Country Joe And The Fish – I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die

I avoided listening to or buying this record for 30 years because I honestly could not stand the “hit song” on it (“Fixing-to-die rag”). That was a big mistake: all the rest of the record is quality psychedelic rock and I find it fully on par with their “Electric music for the mind and body” LP.

My copy of this pressing by Craft Records was (besides cheap) quiet and full-sounding, with clarity, good instrument separation and convincing soundstage. Listened to on a system with Project Classic turntable (Evo subplatter upgrade), Schiit Mani phono preamp, Rotel RA-1062 amp, Goldring 2200 cartridge, KEF LS 50 speakers. Nice thick cardboard for the cover too, though I thought the cover image could be crisper.

Amazing pressing, this album really comes to life on vinyl! Audio is very clear and dynamic and all the little details really pop, very happy with this pressing!

Question: I have a copy that has a Gold sticker with Blue printing that says "Manufactured & Distributed In Canada By Quality Records Limited Jacket Printed in U.S.A. 380 Birchmount Road Toronto, Ont." All the Canadian pressings listed here say "Manufactured By – Musimart Ltd, Ltée" or "Manufactured By – Phonodisc Limited". Does anyone know what pressing I have?

If the sticker references groups' appearance at Woodstock, why would the release year on this be 1968?

Slow mellow dark & mysterious folkie jug band rock music, layered with fuzz atmospherics and some high quality (but not stratospheric) psychedelic instrumentation. Clever Sgt Peppers inspired cover.
Enjoyable (if patchy) 60’s hippie psych album.

This album is fantastic better than their first album, The last 3 tracks Thursdays Child, Eastern Jam and Colors for Suzan are the best. Eastern jam does sound similar to East West ( Paul Butterfield Blues Band) but less Avant Garde and more focused. As good as anything from that era.

Just to be clear here, these are in fact not original mixes, but compressed high-end-equalized remasters. Still, they're not bad, and the stereo mix is definitely better than the 1988 CD (VMD-79266).

Top sound and quiet background, very nice heavy cardboard outer sleeve and quality inner sleeve, nice work overall!

The Labels pictured on this listing are nor USA labels! This is a European issue!

As far as stunning covers go, this release by Country Joe & The Fish, more than any other bespeaks the nature and schizophrenic times of the heady 1960’s ... prepared for nothing, willing to try anything, and head out anywhere, anytime.

I so wanted this release to be all that the cover suggested it would be, sadly it wasn’t, composed of folkie jug band rock music, layered with lots of fuzz and atmosphere, but not enough to kick me into the stratosphere. It’s a fun record, lightly flavored with all that was necessary to carry them into their second outing Electric Music For The Mind And Body, ... but here, all you get is the head long rush of the music industry to capitalize on the Hippy movement of the day, perhaps allowing their artists too much freedom to be weirder than weird, but then that’s what made things all so wonderfully colourful and exciting.

I’ve seen Country Joe & The Fish several times where they’ve mixed both this release and their second outing with great results ... so my suggestion is that you do the same thing, drop in both of the discs and hit the shuffle button. When the walls begin to bend in, when everything softens, glimmering and sparking about the edges, and you become part of all that's around you, you’ll know that the music has worked its magic.

*** The Fun Facts: The song "Janis" was written for Joe's then girlfriend, Janis Joplin. The original album sleeve contained a poster for "The Fish Game", a huge 22 x 33 inch fold-out board game sheet for throwing a dice and moving the five band member's cut-out paper figures around on. Various goals are available for the game such as "scoring a joint". And yes, of course, the album jacket image is a laughable blatant take on Sgt. Pepper, by The Beatles.

Review by Jenell Kesler