Fixin' to Die Rag

[kentuck]

[cksmithy]

1. Thank you

for posting this. Brings back memories. I graduated the year of Woodstock but on the California coast. I saw Country Joe three, maybe four times at concerts from Monterey Peninsula College to San Jose. Everyone joined in the opening chant with Country Joe. I participated in the San Francisco Vietnam Demonstration, 11-16-1969. It is so hard to watch the news, reminds me of what may come to happen. I grew up and lived within 13 miles of Fort Ord, CA, and was always aware of being a military target (thanks to the ptsd my father, survivor of USS Yorktown had). Our family would actually discuss what one thing we could take and carry with us, when we would have to evacuate. Anyway, thank you and I have always appreciated all veterans who returned from any war.

[Boomerproud]

2. Seems appropriate 53 years later.

Sad isn't it?

[Emile]

3. We could use 3 days of music and drugs now.

[Brother Buzz]

4. There's a cool backstory on the royalties between Countrty Joe and Chris Strachwitz

The house that Country Joe built
By MAC MCDONALD |
PUBLISHED: January 29, 2013 at 12:00 a.m. | UPDATED: September 11, 2018 at 12:00 a.m.


Chris Strachwitz credits counter-culture folk-rock singer Country Joe McDonald for helping him get Arhoolie Records and Down Home Music off the ground.

Strachwitz, who has owned and operated the prestigious Arhoolie Records and its Down Home Music store for the past 50 years, recounted how he recorded McDonald performing his famed anti-war song “I Feel Like I”m Fixin” to Die Rag” in Strachwitz”s living room in the early ”60s.

When they were finished recording, McDonald asked Strachwitz how much he owed him for the recording session. Strachwitz said it was on the house, but added, “Do you have a publisher for the song?” McDonald didn't, but gave Strachwitz half of the publishing rights because Strachwitz knew more about those things.

It”s the folksy ditty that goes “1-2-3, what are we fighting for? Don”t ask me I don”t give a damn, next stop is Viet-Nam” and it became a huge hit, primarily from the blockbuster concert film and recording “Woodstock.”

The royalties for the recording poured in, and Strachwitz used his half wisely.

“Thank God I put some money down back when Country Joe and I published that song,” said Strachwitz, who put a down payment on a building that still houses Arhoolie and Down Home Music in El Cerrito, just north of Berkeley. “At least I own the building.”

But the story doesn”t end there.

“About 15 years ago he came to me and said, ”Chris, don”t you think you”ve made enough money off of me?” I said, ”Joe, I think you”re a good socialist, do you want it back?” So I gave it back to him, it was the only decent thing to do,” recalled Strachwitz. “But I was lucky, too, because he was sued about five years ago by Kid Ory”s daughter (who claimed McDonald stole her father”s song ”Muskrat Ramble” and turned it into ”Fixin” to Die Rag.). If I had kept that copyright the Ory family may have thought I had deep pockets and could have given me all kinds of static.”

McDonald beat the lawsuit, but told Strachwitz he was happy that he shared the royalties 50/50 all those years, otherwise he would have had to split them with all the members of his band, the great San Francisco folk-rock band Country Joe & The Fish.

“I was lucky to do the right thing and get rewarded for it,” said Strachwitz.

https://www.montereyherald.com/2013/01/29/the-house-that-country-joe-built/