Country Joe McDonald — The Paris Sessions

I’ve written before that I have a huge soft spot for Country Joe and the Fish, one that I passed on to one of my kids. While hardly obscure, they’re also not hugely remembered, they never had a hit, and it’s doubtful anyone would come across them just by accident, which is a shame because their range of folk/rock/soul/psychedelics is pretty remarkable. I discovered them in the mind-expanding (for me) summer of ’79, a decade after Woodstock had made them even more famous, and glommed onto all their albums that I could find at the time. But it wasn’t until recently that I ran across Country Joe McDonald’s solo output. A year and a half back, I ran across his “Hold On It’s Coming” album, which looks for all the world like an indie movie soundtrack but isn’t, and liked it quite a bit. So early this summer, when we got to visit Troy’s River Street Beat Shop, I ran across this solo record and the proprietor, Jimmy, recommended it highly.

Well, Jimmy wasn’t wrong. The silly little “turn the record over” bits aside, this has some really strong songs making points that, unfortunately, still resonate today. “Sexist Pig” is out there, for certain. It’s a quick one, clocking in at only 33 minutes, short even by 1973 standards, but I quite like it.