Country Joe and the Fish

Country Joe and the Fish were a psychedelic rock band formed in Berkeley, California, in the mid-1960s around Country Joe McDonald and Barry Melton, emerging alongside the Bay Area's burgeoning countercultural music scene. Rooted in folk and jug-band traditions before turning electric, the group became one of the defining acts of San Francisco psychedelia, blending garage-rock energy, extended instrumental jams, and pointed political satire.

The band is best remembered for «The Fish Cheer / I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag», an irreverent, biting anti-Vietnam War anthem whose call-and-response opening and darkly comic lyrics made it one of the era's most enduring protest songs, especially after their performance at Woodstock in 1969. Beyond that signature track, songs like «Porpoise Mouth» and «Bass Strings» showcase their more exploratory, acid-rock side, built on loose jamming and unconventional song structures.

Although often overshadowed in retrospective accounts of San Francisco's scene by bands like the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish were major headliners of their day, playing key venues such as the Fillmore and the Avalon Ballroom and appearing at landmark festivals including Monterey Pop and Woodstock, leaving a lasting mark on psychedelic rock's political and sonic identity.