An Untitled Protest- Country Joe and The Fish

[1ancienttraveler]

Herodotusthe Elder,

I said just the opposite. If the government would get out of the way there would be job creation. The "Top" is the segment of our country that creates the jobs by investing their money. Without them there is no capital to create jobs, other than over paid actors that is. Government rules and regulations encourage these investors to put their money in 'safe investments' like government bonds that do nothing for the businesses that provide employment.

[1ancienttraveler]

Kosty, I disagree. What this country needs to do is trash the Secular Socialist government education system. Since FDR was elected the government school system has been teaching people that for some reason they are "entitled" to something for nothing. That government will provide for those who chose not to do so for themselves. We need to get back to what made this country what it was. We need to quit going into combat to defend people who would like nothing better than to see this counrty fail.

[HerodotustheElder]

@1ancienttraveler Oh gosh, I try to ignore such delusional thinking, but here goes again. So are you saying people are "entitled" to jobs that the system can no longer create sufficiently. I gyes I would agree with that. You have cause and effect reversed. Most people want to work and lead a respectful life. Especially if they are given the opportunity to do so. How you miss the fact that capital in our society has all gone to the top & no longer create jobs amazes me.

[taxisteve929]

I wondered where the great war protest songs were today, A friend pointed out the lack of a draft may be the reason. If you look at singers from the 60's like Tom Paxton, Jimi Hendrix, and Jerry Garcia who served in the Army, and Country Joe with the Navy, they had a deeper understanding than those of us who hadn't served. Most have no problem serving to protect their homes and family but have a problem being sent 10,000 miles away to fight and die because politicians say those people are bad.

[HerodotustheElder]

@taxisteve929 Eliminating the draft was a good move for the military industrial complex. By not forcing the common people to fight our imperial wars the heat was off and protests were stilled. So you are certainly correct that the heat energy in the culture was absent and had an effect on the art. There have been exceptions. GreenDay being one - American Idiot, Holiday, etc.

[Kostly]

POWERFUL

[1ancienttraveler]

What the U.S. needs to do is get the hell out of NATO. Kick these ignorant bastards out of New York and turn their buildings into affordable housing. Our youth are dying for people who would stab us in the back whenever they have the chance. We need to quit defending Europeans. Let the Muslim hoards descend once again across Western Europe and enslave it as they have before if the Europeans are unwilling to defend themselves. We played by the U.N. rules in Korea and Vietnam it's time we stopped.

[Kostly]

@1ancienttraveler Nothing will change until the people change it. And nothing is changed by "voting the bums out". No one will take you seriously until you punch them in the face. HARD.

[HerodotustheElder]

@Kostly I am sympathetic to your thoughts, but pray there is an approach in between. Remember how most revolutions turned out. The violence that enabled their original success could not be turned off. I feel the protest music of the Vietnam era was a powerful force for educating, energizing and enabling. We need more of that now.

[chillydurden]

This song makes perfect, graphic and profound sense. The imagery is stark, the message clear. War is hell. ... This song is absolutely incredible.

[TPBXDRicky420]

It has to do with Nam.....

[bugre19]

I'm only 28, so I'm guessing at all of this, btw. "And those who took so long to learn the suttle ways of death, lie and bleed in patty mud with questions on their breath"-could've been either the college protestors Nixon gunned down at that college OR the footage of the innocent vietnamese civilians fired upon unprovoked by U.S. Troops

[HerodotustheElder]

@bugre19 I don't think this passage was a metaphor. I think it was the latter of your "or" statement.

[bugre19]

.And Superheroes filled the skies, tally sheets in hand, yes keeping score in times of war takes a superman" I'm totally guessing at this one, but it seemed to have a resonant feel of someone tallying wars as far back as war goes. Not quite unlike the modern arms dealers of today. "The junk crawls past hidden death, it's cargo shakes inside, and soldier children hold their breath, and kill them as they hide" Could be a metaphor for the vietcong?

[bugre19]

"Oxen lie beside the road, their bodies bathed in mud, as fat flies chew out their eyes, and bathe themsleves in blood" I think there was actual footage of this exact graphic scenery from vietnam, also could've been a metaphor- The oxen as Vietnam, war profiteers the flies.

[bugre19]

Cold silver birds-planes dropping bombs, or napalm (red and swollen tears?) delivering death and then proceeding to target B? "Khaki priest of christendom ride a stone leviathan across a sea of blood"-Aircraft carrier-U.S. Navy "And pound their feet into the sand of shores they never seen, delegates from the Western Land to join the death machine" U.S. Military, probably Army or Marines

.

[pedrofts]

even if the lyrics didnt make sense, isnt sense overrated anyway?!

when talking about art, (i mean REAL art), sense doesnt play a big part in the discussion.

who is thinking about sense when enjoying this pearl form one of the best, deepest, and most creative groups of that great artistic movement that were the sixties?

[bugre19]

Great job with the video. The words made perfect sense, I guess interpetation is open to perspective.;) I love the artwork with the video.

[bugre19]

Great job with the video. The words made perfect sense, I guess interpetation is open to perspective.;) I love the artwork with the video.

[brucencalifornia]

the truth of Vietnam,, Peace accord was to be in 1967 but Nixon indicated he would give better terms if people waited, held that up so it never happened, uss liberty attack was false flag just like tonken gulf attack in 1964.with millions of people in uniform and the russians backed down at cuba? to draw us in to the Middle east but that was discovered by outside parties to be what it was.six months latter came tet. here we are 45 years latter,(fill in the blank)

[ONEOFHAM2]

@brucencalifornia what?

[brucencalifornia]

Never forget MIA Sold for LIES

[pigletized]

So Awsome of a song! So real So Great!

[mrbag60]

The sad thing is even though we protested by the millions prior to the Iraq war, the NWO internationalists who control nearly all puppets (politicians) went ahead with their oil war, just like Afghanistan after the "New Pearl Harbor" attack of 9/11. That false-flag was a smokescreen for building an oil pipeline through Afghanistan and get the US into a protracted war using OBL as bait. The NWO is setting up the US for failure in Afghanistan just like the USSR prior to its breakup. Great song!

[pylgrym]

I was' there' in 1971 as an infantryman with the 23rd AMERICAL Division, and as an MP with the 504th in DaNang . . . Ozzy's "War Pigs" was on the stereo on R&R where I stayed in King's Cross, Sidney NSW . . . couldn't have agreed more . . . ALAS! had to go back...often wonder what my life would have been had I just stayed with Beautiful Her (Cherry Red) and assayed to become Australian...

[MasterAceman123456]

Isnt the American troops one should be pissed off at: its the government that stuck them there back then.

[jonvonman]

I have to disagree, these lyrics make perfect sense.

[tomitstube]

wow, i missed this one. very surreal.  it's makes plenty of sense.

[jdrandassoc]

There's misunderstanding there. I'm not accusing his Grandfather of being fascist. I want him to go ask his grandfather about living in the era when National Socialists or Imperial Japanese were more than just historical boogeymen. But it was poorly phrased comment, I can see the confusion.

I tire of the cheap, repetitive, almost constant bashing of American foreign policy as fascist by the political left, and as an American soldier who served in Iraq I take it personally.

[captainsoul1953]

Scared the crap out of me when i was 13...i dont thimk this got much airplay!

[jerry7848]

i love this song, and i am only 51.

[The60sMusicman]

lol

[HearMySinging]

I love this song, and I am even younger than 51

[DaHanzStriker64]

tema psicodelico

[bassist448]

How can you say it makes no sense? It makes perfect sense. And it isn't that it was from different times, it's just that you didn't pay enough attention to the lyrics. But, thanks for posting. It is greatly appreciated.

[cliffhammond]

The opening verse is apparently a reference to the famous photograph of the naked child walking down a road screaming after napalm bombing from the "silver birds above."

[Jackieis60]

You bet this is a Vietnam War protest song. I remember that picture of the girl. The images of war the lyrics paint are the images of all wars. Crops destroyed, muddy fields, and dead livestock lying around. And I think they are saying get out and protest on the streets, folks, not just in cards and letters. It's sad.

[cliffhammond]

You kidding. The lyrics make perfect sense. Even the image of Christ versus the Nietzscheian reference to "superman" (Nietzsche thought Jesus was a wuss).

[jimdlu]

Differant times Hazel,those lyrics do make sense.

[rfranklinw1]

hazel, to say that the lyrics make "no sense" is quite unfair. if you were there at the time, the lyrics make perfect sense.

[3ClickAristera]

what's wrong with those who keep posting comments about American patriots and stuff in songs of Country Joe and the Fish?Such as "LoveAmericaStyle"?

It's a shame and a pitty(as McDonald says).Get a Life.

Respect for such a great band.Whippieeee!

[badtux]

The lyrics make far too much sense if you were actually there.

[tomskateboards]

it's beautiful...

[brucencalifornia]

@badtux OMG

[GuyThatBites]

There`s a tape from maybe 1970 where the President of USA is talking about sanding away american soldiers from Vietnam. And finally he says: "I wan`t be the first president of America who was defeted on war! So the war was continue because the President had an ego:DDDD

This is a good song. Rock music in these days really had something to say.

[icaru34]

from my point of my view the war was started and was continued because rich white businessmen were making lots of money off of it.

[noyzone01]

thank you so very much for posting this. Its been years since i'd heard this song. I may be young, but this spoke worlds to me.

[soapbox5]

It's a mantra against American fascism in Vietnam.

[eyezonthepryz]

American fascism in Viet Nam? What in the fuck does a 44 year old U.K. person know about Viet Nam? All you know is what your leftist teachers have taught you and it is bull shit!

[Boudiicca]

as much as a 30 year old from Australia knows about American fascism in Iraq.... The U.S isn't an isolated island in the middle of nowhere...every action you take affects the whole world. The world's citizens have a right to protest!!!!!

[jdrandassoc]

@Boudiicca Being from western world you wouldn't know fascism if it came up and slapped you in face. Go ask your grandfather.

[Boudiicca]

@jdrandassoc I'm from the west, but so what? Have you lived in any Aboriginal communities in Australia? Fascist ideals didn't die out with my grandfather...

[jborbely]

@jdrandassoc Way to generalize all Westerners, classic attitude thats got you stuck in the shit hole your probably from.

[flagwaver1969]

@Boudiicca

Many would not see it as "American fascism" but truly a manipulative attempt by Internationalists to use America as their attack dog. America does not operate the war machine.

[pigletized]

@Boudiicca And you blame the people for this, the people that struggle to eat and survive? The sick without insurance? The crippled in the streets? Surely you must be refering to the Government. My uncles fought and one died back then one left for Canada. Did they seek to kill? to die? to betray at a young confused age? No sister, no!

[Boudiicca]

@pigletized Of course I'm referring to the US Government...AND media.I would never blame the troops...many are very young and naive when they sign up...it's not their fault.When the U.S government and citizens state that their particular brand of "freedom" is the *right* way to be...we all (US and allies) move into dangerous territory.A government that can't provide public health care, whose crippled citizens live on the streets with no aid,whose economy is crumbling..should not have such an ego

[pigletized]

@Boudiicca Thanks, I really appreciate that. Strangely money is of no shortage but tied up in the hands of the few. What they do with it I and common folk will never know.

[thepinkpunkpoet]

Haunting. There's a few good protest songs around. Barry Mcguires 'Eve of destruction' is another tuff tune. But has anyone done as many as good [or when it was needed most] as CJ and the Fish? I don't think so. And for me this is the best. Awesome poetry and like I say...a haunting tune. My memory [eaten thin and patchy pigging LSD 30 years ago] says Joe copped a peace prize recently. Sure deserved one or ten.

[umgborusse]

this song is nice, i am going to mix it ;)

[AbsolutelyPleased]

this song is incredible. Use to listen to it all the time.

[jasongreenwooduk]

awesome..............heres' hoping that limeire has this

[bflat00]

great find....many thanks for sharing. Barry Melton [former guitarist - now an attorney] was interviewed on the PBS 60s [1967] Summer of Love Special narrated by Peter Cayote. Catch the rerun if ya can...the Summer the peace revoluton took an interesting turn, yet still in the spirit of love, when confronted with the realities of human masses and limited Civil Engineering resources.

[goatboy420]

Firstly, beautiful song, and a pretty good video to go with it!

Secondly, that is an absolutely cracking doco you mentioned. I got it on DVD a little while ago, seeing as it was never going to be shown here in England. Well worth it!!!

[sillygames]

hazel, check out "Rainbow Family Peaceably Schools Police, Dissolves Roadblock" --you'll love it.