Is this the best anti-war song ever? It was written about the Vietnam War with the poem more or less recited over a swelling organ dirge. The effects, with Country Joe’s incredibly clear voice, was chilling.
Country Joe and the Fish were one of the first and foremost Acid Rock Bands to come out of San Francisco in the sixties. They lived in the Haight Asbury area along with other great bands including the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and Big Brother & the Holding Company. That was quite a scene going on there. I visited in 1971 and it had decayed away but the vestiges were still to be found.
Country Joe and the Fish had their roots in Jugband agitprop and were one of the most political of the West Coast bands. They were, and still are, one of my favourites.
An Untitled Protest by Country Joe & the Fish
Red and swollen tears tumble from her eyes
While cold silver birds who came to cruise the skies
Send death down to bend and twist her tiny hands
And then proceed to target B in keeping with their plans
Khaki priests of Christendom, interpreters of love
Ride a stone Leviathan across a sea of blood
And pound their feet into the sand of shores they’ve never seen
Delegates from the western land to join the death machine
And we send cards and letters.
The oxen lie beside the road their bodies baked in mud
And fat flies chew out their eyes then bathe themselves in blood
And superheroes fill the skies, tally sheets in hand
Yes, keeping score in times of war takes a superman
The junk crawls past hidden death its cargo shakes inside
And soldier children hold their breath and kill them as they hide
And those who took so long to learn the subtle ways of death
Lie and bleed in paddy mud with questions on their breath
And we send prayers and praises.