Country Joe Band, 2004: "Uncle Sam Needs Your Help Again"

http://www.coastalpost.com/04/05/25.htm



Country Joe Band, 2004: "Uncle Sam Needs Your Help Again"
By Norman Solomon

Taking the stage at a community center in the small Northern California town of Bolinas, a group of four musicians quickly showed themselves to be returning as a vibrant creative force centered very much in the present. Not that the music of Country Joe and the Fish ever really disappeared. Since the release of the band's first two albums in 1967-"Electric Music for the Mind and Body" along with "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die"-many of its songs have meandered through the memories and semi-consciousness of millions of Americans who came of age a third of a century ago.

Now reconstituted with four of the legendary group's original five members, the new Country Joe Band has just begun to tour. When I saw them perform, midway through April, the music was as tightly effusive as ever, with poetic lyrics mostly brought to bear on two perennials: love and death.

Their new song "Cakewalk to Baghdad" is in sync with Country Joe McDonald's compositions that stretch back to the escalating years of the Vietnam War. With the post-"victory" occupation of Iraq in its thirteenth month bringing death to many people including children, his old song "An Untitled Protest" remains unfailingly current. Sung the other night, it was no more dated than today: "Red and swollen tears tumble from her eyes / While cold silver birds who came to cruise the skies / Send death down to bend and twist her tiny hands / And then proceed to target 'B' in keeping with their plans."

No less than its previous incarnation, the Country Joe Band exemplifies how rock music can transcend itself as an art form. This is no small feat for any musicians, including those who create songs that encourage resistance to deadly routines of the status quo. Rhetoric is destructive to art. On the other hand, ambiguous or self-absorbed artistry is apt to be isolated from key social realities. But the Country Joe Band is not agitprop or evasive. For an overview, take a look at www.countryjoe.com-a website that reflects how a creative process can stay grounded in humanistic projects of our times.

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