956 Country Joe and the Fish - Electric Music for Mind and Body (1967)

 956 Country Joe and the Fish - Electric Music for Mind and Body (1967)

Studio Album - Psychedelic Rock/Hippie


About the Act:

Country Joe and the Fish were a Hippie Rock band from Berkeley, California, who existed from 1965 to 1970, and sporadically since. The name comes from the founding members, Country Joe MacDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton. Their sound was a kind of blend of blues, folk and psychedelia, centred around electric guitar lines and distorted organ (which often sounds like an early synth as a result). Their subject matter is the Hippie counterculture - anti-war, free love, and recreational drug use. They were quite central to the Hippie scene and performed at Woodstock.


About the Album:

This was the first full studio album release by the band. The timing is important, and the location. It was recorded in Berkeley, which is just a stone's throw from San Francisco, and it was released in May 1967, just at the start of the famous "Summer of Love". It was a forerunner of the Psychedelic sound from S.F.


My History with this Album:

None


Review:

This album is neither Country or Electronica, either of which could be guessed from the band name or the title.  It's about as squarely Hippie Psychedelic as you can get.  Musically it's quite light and breezy with a feeling of openness, sometimes just stripped back to organ and guitar. Generally it's quite simple, but not always traditional in terms of harmonies. There are elements of blues and folk in here, and it is very different from the previous album I reviewed (Maggot Brain by Funkadelic) which I also labelled as "Psychedelic Rock". This is definitely more flower-power, going to San Francisco, giving your love a cherry without a stone kind of thing. There are elements of fantasy and naivety in the lyrics, but shades of drugs and free love, and politics and such things too. 

To appreciate this properly you probably should light a joss stick, don a kaftan and put some flowers in your hair. Or you can just stick it on your headphones and enjoy... or not. It's OK, it's a little samey at times. It is definitely a product of its time, and the production could be better, but it's mellow, and that can be nice. May favourite lyric is "I dance to the joy of your knees".


6.5/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1PdqT2EZfFkWTsN18x1SZk

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCRX5lnJmahGvVSrb2IhRhAQCGi_dyR4H

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Music_for_the_Mind_and_Body


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