I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die-Rag

Annotation

Country Joe & The Fish formed in 1965, in Berkeley, California, and featured Country Joe McDonald, Barry Melton, David Cohen, Chicken Hirsh, and Bruce Barthol. McDonald and Bill Belmont founded the label Rag Baby which issued a magazines / pamphlets containing an EP.1 The track "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" (Rag Baby Records # 1001) is one of the most well known and key of the Vietnam protest songs. Joe McDonald wrote the song in the summer of 1965 in just 30 minutes, after being discharged from the US navy, and subsequently released it on this EP in October. McDonald performed the song live at the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival, one of the standout performances of the motion picture Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music. He said that: "the song attempts to put blame for the war upon the politicians and leaders of the US military and upon the industry that makes its money from war but not upon those who had to fight the war...the soldiers. It expresses the thoughts of a person trapped in the military system and forced to go to war by something called "conscription". Conscription or the "draft" as it was called...The song attempts to address the horror of going to war with a dark sarcastic form of humor called GI humor". 2The group released a better known recording of this track on their 1967 album I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die (Vanguard Records # VSD 79266), which has a more psychedelic rock feel to it. This version also received a single release in Europe in 1970: I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag (Vanguard Records # 6076 250). Also check out the 1970 Woodstock soundtrack: Woodstock (Cotillion # SD3-500). Finally, the very rare early EP cuts are contained on the 1981 compilation Collectors Items: The First Three EP's (Rag Baby Records # RAG 1008), reissued on CD in 1992 (Sequel Records # NEX CD 228).Sources1Rag Baby Records↩2countryjoe.com: How I Wrote the Rag↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs

Country Joe & The Fish formed in 1965, in Berkeley, California, and featured Country Joe McDonald, Barry Melton, David Cohen, Chicken Hirsh, and Bruce Barthol. McDonald and Bill Belmont founded the label Rag Baby which issued a magazines / pamphlets containing an EP.1 The track "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" (Rag Baby Records # 1001) is one of the most well known and key of the Vietnam protest songs. Joe McDonald wrote the song in the summer of 1965 in just 30 minutes, after being discharged from the US navy, and subsequently released it on this EP in October. McDonald performed the song live at the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival, one of the standout performances of the motion picture Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music. He said that:"the song attempts to put blame for the war upon the politicians and leaders of the US military and upon the industry that makes its money from war but not upon those who had to fight the war...the soldiers. It expresses the thoughts of a person trapped in the military system and forced to go to war by something called "conscription". Conscription or the "draft" as it was called...The song attempts to address the horror of going to war with a dark sarcastic form of humor called GI humor".2The group released a better known recording of this track on their 1967 album I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die (Vanguard Records # VSD 79266), which has a more psychedelic rock feel to it. This version also received a single release in Europe in 1970: I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag (Vanguard Records # 6076 250). Also check out the 1970 Woodstock soundtrack: Woodstock (Cotillion # SD3-500). Finally, the very rare early EP cuts are contained on the 1981 compilation Collectors Items: The First Three EP's (Rag Baby Records # RAG 1008), reissued on CD in 1992 (Sequel Records # NEX CD 228).Sources1Rag Baby Records↩2countryjoe.com: How I Wrote the Rag↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Come on all of you big strong men / Uncle Sam needs your help again / He's got himself in a terrible jam / Way down yonder in Viet Nam / Put down your books and pick up a gun / We're gonna have a whole lotta fun / And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for? / Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop is Viet Nam / And it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates / Ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die / Come on generals, let's move fast / Your big chance has come at last / Now you can go out and get those reds / Good commie is the one that's dead / And you know that peace can only be won / When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come... / Hey come on wall street don't be slow / Why man this war is a go-go / There's plenty good money to be made by supplying the army with the tools of its trade / Let's hope and pray that if they drop the bomb / They drop it on the Viet Cong... / Come on mothers throughout the land / Pack your boys off to Viet Nam / Come on fathers, don't hesitate / Send your sons off before it's too late / And you can be the first ones on your block / To have your boy come home in a box / And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for? / Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop is Viet Nam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Libanon, Angola / Ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die Come on all of you big strong men / Uncle Sam needs your help again / He's got himself in a terrible jam / Way down yonder in…

Notes

The original recording. Side A of the split 7" EP Rag Baby Talking Issue No. 1 (Rag Baby RAG 1001, 33 rpm, limited edition, October 1965), with Peter Krug on Side B; A2 is "Superbird". Re-recorded for the Vanguard LP (1967) and performed live by Country Joe McDonald at Woodstock (1970 soundtrack).

About the artist

Psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in Berkeley, California, around Country Joe McDonald (born 1 January 1942, Washington, D.C.; died March 2026) and Barry 'The Fish' Melton; best known for the antiwar anthem I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag (1967) and its Woodstock performance. Disbanded in the early 1970s [disband location not stated]. [Source: Wikipedia; NPR obituary]

Themes

Anti-War · Draft

In collections

Draft Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]