Country Joe & The Fish – C.J. Fish

It’s amazing how quickly the air can go out of a band. Country Joe and the Fish started as a folkish duo (with Barry Melton performing the function of The Fish) in 1965, went electric with a full band and an album release in 1966, played endless shows around the San Francisco Bay Area (particularly at the Fillmore West), and then several original members left after the second album. Various versions of the band put out two more records in 1968 and 1969, they garnered huge attention at Monterey and Woodstock, and then the band mostly broke up again. Joe and Barry picked up some more musicians, and in 1970 tried to put out an album more like their first work, but also in its way, more mainstream. And it’s all right. There isn’t a thing wrong with it . . . but it also doesn’t really have a spark, either. I don’t remember exactly when I got this (unlike my other Country Joe records), though it’s very likely it was in 1979 or 1980. But of all my Country Joe records, it’s the one I’m least likely to put on.