Tricky Dicky
1971 · Rag Baby RAG 1003 · USA
- Artist
- Country Joe & The Fish
- Title
- Tricky Dicky
- Release
- Resist! Sings Country Joe
- Year
- 1971
- Label
- Rag Baby # RAG 1003
- Format
- 7" · EP
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Folk · Folk
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
This limited edition EP, circulated with the magazine Rag Baby, contained a couple Vietnam-related tracks. The song "Tricky Dick", which portrayed Nixon as an artificial man, or robot, criticised his role in the economy and the ongoing Vietnam War: "the war keeps going on and on". The song "Kiss My Ass" (Rag Baby Records # RAG 1003) took an anti-war position, similar to their famous 1965 song I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die-Rag. Narrated in the first person, a man went to the army recruitment office - as a volunteer - and the army "sent me to Saigon and they stayed home". The man finished his army duty, and as a veteran back in the US he expressed opposition to the war: "we don't want your fuckin war". It also criticised the army culture of taking orders.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
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]