I would love it if we can talk about the material featured on the first album. Was there a certain concept to it?
Joe McDonald: Sam Charters picked the songs and we just recorded them. He picked the order for the album. I did ask him to run all the songs together to make it a real concept like an opera thing but he did not do that.
Did psychoactive substances play a large role in your songwriting, performance or even maybe recording processes?
Hallucinogenic substances did not play a role in my writing, but did give me subject matter. Like the song ‘Porpoise Mouth’ is about my first LSD trip.
It’s amazing that your LP was recorded live in the studio with the exception of vocals, which were dubbed on afterward. Did you rehearse a lot? Cohen told me that you were playing in a place called Barn in Santa Cruz, where you used to rehearse and play at night…
It was a venue that had shows and it was called The Barn. John Francis Gunning was not the drummer and our new drummer Chicken Hirsh needed to be taught the material and we needed to get it all together for the upcoming recording of our first album so that is why we went to The Barn to rehearse.
Debut album was quite successful and you managed to get concerts everywhere, even in Europe.
Well we did enjoy going to new places and found the audiences receptive to our new kind of rock ‘n’ roll.
How do you feel about the fact that you recorded one of the most original psychedelic rock albums?
Well, thank you for the compliment and I agree with you. But it just turned out that way. Our music and my songs were not really mainstream, so our success was somewhat limited compared to the other groups who had a sound that was more like pop music and way more accessible for the public.
What psychedelic bands did you personally enjoy back then?
I liked to watch Jerry Garcia play. But I thought really that our psych music was the best and that was all I needed.
‘I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die’ followed. Around this time you had some crossfire in the band and you decided to quit the band for a while. But later you came back and you started recording ‘Together,’ and Bruce Barthol was replaced by Mark Ryan on bass.
Of course the invention of ‘The “Fish” Cheer’ led to “the fuck cheer” which was the first time people heard fuck being used on stage. It was hard to continue because we had a contract of 12 albums one every six months so the second album was using up all my material and with travel and recording we all started to get very tired and unhappy.
After you came back from Europe, you recorded ‘Here We Are Again’ with another lineup. What was happening?
We were more successful, but tired and crabby and not having fun any more.
You dedicated a lot of time to recording your solo albums. ‘Thinking of Woody Guthrie’ was released in 1969, followed by ‘Tonight I’m Singing Just for You’ and many others, including your work on the soundtrack for ‘Quiet Days in Clichy’. What would you say is the main difference between working on solo albums and being in a band?
Well I did not have to fight with other people about what I wanted to do. But they never would have joined me with my ideas so it was impossible. There is a special chemistry in working as a band, but by that time the original members were gone and the chemistry was gone, I had to pay the bills and the only way to do that was to continue to make records and tour. I do enjoy doing that and think that quite a few of the solo albums were very good.
Any comments on Monterey Pop Festival or Woodstock Festival?
Well, I enjoy playing and performing in open air events. I always like to hear the other bands playing as I learn new things from them. I saw lots of the acts at Monterey and Woodstock and enjoyed myself very much.
From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2015/02/country-joe-and-fish-interview-with-joe.html
