Joseph “Nation Joe” McDonald has died. The singer/songwriter who fronted counterculture folk-rock icons Nation Joe And The Fish died of problems from Parkinson’s illness final night time, based on TMZ and Greatest Traditional Bands. McDonald wrote the psychedelic Berkeley, California band’s most enduring songs, together with the Vietnam Warfare protest anthem “The Fish Cheer/I-Really feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” and “Not So Candy Martha Lorraine,” their sole Sizzling 100 hit. Nation Joe And The Fish had been fixtures of San Francisco’s Summer season Of Love in 1967 and likewise performed one of the well-known units at Woodstock. Over his profession, he launched dozens of solo albums along with his output with the group, most just lately 50 in 2017. McDonald was 84.
McDonald’s eldest two youngsters, Seven and Devin, shared this assertion:
Our father, “Nation Joe” McDonald, handed away March seventh in his beloved residence in Berkeley. Surrounded by adoring spouse of 43 years, our step-mother Kathy McDonald and 5 his youngsters, together with our siblings Tara, Emily & Ryan. Dad traveled and labored all around the world and he liked no place greater than Berkeley, California. We’re endlessly happy with his work & music & the world he helped create. Thanks to your ideas & prayers. Please spend time together with your family members at the moment in his identify & by no means be afraid to talk your thoughts, standup to your fellows & in opposition to injustice. And do not quit the dream of Peace on Earth.
Joseph Allen McDonald was born in Washington, D.C. in 1942 to Florence and Worden McDonald, who had been each members of the Communist Occasion of their youth. McDonald was raised in El Monte, California, exterior of Los Angeles; as a young person, he started writing his personal songs, began his first rock band, and carried out in his highschool marching band. He served within the Navy for 3 years, and after coming residence from being stationed in Japan, he enrolled at Los Angeles State Faculty. There, he printed a zine known as Et Tu Brute that includes “poetry and drawings and a few music lyrics.”
McDonald moved to the Berkeley in 1965 with aspirations of changing into a folks singer. Between busking on Telegraph Avenue, working at a guitar store, and getting concerned in Vietnam Warfare protests, he additionally co-launched {a magazine} known as Rag Child that centered across the Bay Space folks music scene. McDonald had the thought to launch “speaking points” of the journal that includes audio dietary supplements. When he co-founded Nation Joe And The Fish in 1965, the band — mixing basic folks with LSD-fueled psychedelia — started self-releasing their first music by the Rag Child “speaking points.”
Nation Joe And The Fish obtained standard and relocated to San Fransisco. From there, they started to tour and play iconic festivals corresponding to Monterey Pop Pageant and New York’s Schaefer Music Pageant, however their snarky and progressive lyrics additionally obtained them banned from The Ed Sullivan Present. Following a number of lineup adjustments, McDonald assembled Nation Joe And The Fish’s last lineup for a last-minute look at Woodstock, throughout which they roused the gang in an surprising spherical of their notorious “Fuck Cheer” — altering the lyrics to “The Fish Cheer/I-Really feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag” to spell out “fuck” as a substitute.
Although McDonald Nation Joe And The Fish disbanded in 1970, McDonald saved up a prolific solo profession masking basic nation requirements and continued writing unique anti-war songs. He additionally appeared at subsequent Woodstock reunion festivals and continued to tour, often along with his former bandmates.
Revisit a few of McDonald’s most well-known songs under.
