #67 in 1967.
Country Joe McDonald: “I wrote ‘Fixin’-to-Die Rag’ in the summer of 1965 after I had been discharged from the U.S. Navy for several years, it just popped into my head one day and I finished it in 30 minutes. I did not have a conscious purpose in mind, although I had been working on another song about the Vietnam War called ‘Who Am I?’ for several days, so I had the war on my mind. [‘Fixin’-to-Die’] attempts to put blame for the war upon the politicians and leaders of the U.S. military and upon the industry that makes its money from war—but not upon those who had to fight the war, the soldiers. The song attempts to address the horror of going to war, with a dark, sarcastic form of humor called ‘GI humor.’”
Country Joe McDonald: “My most famous song really couldn’t get airplay, it got me banned from municipal auditoriums for a long time after. So I paid a price. But I’m proud to say that I’ve carried with me the reality of the Vietnam War. I’m the elephant in the room.”
The Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag
.Gimme an F…
Gimme a U… Gimme a C… Gimme a K…What’s that spell?
What’s that spell? What’s that spell? What’s that spell? What’s that spell?Yeah, come on all of you big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He’s got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Well, come on generals, let’s move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds –
The only good commie is the one who’s dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we’ve blown ’em all to Kingdom Come.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Huh!
Well, come on Wall Street, don’t move slow,
Why man, this is War-a-go-go.
There’s plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don’t hesitate,
Send ’em off before it’s too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.
And it’s one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
…