"Maria"
Country Joe & the Fish
From the album, "Here we are again" 1968

Maria, I'm growing so tired of fighting this war,
Maria, I feel like I just can't go on anymore.
The sounds we make as they're dying
Hearing their screams and their crying
The children, their eyes are weeping
We filled them with pain.
You know the reason I joined up to fight in this war.
You know the reason I refuse to fight anymore.
Maria, please help me, I feel like I'm going insane.
Maria, at night in my dreams I keep calling your name.
After the battle is over
And I am just another soldier
Maria, I'm longing to hold you again in my arms.
You know the reason I joined up to fight in this war.
You know the reason I refuse to fight anymore.


"An Untitled Protest"
Country Joe & the Fish
From the album, "Together" 1968

Red and swollen tears tumble from her eyes
While cold silver birds who came to cruise the skies
Send death down to bend and twist her tiny hands
And then proceed to target "B" in keeping with their plans
Khaki priests of Christendom interpreters of love
Ride a stone Leviathan across a sea of blood
And pound their feet into the sand of shores they've never seen
Delegates from the western land to join the death machine
And we send cards and letters.
The oxen lie beside the road their bodies baked in mud
And fat flies chew out their eyes then bathe themselves in blood
And super heroes fill the skies, tally sheets in hand
Yes, keeping score in times of war takes a superman
The junk crawls past hidden death its cargo shakes inside
And soldier children hold their breath and kill them as they hide
And those who took so long to learn the subtle ways of death
Lie and bleed in paddy mud with questions on their breath
And we send prayers and praises.

I saw them live several times and rate them as possibly the best group I ever experienced. Their first album, Music for Mind and Body, is a classic. Listen to Porpoise Mouth and Sweet Loraine.

Another almost forgotten band to look out for is 'United states of America' not 'America'. They were the first American band to use a synth., and possibly the most revolutionary band of all time.

Thank for a great post.

Paul

Country Joe MacDonald surely struck a chord with the youth in the late sixties and early seventies. The lyrics of his songs might not strike the same chord today because lines like " be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box" seem to be ghastly in today's war, but at the time we all knew the poigancy of what he was saying and we didn't think it was funny that soldiers were dying but, were aftaid that we were next. Today the volunteer army has distanced the average person from the war. By the way, Country Joe was a "Red Diaper Baby" because he was born to American communist parents before the McCarthy era.
I wonder where he is today?