Country Joe McDonald, singer for the psychedelic-folk band Country Joe and the Fish and songwriter of the anti-Vietnam War anthem “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” died Saturday at the age of 84.
The band’s official social media account announced McDonald’s death Sunday. “We are deeply saddened to report the passing of Country Joe McDonald, who died yesterday, March 7th, at the age of 84, in Berkeley, California, due to complications from Parkinson’s Disease,” the band wrote. “He was surrounded by his family.”
An official obituary added that “McDonald was widely recognized as one of the defining voices of the 1960s counterculture movement. His music blended folk, rock, and political commentary, capturing the spirit of a generation deeply affected by social upheaval, civil rights struggles, and the Vietnam War.”
Inspired by Woody Guthrie and the folk and protest music of the era, the Washington D.C.-born, California-raised McDonald formed Country Joe and the Fish alongside Barry “The Fish” Melton, with the duo playing their darkly humorous songs in Bay Area coffeehouses in the early Sixties before playing gigs alongside fellow San Francisco acts like Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
McDonald, who recorded over 30 albums in a prolific career that spanned from the early Sixties to the mid-2010s, was best known for his 1965 protest song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” penned at the onset of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. McDonald said he was inspired to “write a song about how soldiers have no choice in the matter, but to follow orders, but with the irreverence of rock & roll. It was essentially punk rock before punk existed,” he told the New York Times in 2017.
“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,” McDonald, a U.S. Navy veteran, sings. “And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates/Well there ain’t no time to wonder why/Whoopie! We’re all gonna die!”
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The song, originally released as an acoustic number on an EP for McDonald’s Rag Baby magazine, was later revisited for Country Joe and the Fish’s 1967 second album I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag, with the group tacking on their infamous “The ‘Fish’ Cheer” to the recording.
Country Joe and the Fish also delivered a memorable set at the Woodstock Festival in 1969. “I always say that Woodstock was like a family picnic; it was fun,” McDonald told Rolling Stone in 2019 for the festival’s 50th anniversary. “You shouldn’t underestimate that you were having fun.”
During the set, where the band played their tandem “The ‘Fish’ Cheer” and “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” McDonald led the massive audience in a chant to spell the word “fuck,” an act considered obscene in the late Sixties — and led to McDonald’s arrest during previous performances — yet still featured in the documentary about the festival. “It was just unbelievable that they allowed it to go in the movie in 1969,” McDonald told Rolling Stone.
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However, in the aftermath of their legendary Woodstock performance, Country Joe and the Fish split up, and McDonald embarked on his own solo career beginning with 1969’s Thinking of Woody Guthrie, a collection of songs by the folk legend. In 1970, McDonald was among the artists called to testify at the trial of the Chicago Seven.
In addition to a long music career, McDonald remained politically active, advocating on behalf of saving the whales and helping Vietnam War veterans.
