Country Joe and The Fish – I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die

All I knew about Country Joe and The Fish was what I'd heard on the Woodstock album I'd checked out from the library when I was still in high school. Of course, watching The Omega Man on TV as a kid was a riveting experience, and seeing Charlton Heston sitting in a dark theatre watching Woodstock sort of stuck with me. That triple live Woodstock album was another beast altogether, although at the time I really didn't think all that much of the '60s stuff.

It was hit and miss, but it was an interesting experience. There was some cool stuff on those platters, and some stuff that made my ears hurt. Then there was the absolutely mind-blowing "The 'Fish' Cheer" by Country Joe McDonald. I'd never really paid attention to protest songs, but this ... this was something special.

It was probably the first time I'd heard the word fuck in a song, and it was used so artistically that it stuck with me. It's really the only song I truly liked on that album. Oh, people lose their shit over Hendrix, but to me his stuff was just a cacophonous exploration of self-indulgent noodling.

I also have no recollection of the other Country Joe and the Fish song on the album ... such is my memory.

So here we have I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die and I bought it because I was intrigued. Sure, it was in the dollar section, but it looked to be in decent shape. Despite the promise implied on the cover, "Contains Giant FULL-COLOR FISH GAME Complete With Instructions," there was no such book to be found ... then again, this was over fifty years old and I was lucky the album wasn't worse for wear.

Would have been an awesome score to have gotten the game too.

Oh well, it was only a buck.

Country Joe and the Fish, from what I've read, never really achieved the level of success many of their psychedelic contemporaries achieved, but they were part of the scene, man. The band was around for less than a handful of years, and by 1970 the band ended its short run.

Released in 1967, the album was equal parts psychedelic and counterculture. Based on the album cover, I was inclined to be dismissive, thinking this was more novelty than novel ... the opening track, "The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag," seemed to place the band firmly in the novelty bin.

Complete with kazoo and sound effects, the song had none of the punch I remembered from the Woodstock album. The rag style certainly highlighted the absurd nature of the lyrics, which are still amazingly poignant, but I was underwhelmed.

Then "Who AM I" followed and the tone of the album changed. The songs were organic and trippy, and the band showed themselves to be quite adept at their craft. There were a number of really good songs on the album.

There was something quirky and almost magical to "Janis" as the second side opened. It was whimsical and one of my favourite songs on the album. The band would delve into the trippy "Thought Dream" that contained the "Bomb Song" and ended with "The Acid Commercial," which I guess was cool at the time.

The album closes with not one, but two instrumentals. "Eastern Jam" was kind of cool. Guitarists David Cohen and Barry Melton, who had just turned 20, traded guitar solos. However, it was the closing track, "Colors for Susan," that I really liked.

The song was too long and seemed to overstay its welcome, but it was so good. Rather than resolve, it just repeated itself more than was necessary. Of course, that's petty, and frankly, after all these years, it's kind of like kicking a puppy.

This was a weird album, man, but a good one. Probably one of the more surprising albums I've listened to in a while. If you're in the mood for something a little different, you could do a lot worse.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

David Baerwald - Bedtime Stories

The little sticker on the shrinkwrap says, "You may remember David Baerwald from David & David's Boomtown ..." You bet, I remembered David Baerwald. Back in 1986 Boomtown was an album with moments of sheer brilliance. The whole album may not have been as top shelf as the first few tracks, but that didn't matter - it is an excellent album. I waited for a follow-up ... and waited, and then in 1990 it was a solo David, David Baerwald, who dropped Bedtime Stories . I snapped it up. "All For You," the opening cut, is still my favourite song on the album. It was mesmerizing. I'm not sure if the song got any airplay, it may have, but that may have been wishful thinking on my part as it was on a lot of mix tapes at the time and I heard it a lot in the car. The CD had a great booklet with all of the musician credits and lyrics. Oddly, when I found a sealed copy of the record (a great score), it just had a plain paper insert - the picture of David walking wit...

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

"Cars" was really the only song I knew by Gary Numan. I knew the name of the album the song came from. Over the years bits and pieces of trivia are accumulated, but in terms of his music it was still distilled down to one song ... It would be too easy to write Mr. Numan off as a one hit wonder, and I suppose in terms of actual chart hits this was his defining moment as a solo artist. Of course this really means nothing, as Gary Numan would drop an album a year pretty much through to the end of the '80s. He'd then slow down a little but continued to make music. While The Pleasure Principle was Gary Numan's debut solo release in '79, he actually cut his teeth on a couple of albums in a band called Tubeway Army, first with the band's self-titled release in 1978, and then on Replicas that came out in April of '79. By the end of Tubeway Army's run most of the band would follow Gary into his solo career. Paul Gardiner, who had been with Gary from the b...

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