Dear Bhairitu, Fascinating stuff. I never held Country Joe and the Fish as musical geniuses or anything like that. It was just that this particular song steeped me in the conviction that I wanted to permanently change my consciousness so I could live a life where what was being suggested by this music would become my normal reality. Believe it or not, TM and Maharishi did exactly this: they transformed me so that I went even beyond the LSD experience so that I in effect took "Grace" into me and became itand much more than it. Unity Consciousness made LSD and Country Joe and the Fish seem incoherent (compared thus to what Maharishi and TM delivered up to me).
Before LSD I never had any conception of something like enlightenment. Afterwards it became my obsession: to integrate that experience [conveyed in this song] into my personal consciousness so I could become the ultimate love child. This is what Maharishi and TM accomplished for me. Although now of course I reject the entire metaphysics of the Eastand the reliability of LSD except as something that powerfully confronts the truth of oneself. LSD took my measure in the most brilliant and lasting way. But TM allowed me seemingly to overcome my problems and become, as it were, 'perfect'. So I could say, after the fact: Hey, Joe, I am now existing naturally where your music used to take me. And it's even better than "Grace". I wish I could have heard you play, Bhairitu. Anything on YouTube that memorializes your band? The experienceI have said this beforeof actually becoming enlightened was more powerful and demanding than taking LSD: that is, the transition from waking state to Unity. At least it was for me. The whole universe seemed to go right into me, and I found my actions after this to be controlled and determined by an intelligence not my own. A much bigger intelligence, the intelligence which was conducting the whole of creation. I have since come down, and have not had any flashbacks. But Country Joe and The Fish, they were the band (along with a few others) which were the sirens leading me to Maharishi and TM. I obviously missed out on the better band: the one that opened for CJ&F. Thanks for this. I wish I had been there, Bhairitu. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu <noozguru@...> wrote: > > My 60's band often opened for the Fish. In fact at the 1967 New Year's > concert at the Eagles Auditorium most people left after we played the > opening set and there was hardly any crowd for the Fish. That led them > into insisting we never open for them again. :-D > > By then they had become far removed from their earlier psychedelic roots > and the crowd was more into what we were doing than a rock band that was > playing baseball on stage. > > Country Joe McDonald is still around and writing music. I saw him > perform back in 2006 at a protest in Walnut Creek. He has some new > songs about Iraq but the crowd pleaser was still "1-2-3 what are we > fighting for." > > On 11/12/2011 09:28 AM, emptybill wrote: > > WTF ??? > > > > We are to be impressed by a songwriter praising Joe Stalin and Mao Ze > > Dong? > > Or is this just a play on Barry's name? > > > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, maskedzebra<no_reply@> wrote: > >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0SIAR9TRxk > >> > > > > >
