Feel Like I'm Fixing To Die Rag (Next Stop IRAN)

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Slightly modified lyrics, originally done by Country Joe & the Fish at Woodstock

Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,


Uncle Sam needs your help again.


He's got himself in a terrible jam


Way down yonder in Iran


So put down your books and pick up a gun,


We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.


And it's one, two, three,


What are we fighting for?


Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,


It's worse than Vietnam;


And it's five, six, seven,


Open up the pearly gates,


Well there ain't no time to wonder why,


Whoopee! we're all gonna die.


Well, come on generals, let's move fast;


Your big chance has come at last.


Gotta go out and get those towel-heads —


The only good Muslim is the one who's dead


And you know that peace can only be won


When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.


And it's one, two, three,


What are we fighting for ?


Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,


Next stop is in Iran;


And it's five, six, seven,


Open up the pearly gates,


Well there ain't no time to wonder why


Whoopee! we're all gonna die.


Huh!


Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,


Why man, this is war au-go-go.


There's plenty good money to be made


By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,


Just hope and pray that if they drop some nukes,


They don't drop them on our own troops.


And it's one, two, three,


What are we fighting for?


Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,


It's worse than Vietnam.


And it's five, six, seven,


Open up the pearly gates,


Well there ain't no time to wonder why


Whoopee! we're all gonna die.


Well, come on mothers throughout the land,


Pack your girls off to Iran.


Come on fathers, don't hesitate,


Send 'em off before it's too late.


Be the first one on your block


To have your child come home in a box.


And it's one, two, three


What are we fighting for?


Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,


Next stop is in Iran.


And it's five, six, seven,


Open up the pearly gates,


Well there ain't no time to wonder why,


Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

[snowbear]

1. Bravo!

Excellent job ~~~ ~~ Now if you could just put it to music!!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

11. here ya go...

Here's a link to the original music:

http://www.countryjoe.com/fixin.ram

[TomInTib]

2. Even better, JG

and this one didn't make me holler at the computer.

Very well done, my friend.

[brettdale]

3. huge kick

huge kick

[JeffR]

4. It was an honor to give this its fifth rec

Great job!

[Jeffersons Ghost]

8. I saw that pic of yours earlier Jeff and meant to compliment the graphic...

too cool... When can we expect some DELIVERANCE from this leadership lunacy?

[JeffR]

9. Amen...

I just re-read the book and watched the movie again recently, and it got me thinking... another line from the movie keeps going thru my head: "We might have to stop here awhile, wait for the church to get out the way...".

Lots of eerie resonances, or resignances as the Dictator-tot might put it. I wonder what James Dickey would make of America circa 2007.

[KingofNewOrleans]

5. I'd recommend you too

but the PTB won't let me do that yet. Bravo!

[TomInTib]

7. Just make a lot of bs replies

Go to the Lounge or someplace and post a bunch of .... -like replies

That is what I did so that those here would take me serially.

I actually paid some students to get me over the 1000 post hurdle.

Ain't this a great place?

Tom

[Hardrada]

10. I replied with "Ye Gads!" to any old post

until someone got pissed at my apparent undue levity at his pet topic!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. that's a keeper!

:applause:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

18. check this out Viva... finally the artist actually gives me permission to alter the lyrics...

after all my graphic/lyrics song parodys at DU, it's nice to finally have explicit permission from the original artist to alter the lyrics:

"Although this song is written out in the key of G, I often capo the guitar up several frets, depending on the key I wish to sing in. Play the song in a happy care-free style and feel free to substitute the name of any country where you feel there is a war going on you would like to sing about. Do not interpret the song word for word. It is military humor — tongue in cheek."

"Note: As I have mentioned elsewhere I am guilty of leaving out the women in my early material so now I always sing the last verse like this:

Come on mothers throughout the land / And pack your boys off to Vietnam / Come on fathers, don't hesitate / and send your DAUGHTERS off before it's too late / And be the first one on your block to have your KIDS come home in a box."

sheet music and MP-3 song are also at this link:

http://www.countryjoe.com/feelmus.htm

[madrchsod]

20. now that is really cool--country certainly has`t lost his fire

[vickitulsa]

36. Hey this is so cool! I actually know Country Joe...

Met him online in a Vietnam Vets' group I joined (I'm a supporter of Namvets, not one myself) right after I got online in 1997. It's called VWAR-L, was begun in 1992, IIRC; and I'll bet those guys are still hanging out there, supportin' each other and talkin' about the war and vets' issues....

It was unlike any other Namvets group I later joined, because it was one of the earlier versions of online groups, affiliated with a university and actually begun for a professor's PhD work there. They were called "List-Servs," I'm sure some of you remember those. Due to the nature of its origin, a lot of the members were not vets of the war but professors who had been student protestors of the war. Made for some "lively discussions" of that travesty in Vietnam, for sure.

Country Joe didn't post a whole lot at VWAR-L (one of the vets said it really stood for "Vietnam War And Remembrance Lounge":)), but he was always fun to read when he did. He surely has NOT lost his fire or his talent and humor.

Well, just had to talk about him since I do remember the guy so well. It's always fun when you happen to meet genuinely special and well-known people like that -- and especially one who has had a great deal of influence in our culture in one way or another.

Love what you did with his classic tune and lyrics, JG! I was singin' it all the way through!

I'm not surprised he gave you permission... he's like that. What we used to call a "real" guy -- and of course, very political (needless to say, I guess).

[catnhatnh]

12. Great post....

...and it was your early image of a Vietnam memorial that inspired me to post a photo of one I worked on.So K&R and thanks.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

13. that is GREAT WORK you did on that memorial catnhatnh... CHECK IT OUT DU...

EXCELLENT!

[Hekate]

14. Incredible! Good work

Thanks for the faces of our fallen as well -- 1,2,3 --

There's a place in the bowels of Hell for our Warmonger-in-Chief and his pals.

Hekate

[democrank]

15. Bravo, JG!

A great piece of work.

[msedano]

16. impressive amount of work

country joe's song, and the fish cheer, bring back fond mammaries of my misspent youth.

enjoy this bit of doggerl... then look again at shrub's binocular vision

http://holyjoe.org/poetry/guiter8.htm



mvs
http://readraza.com/hawk/index.htm
http://labloga.blogspot.com

[Jeffersons Ghost]

23. a few ideas on "misspent youth," msedano...

First, we were right back then, in several important ways:
BIG BROTHER WAS AND IS WATCHING

SEX AND LOVE AREN'T PORNOGRAPHIC
BUT WAR IS CERTAINLY OBSCENE

NO MORE WAR TOYS IS REASONABLE SINCE
"TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL" IS MORE
IMPORTANT NOW, THAN IT WAS WHEN
CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
FIRST SANG THE SONG

If not for the drug abuse, a new Renaissance was at hand, in our youth. Like the original 15th Century Italian Renaissance, a new communications tool was just around the corner. (In 1450 Johannes Gutenberg made his first printing press.)

Internet roots reach into the 60s, a time of Flower-Power and Hippies. In 1964, the RAND proposal, written by Paul Baran, states the principles of a new network, built for maximum robustness and flexibility. This new communications network was to have NO CENTRAL AUTHORITY.

1972 became a key year after Ray Tomlinson of BBN invented the first e-mail program. Over the years, an odd fact became clear. Instead of using the ARPANET for long distance computing, scientists began using it for communicating with each other, not only sharing results of experiments, but also for modern uses like gossiping!

When the first Renaissance came about, the ruling aristocracy lost a great deal of control and power over the masses, which signaled an end to Dark Ages, where oppression and human-rights abuses were main-stays in society. A growing Merchant-class in city-states of Northern Italy became a potent economic and social factor, providing a profound stimulus for advances in art, music, literature and science.

Giving voice to this time of rapid social advances, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola synthesized Platonism, Stoicism, Judaism, Jewish Mysticism, and host of other ideas into a single system. Above all, Pico personifies the Humanist. Before the birth Pico in 1463 CE, Humanism, which focuses on relationships between humanity and the Divine, became a social force in Italy. In his Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico states that you have “free choice and dignity, so you may fashion yourself into whatever form you choose. To you is granted power of degrading yourself into lower forms of life, like the beasts, and to you is granted power, contained in your intellect and judgment, to be reborn into higher forms, like the Divine." Almost a manifesto for the Renaissance, his speech affirms the importance of a human quest for intellectual attainment and enlightenment.

<on edit> I forgot one other important idea,
first put forth in our youth:

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

17. Great Job

I saw them performing the original at Central Park

So sad that it has become relevant again 40 years later

[madrchsod]

19. great!!!

i know this took a lot of work and i appreciate it! since i`m one of those that country was writting about back then it seems a rat bastard from my generation did`t learn a fucking thing about vietnam...oh wait he was drunk`n coward who hid behind this daddy`s pants

[Jeffersons Ghost]

38. I heard that while he didn't hide behind his mom's skirts; he hid in a few of his own...

some things never seem to change...

[montanto]

21. Awesome, scary, thoughtful k/r

[No Exit]

22. Fantastic!!!

I especially liked the pic of Bush as Jesus.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

24. I'd like to encourage everyone to read back to this post: more pics here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3057434&mesg_id=3057852

[lonestarnot]

25. Excellent job!

[Imagevision]

26. A beautiful piece -- this should remained kicked until the troops are brought home

[Felinity]

27. Fabulous. Thanks! K&R n/t

[bdamomma]

28. Powerful and true, we are our own worst enemy.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

29. here's some truly "powerful" words and ideas...

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it."

"I want freedom for the full expression of my personality."

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to make mistakes. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right."

"It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err."

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

"One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds."

"Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy."

"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence."

"I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life."

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent."

"Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary."

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."

all previous quotes by ~Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi~

[Bobbie Jo]

30. Nicely Done! K&R

:kick:

[wicket]

31. Give me an F! Give me a U! Give me a C! ........

K & R

[Jeffersons Ghost]

34. that K&R by you is not only creative but also very cool.. "Give me a "K" and an "R" and a...

NICE LOUD FISH-CHANT FOR BUSH AND HIS MINIONS!

Shrub says...


America says, "RICHT BACK ATCHA!"
http://thumb.shutterstock.com/photos2/display_pic_with_logo/18/18,1127012808,5.jpg

[wicket]

40. Thanks!!!

I've always loved that Cash pic. :)

[FogerRox]

32. I would offer

Don't ask me, I don't give a crap,

Next stop is friggin Iraq.



More in the spirit of the original.

[motocicleta]

33. Thanks a lot, JG

I thought I was done crying for today, until I saw this. An amazing piece of work.

K n mutherfrickin R

[Gloria]

35. BRAVO!!!!!!

[midnight]

37. The soldier carrying the baby is so hard to witness. Please

congress do the right thing and cut off funding, and bring the troops home.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

39. it's time to bring the National Guard back to the places they need to guard...

I wonder if georgie-boy's old unit ever deployed...