Eat Flowers And Kiss Babies Dept. - Country Joe And His Fishes

From left: Rholonne Déodoranté, Mrs. Myra Nussbaum, Kreemé, Chyron D'Uhme-Schrölle (intern, wardrobe dept.) Foam-O-Graph© selfie taken by Alfred E. Neuman, th' IoF©'s clueless homunculus

Geriatrix's vote for Electric Sounds For The Mind And Body sent me on a frustrating search of th' IoF© for this eggceptional combo's albumens. To rectify this baffling lacuna [Peruvian miniature camel - Ed.] I have pleasure in making available, for the first time ever again, everything they ever recorded (if you know better, wave your copy of Watchtower). In the absinthe of his Holiness The Pope Of Rome, who better to host this legacy FoamFeature® than a chorus line of IoF© equal opportunity diversity hires?

One at a time, then:

 ABOVE: Iconic first album, presented here in head-narrowing mono and with the original (unused) cover.

 ABOVE: Iconic first album, presented here in head-widening stereo, with the groovy original cover as issued. There is no better album. A few as great, but none greater. Fight me.

ABOVE: Nearly-as-great iconic second album, with their breakout Woodstock hit, the Fish Cheer. Original copies came with free Fish Game! [below - Ed.]

ABOVE: Not-quite-as-good-as-the-second-album third album, but still reasonably iconic. Original cover makes me blow bitter chunks, so I crayoned up a replacement. You're welcome. Press ad for this album [below - Ed.] uses illustration by someone who can't even trace a photograph, leave alone actually draw. Note groovy corporate copywriting:

 ABOVE: Hope you like our new direction! The band had officially broken up by this point, with only McDonald and Melton ("The Fish") as core members, although Hirsh and Cohen are sitting in. Jack Casady plays bass on half of the album, so yay for that. Ambitious string arrangements and a horn section make for a more polished sound. I seem to remember reading that some of the Basie band play on it, but can't now find anything to confirm.

ABOVE: Not-quite-as-good-as-the-fourth-album fifth album. Weirdly non-titled ("CJ Fish"?), with McDonald & Melton supported by Greg Dewey (drums, ex-Mad River) and a couple of guys who were delivering pizza. It's okay, not a disgrace, but not iconic, either. Sorta kinda country rock, because '71. The confused and foreboding cover art reflects the lack of focus.

ABOVE: In '77, with nothing better to do and alimony to pay, the original band got back together (there's a hint in the album title - can you spot it, readers?) to record the surprisingly slightly better-than-the-fifth-album but still doggedly un-iconic sixth album. Nobody cared about anything much in '77, and this album got lost in the tsunami of cultural disinterest.

ABOVE: One of the finest 'sixties West Coast live albums limped out in Europe in 1994. The rat's ass cover [not above - Ed.] gave zero hints as to the quality of the performance and recording, so I got my crayons out again. This is the '69 band, with Casady on bass, and the "friends" include Jerry Garcia, Steve Miller, Jorma Kaukonen and Mickey Hart. How many psychedelic celebs can you spot in the cover? (Hint: rotate 90º)

ABOVE: This swell curatorial initiative ties up the loose ends, with the Rag Baby recordings, some rare stuff, some live stuff. Forty tracks, so I doubt anyone will listen to it straight through, but it's good to know it's there.

Roger Corman's GAS-S-S-S got the band their big H'wood break in '70. Unfortunately nobody saw it except projectionists. Four Or Five Guy© Richard provides exclusive links to both movie and soundtrack in comments! Oboy!

ABOVE: The band continued their tent-pole domination of Tinseltown as 'The Crackers' in Zacharia (1971), written by Philip Austin, Peter Bergman, and (it says here) Herman Hesse. Great date movie, if your date was a dude.

 

 

 

This legacy FoamFeature© funded in part by Patsy and Polly's Opossum Planet©, Poughkeepsie NY.