Right then, all you hep cats and kittens......
My relationship with the band and the album started circa 1990ish, Channel 4 had a season of featuring historic concerts on a Saturday night. I seem to remember them having Iggy Pop (possibly live in Manchester in '77), David Bowie, Tin Machine live in Amsterdam/Rotterdam/anywhere in '89 and the Monterrey Pop Festival '67 (filmed by D. A. Pennebaker). Up until that moment, I'd predominantly seen the 60's musically, like most people, through the traditional cannon of the Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks, the Who, the Doors, etc. and knew about Woodstock. I'd not heard of Monterrey, but found the concert mesmerising, and probably a truer snap shot of the moment. It has been described as "the nexus; it sprang from what the Beatles began, and from it sprang what followed".
Anyways, through this film of the concert i was introduced to country joe & the fish, jefferson airplane, canned heat, and moby grape. After a bit of research, it was apparent that Electric Music for the Mind & Body was the place to start with CJ&TF. It also marked a widening of my musical taste into psychedelic rock and put me on the path towards love (Forever Changes being an obvious choice for this here shindig), early floyd, the chambers brothers, steppenwolf, 13th floor elevators, the Nuggets compilations, etc.
As mentioned in my initial post, which I accidentally cut, pasted and edited from Uncut, the album is seen by many as the first & definitive West Coast Pysch album. Possibly, it has dated, possibly their musicianship is limited in parts and possibly there are later, better, more polished singular songs, but as a body of work, that represents a time & style of music, I think that it is important.
āI couldnāt see how the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin or Country Joe could be taken seriously,ā Pete Townshend told author Harvey Kubernik (in his picture book 1967: A Complete Rock History of the Summer of Love). āTheir sound was so ragged and raw,ā the Whoās guitarist groused. āNow I see better what they were doing, and just like the Who, it was not just about music, it was about message and lifestyle and changeā¦[but] it took a while to understand that.ā
For every Jesus, there needs to be a John The Baptist.
*Edit: The lead singer Country Joe, did a UK tour in '01 and '04 and I went to see him both times at Sheffield Boardwalk. I also bought a signed band photo from him which I have somewhere.
