US musician and Vietnam War protest singer “Country Joe” McDonald has died. The singer of the folk rock band “Country Joe and the Fish” succumbed to complications from Parkinson’s disease in Berkeley, California, at the age of 84, as several US media outlets unanimously reported, citing his wife Kathy McDonald. According to his website, his death occurred on March 7.
Joseph aka “Country Joe” McDonald was one of the defining voices of the US counterculture of the 1960s. He gained great fame with his appearance at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, where he played his satirical anti-Vietnam War song “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” (meaning: “I have the feeling that I’m about to die”).
McDonald had the audience start a provocative chant, and hundreds of thousands sang along with the bitter refrain: “One, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me, I don’t care. Next stop, Vietnam.” In other verses, the song mocked war profiteers on Wall Street and the willingness to send young men to war.
With his band, McDonald belonged to the so-called psychedelic rock scene. The Washington-born musician himself served in the US Navy and later became involved as an activist for veterans. In addition to his wife Kathy McDonald, to whom he was married for 43 years, he leaves behind five children.