Come on all of you big strong men.... Uncle Sam needs your help again

[Ichingcarpenter]

I just got these slides I found in a box of stuff and just got them converted on a disk
which I hadn't seen in 20 years

This is a picture of Country Joe McDonald, who stayed at my home that night, after a concert
in Washington State in the late 80s. We talked until dawn about politics and life.

I know its not important, but Country Joe was a hero to my High School and me in 1969
and also the theme , whom the High School President of
my class played his famous song at each of our rallies to the dismay of the administration.

Country Joe almost 20 years before


Country Joe, I know, not a great picture......in 198?


The house I built and designed sorry about the blurriness but I just got the photos back
and included these in to prove it was my house.

[billyoc]

1. What's that SPELL?!

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Fish

Country joe..........in 1969




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo

[TomInTib]

2. I love your work.

And I saw Joe about a week ago.

He was at Schoenberg Guitars ( www. om28.com ) and we all got together and jammed on some country blues.

About those shelves....

I want to talk to you about those.

Tom

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. Damn.......what a small world

I'll send some photos this weekend
this was part of my getting my photos together.

[Ichingcarpenter]

5. The story of the Rag by Country Joe

I wrote "Fixin’ To Die Rag" in summer of 1965 after I had been discharged from the US Navy for several years. It just popped into my head one day and I finished it in about 30 minutes. I did not have a conscious purpose in mind although I had been working on another song about the Vietnam War called "Who Am I?" for several days so I had the war on my mind. The "Who Am I?" song was part of a play I was writing songs for titled Change Over, written by Fred Hayden and directed by Nina Serrano. It was performed twice, once on the University of California Berkeley campus and once on the San Francisco State College campus. 1965 was the year that the Vietnam War became big news and a big protest issue with students.

I was raised in a family of American Communists and so I knew a lot about Capitalism and Communism. The song attempts to put blame for the war upon the politicians and leaders of the US military and upon the industry that makes its money from war but not upon those who had to fight the war ... the soldiers. It expresses the thoughts of a person trapped in the military system and forced to go to war by something called "conscription". Conscription or the "draft" as it was called then was a system which picked young people and forced them into the military and into the war with the only other choice being jail or an attempt to "dodge the draft" for religious reasons or physical or mental reasons. It was very hard to get out of the draft because so many people were being killed in the war that they would take just about any one. The song attempts to address the horror of going to war with a dark sarcastic form of humor called "GI humor". GI humor is a way people have of complaining about their situation so it will not get them in trouble and keep them from going insane in an insane environment: war.

Today we have a volunteer military but during the Vietnam War many people joined because they thought it was the right thing to do. It was patriotic. Lots of people were drafted. Also lots of people were given the choice of volunteering for the military or going to jail on charges of getting into trouble with the police for one thing or the other. It was a kind of government black mail. During the war people were even forced into the US Marines which was always considered to be a volunteer group because so many Marines were killed in the Vietnam War. The casualty rate for Marines was higher in the Vietnam War than in World War II.

The Rag first came out on an EP record in October, 1965.



The New version


Come on all you Americans.
Bush is President again.
He found a guy who's really bad.
The name's Saddam. He's in Baghdad.
So show some ID, take off your shoes.
What have you got to lose?

And it's one, two, three,
What are we searching for?
George said it, it must be true.
I believe in W.
And it's five, six, seven,
Tell me who I should hate.
There's no need to wonder why,
'Cause Presidents never lie.

The USA's the worldwide cop,
And evildoers must be stopped.
Saddam's got nukes and poison gas.
Let's go kick him in the ass.
Conquer the land, sell off the oil.
To the victor goes the spoil.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we searching for?
George said it, it must be true.
I believe in W.
And it's five, six, seven,
Tell me who I should hate.
There's no need to wonder why,
'Cause Presidents never lie.

Now there's rebuilding to be done.
Halliburton is the one.
Cheney says they have the skills.
We're the ones who pay the bills.
So give up your rights. Write me a check.
We'll make the whole world a wreck.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we paying for?
Dick said it, it must be spent.
He's our Vice President.
And it's five, six, seven,
Tell me who I should hate.
There's no need to wonder why.
Vice Presidents never lie.

[MuseRider]

6. Great house!

Love it. Great guest too!

Post more house pictures or more of your work. I love to see the talents of others.

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. My daughter's music on myspace

http://www.myspace.com/kristinarenfro