Music as morale-booster
Country Joe McDonald galvanized the ’60s protest movement with his antiwar anthem “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” singing the song to half a million mud-splattered fans at Woodstock. This month, the Berkeley singer-songwriter will speak on the subject of “Music as a Vehicle for Social Justice” at the Commonwealth Club, part of the organization’s monthlong Music Matters series. McDonald, who before leading the Summer of Love rock band Country Joe and the Fish served in the Navy, tells us he’s still working out how music inspires change.
Q: Did protest songs actually change things in the ’60s, or do people tend to romanticize it? A: I don’t think songs change anything. I think they validate people’s feelings. They can be morale boosters. My song was heard by people in Vietnam and validated that they weren’t crazy. If you have a group of people that have the same feeling, they get empowered by the music. That happened with psychedelic ’60s music and rap and hip-hop in the beginning. Q: What’s going on with the current state of protest music? A: I’m not sure what’s happening now. The content of music you hear now is mostly about love or sex. You don’t hear much in the mainstream about what’s going on in the real world, as far as nonsexual things. And there are a lot of very controversial things going on — immigration, racial things, veterans affairs. Even “Blowin’ in the Wind,” what the hell is that about? But it changes all the time. Q: Do you consider yourself a torchbearer for a certain era? A: Well, you know, it’s great to be noted for something. But a torchbearer? I don’t know. The Vietnam song just popped into my head one day. I didn’t write it for a cause, although I have written songs about saving whales and nuclear power. You never know what’s going to catch on and what’s going to be popular or not. I just write to keep from going nuts. Q: Do you still feel change is possible? A: No, I don’t. I don’t feel it. It doesn’t mean it’s not possible. We’re barraged with all kinds of real news that’s depressing as hell, globally and locally. There’s a lot of death, sickness, oppression, random gun violence. There seems to be very little you can do about it. We’re also in an era of —holes like Donald Trump who can just say things and you wonder, do they really believe what they’re saying? We’re living in a hateful, argumentative time. To realize that, I realize it was a rare era I lived through with the peace and love movement.