Country Joe
The protest singer Country Joe McDonald died last week. He was probably most famous for his appearance at Woodstock, where he performed “I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag,” one of the defining anti-war anthems of the Vietnam era. The Mai Lai massacre, where American soldiers killed 504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians, was a big influence on that tune. Many years later, on his website, Joe provided a list of all the individuals killed, driving home the scale of the tragedy.
Country Joe always said the song targeted politicians, not soldiers. In fact, he was a vet himself. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy at 17 and spent three years in service during the late 1950s and early 1960s. He later became a member of Veterans For Peace and spent decades advocating for fair treatment and recognition for veterans and performing benefit concerts for veterans’ groups. A lotta people don’t know that side of him. They think he was just some damn long-haired hippie.
It’s interesting that Country Joe died during a week when tensions with Iran were rising and talk of bringing back the draft resurfaced. All those protest songs later, I guess the times haven’t changed all that much. Keep your dukes up.
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