Country Joe & The Fish | Fish Cheer (Anti-Vietnam War: Lyrics, Music)

01/24/22 • 20 min

Country Joe and the Fish are best known today for The Fish Rag (also known as I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag), which they released as a single in 1967, and famously performed at Woodstock, One of the most enduring songs written in protest of the Vietnam War, this song has been used in films such as More American Graffiti, and TV series like The Wonder Years. It’s a quite obviously anti-war song, and the band themselves were staunch non-conformists and communists. The band features a range of weird and wild instruments, from the kazoo to the calliope, and is a damning indictment of the American War Machine. In this video I take a look at what makes this song work, analysing the lyrics and the music. NOTE: I had accidentally uploaded the unedited audio for this episode and as of 08/04/2022 this has been corrected

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Paul Kossoff – Time Away (Analysis, Review)

Paul Kossoff was the underrated and always tasteful guitarist for the 60s British blues and hard rock band Free, who are most famous for their song ‘All Right Now’. He tragically died at the age of 25 in 1976 but left us with lots of great guitar playing. Known for his immense tone and singular vibrato, this video takes a close look at his style, and one of his final recordings: the instrumental track, Time Away, which was recorded with John Martyn, and features some of Paul’s best guitar playing. Guitarists from Joe Bonamassa through Dave Murray, Angus Young, Robin Trower and Paul Weller have lauded his playing – Eric Clapton even famously went to him for vibrato lessons! One of my favourite blues guitarists, and hopefully one of yours too now!

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Is Tales From Topographic Oceans a Bad Album?

Yes’ sixth album, Tales from Topographic Oceans, was released in December 1973, and is infamous in progressive rock circles and beyond. Bloated, longwinded, full of wacky hippy wierdness, trippy and just downright strange, Tales is an 80 minute album comprised of 4, 20ish minute long tracks (one per side). The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) The Remembering (High the Memory) The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil) As you can see (and as you might expect), the song titles are all a bit silly – blame Jon Anderson and Steve Howe! Rick Wakeman famously disliked the finished album, thinking that there was simply too much padding and second rate material... But I’m here to ask: is it actually a bad album? Is it actually the failure many people say it is? In spite of its reputation today, it was actually a commercial success at the time, and I maintain that there’s lots of good contained within those 80 minutes of music!