Vanguard Years - Country Joe and the Fish [1967 - 1970]

She came along the alley and up the back steps the way she always used to. Doc hadn’t seen her for over a year. Nobody had. Back then it was always sandals, bottom half of a flower- print bikini, faded Country Joe & the Fish T- shirt. Tonight she was all in flatland gear, hair a lot shorter than he remembered, looking just like she swore she’d never look.

 - chapter one, paragraph one, Inherent Vice - Thomas Pynchon

Where next after laying down quintessential psychedelic rock album of SF Aquarian age? Post 67 peak slow decline requires patient sifting. Y Brawd goes prospecting.

April 1967

...that album was the best psychedelic rock record made by anybody in the world...We tried to make an album that had no bum trips on it - and millions of people have tripped and will continue to trip on that album...there is no way, unless you are latently psychopathic, that you can bum out to that album. It is guaranteed!

- Country Joe McDonald

Olde time carny waltz tempo on Porpoise Mouth unparalleled.

Remember kids, set and setting...

01  Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine

02  Porpoise Mouth

03  Section 43

04  Grace

November 1967

05  The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die
06  Who Am I?
07  Janis
08  Thursday

1968

Disaster and scant salvage as Country Joe shares songwriting with band members. Can anybody explain the cover?

Sole tripped out Joe drone downer is, nevertheless, right on the money.

09  Untitled Protest

1969

Welcome back. And an opening melody catchy enough to inspire Twiggy cover. Like all Joe's best, Here I Go Again has a sweet-sad mix of good times had and lost,  nostalgia and uncertainty for how all this is going to pan out. Trademark olde time carny waltz tempo still on the go -  gorgeous.

10  Here I Go Again
11  For No Reason
12  Maria

1970

Chilled out come down for the decade. Laid back, tired and engaging. Wearily feisty collection, and with a curious, burned out retread of Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine the game is effectively up.

13  Sing, Sing, Sing
14  She's a Bird
15  Silver and Gold
16  Rockin' Round the World
17  The Return of Sweet Lorraine

Oddi wrth y brawd

who am i