Country Joe McDonald dies, icon of psychedelic rock and protest against the Vietnam War

American singer-songwriter Country Joe McDonald, an emblematic figure of the Sixties counterculture and one of the most recognizable voices of musical protest against the Vietnam War, has died at the age of 84. The leader of psychedelic rock group Country Joe And The Fish passed away on Saturday, March 7th, in Berkeley, California, due to complications from Parkinson's disease. The news was confirmed by his wife Kathy and his family in a statement released to the media.

Born Joseph Allen McDonald on January 1st, 1942, in Washington, he grew up in El Monte, California. His parents, both members of the American Communist Party, named him Joseph in tribute to Joseph Stalin. At seventeen he enlisted in the United States Navy and spent three years of service in Japan.

After being discharged, he briefly attended Los Angeles City College, while starting to perform as a street musician along Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. It was there that he came into contact with the Bay Area's lively folk and protest scene, an environment that would help shape his artistic identity and political commitment.

In 1965 he founded Country Joe and the Fish with guitarist Barry "The Fish" Melton, one of the bands that ushered in the era of Californian psychedelic rock. The group also included keyboardist and guitarist David Cohen, drummer Gary "Chicken" Hirsh, and bassist Bruce Barthol. The band quickly became a central presence on the San Francisco music scene, performing at iconic venues such as the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore and taking part in key events of the Sixties counterculture, including the Monterey Pop Festival.

The best-known moment of McDonald's career came in 1969 at the Woodstock Festival. In front of a crowd of roughly 400,000 people, he took the stage alone with an acoustic guitar and led the audience in the "Fish Cheer," a provocative call-and-response that had the crowd chanting the word "fuck." He immediately followed it with "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," an anti-militarist satire about the Vietnam War whose chorus, "One, two, three, what are we fighting for?", became one of the most recognizable slogans of the Woodstock generation. Written in just a few minutes, the song spread quickly among young protesters and even among American soldiers serving in the conflict. Its explicit language and provocative content also sparked censorship: the band had an appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" cancelled, and McDonald was fined in Massachusetts for publicly uttering the word "fuck".

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