Country Joe McDonald, the singer, songwriter and activist whose anthem I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag became one of the defining protest songs of the Vietnam War era and whose performance at Woodstock remains one of the most iconic moments of the festival, has died aged 84.
by Paul Cashmere
Country Joe McDonald, the American folk-rock singer and songwriter whose music captured the political turbulence of the 1960s and helped define the counterculture era, has died on March 7, 2026 in Berkeley, California. He was 84.
McDonald died from complications related to Parkinson’s disease after a career that spanned more than six decades and included more than 30 albums as both a solo artist and as the frontman of Country Joe And The Fish.
Best known for the anti-war anthem I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag, McDonald became one of the most recognisable musical voices of the Vietnam War protest movement. His appearance at the 1969 Woodstock festival, where he led the crowd in the now legendary “Fish Cheer”, remains one of the defining performances of that generation.
Born Joseph Allen McDonald on January 1, 1942 in Washington, D.C., he grew up in El Monte, California. His parents were politically active and had once been members of the Communist Party, naming their son after Joseph Stalin before later renouncing those beliefs.
Music arrived early. At high school McDonald served as conductor and president of the marching band. At 17 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and spent three years stationed in Japan. When he returned to California he briefly attended California State Los Angeles before abandoning university to pursue folk music in Berkeley.
By the early 1960s he was busking on Telegraph Avenue and performing on the influential KPFA radio program The Midnight Special. Immersed in the city’s vibrant folk scene, McDonald soon became involved in the Free Speech Movement and the growing protests against the Vietnam War centred around the University of California, Berkeley.
In 1965 McDonald and guitarist Barry “The Fish” Melton formed Country Joe And The Fish, emerging from a small underground publication called Rag Baby. The band quickly became one of the key groups associated with the psychedelic explosion of San Francisco in the late 1960s.
Their debut album Electric Music For The Mind And Body arrived in 1967 and became a landmark psychedelic release, spending 38 weeks on the Billboard chart. Later that same year the band released I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die, featuring the title track that would define McDonald’s career.
The song’s famous opening chant, “One, two, three, what are we fighting for?”, captured the growing disillusionment with the Vietnam War and quickly became a rallying cry for anti-war demonstrations.
Country Joe And The Fish were fixtures on the San Francisco concert circuit, appearing regularly at the Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore Auditorium alongside contemporaries including Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother And The Holding Company. They also performed at major events including the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
Their third album Together in 1968 produced the song Rock & Soul Music, which McDonald performed during his appearance at Woodstock the following year.
Originally scheduled to appear with the band, McDonald ended up performing a solo set when the group was delayed. Walking onto the stage alone with an acoustic guitar, he led the massive crowd through the famous “Fish Cheer” before launching into I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag.
The moment became one of the most memorable sequences of the Woodstock documentary film and cemented McDonald’s status as a defining voice of the era.
Country Joe And The Fish released two further albums, Here We Are Again in 1969 and CJ Fish in 1970, before disbanding in 1971.
By that stage McDonald had already begun building a solo career. His first solo album Thinking Of Woody Guthrie in 1969 reflected his long admiration for the American folk pioneer and established McDonald as a dedicated interpreter of Guthrie’s music.
He followed it with Tonight I’m Singing Just For You in 1970, recorded in Nashville with members of the legendary Nashville A-Team.
Throughout the 1970s McDonald continued recording and touring while expanding into film and television work, including appearances in the psychedelic western Zachariah and the cult film Gas-s-s-s.
His political activism continued alongside his music. McDonald testified at the Chicago Seven trial in 1970 and later joined the anti-war touring production FTA Show alongside Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
Environmental issues also became a focus of his work in the mid-1970s. Inspired by the growing conservation movement, he wrote the song Save The Whales and worked with Greenpeace while supporting campaigns to protect marine life.
Over the decades McDonald maintained a prolific recording schedule, releasing albums including Paradise With An Ocean View, Superstitious Blues, Carry On and 50. He occasionally reunited with members of Country Joe And The Fish, including touring again with the group in the 2000s.
In later years he also presented a touring stage show dedicated to Woody Guthrie, combining songs and spoken word pieces exploring the folk icon’s legacy.
McDonald remained closely connected to the Vietnam veterans community and helped support efforts to establish memorials for veterans in both Berkeley and San Francisco. He frequently performed at commemorative events and benefits for veterans’ organisations.
His best known song, written in about 20 minutes for an anti-war play in 1965, endured long after the conflict that inspired it. Decades later it continued to appear in films and television and remained associated with the social upheaval of the 1960s.
Across more than sixty years in music, Country Joe McDonald remained committed to the idea that songs could reflect the political and social struggles of their time. From the coffeehouses of Berkeley to the fields of Woodstock, his voice became part of the soundtrack to a generation questioning war, authority and the direction of society.
He is survived by his children and extended family.
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