STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
One of the performers at the famous Woodstock Festival has died. Joe McDonald led the band Country Joe & the Fish. He used to get crowds to spell their name - F-I-S-H. When they were invited to play at Woodstock in 1969, they led hundreds of thousands of people to spell a different F-word and then played this.
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COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH: (Singing) Well, come on, all of you big, strong men. Uncle Sam needs your help again. Got himself in a terrible jam way down yonder in Vietnam. Put down your books and pick up a gun. We're going to have a whole lot of fun. And it's one, two, three. What are we fighting for? Don't ask me. I don't give a damn. My next stop is Vietnam.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That is the "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag." Joe McDonald was born on New Year's Day, 1942, at a time when his parents were so interested in the Communist Party that they named him after Joseph Stalin. McDonald was a Navy veteran, although his service ended before the Vietnam War. He started the band in 1965. By Woodstock in '69, infighting among the bandmates was taking its toll. A year later, they split up.
INSKEEP: Country Joe McDonald continued as a solo act, releasing albums and touring well into the 2000s, although he remained most famous for that cutting, cynical rebuke of the Vietnam draft. He did say he was suspicious of how different audiences interpreted his song. Here he is at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
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JOE MCDONALD: When I sing "Fixin'-To-Die Rag" for Vietnam veterans, I know what they're feeling and what they're thinking. But when I sing it to a regular audience, I don't know what the hell they're thinking.
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COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH: (Singing) And it's five, six, seven. Open up the pearly gates. Well, ain't no time to wonder why. Whoopee. We're all going to die.
MARTIN: Joe McDonald died Saturday of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 84.
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COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH: (Singing) I don't give a damn.
MCDONALD: Louder.
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE: (Singing) Next stop is...
COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH: (Singing) Vietnam. And it's five, six, seven. Open up the pearly gates. Well, there ain't no time to wonder why. Whoopee. We're all going to die.
MCDONALD: Listen, people. I don't know how... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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