Fish Cheer
The Fish Cheer (the "fish cheers") is a spoken chant and playful dialogue of the American psychedelic and folk rock band Country Joe and the Fish from 1965. It was generally used by the band as an introduction to the protest song I-Feel -Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag Used. A later variant of the Fish Cheer , the so-called Fuck Cheer , was judged extremely controversial in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the USA and was sometimes made a criminal offense.
The Fish Cheer
The Fish Cheer was composed by Country Joe McDonald in the style of American football cheerleaders and was usually played by himself. To do this, he first called out “Give me an F!” To the audience to get the audience to shout “F!” In chorus, which they did. Then he asked for an "I", an "S" and an "H" one after the other in the same way, whereupon he also received these letters. At the end he asked the question “What's that spell?” (What is being spelled?). The audience now called out, often with all their might, the desired name "Fish", which is part of the band name Country Joe and the Fish. Now McDonald kept repeating his question “What's that spell” so that the desired name came back even louder from the audience. During these repetitions, the rest of the band usually started with the song I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag .
Due to the involvement of the audience, the Fish Cheer was well suited to increase the audience's attention for the subsequent title.
The Fuck Cheer
After Country Joe and the Fish had released the first two albums in 1967 and the Fish Cheer had been used on many concerts and tours, the drummer Chicken Hirsh suggested giving the Fish Cheer a "more expressive touch". The word “fish” was replaced for the first time at the New York Shaefer Beer Festival by the vulgarism “fuck”, which is frowned upon in the USA .
This broke a taboo . For large parts of American society, the use of the vulgarism “Fuck” in public was intolerable. On the other hand, the protest movement of that time found a suitable field for expressing its protest. Therefore, the new version of Fish Cheer was well received by the audience, but the band was immediately expelled from the festival. An invitation to a planned TV show appearance was canceled, and the band was asked to keep the fee paid, but not to appear at the show.
In the USA, this social taboo was under strict protection as a public order asset worthy of protection - the police paid great attention to preventing the use of the vulgarism “Fuck”. Concerts were monitored by a large number of police, and the police themselves were allegedly forbidden to use the word "fuck" for official purposes (e.g. to warn suspects that the use of this word would be punished).
The Fuck Cheer in Woodstock
Country Joe's famous appearance at the Woodstock Festival in front of about 300,000 spectators was not planned. In order to bridge the break in renovation, he was persuaded to take the stage. At first, Country Joe was overwhelmed by stage fright given the huge crowd. Then he noticed that most of them were talking to each other and hardly anyone was listening. He started with "Give me an F!" Whereupon the crowd immediately gave him their undivided attention.
consequences
In connection with the use of the Fuck Cheer in Worcester, Massachusetts, McDonald was serving a prison sentence in 1970 for inciting indecent behavior on the part of the public. Because of the spread of the gambling bans in the USA, the band played more and more in countries with a more liberal handling of the vulgarism problem and thus came a lot to Europe. The taboo is still widely recognized in the United States today.
Discography
On the album I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die , all five band members take part in the Fish Cheer chant. Since it is a studio version, some employees of Vanguard Records answer instead of the audience .
The Fuck Cheer can be found on the Woodstock - Soundtrack again. Fish Cheer is typically used for other published recordings.
Web links
- Fish Cheer information on Country Joe McDonald's home page; Retrieved September 18, 2012.
- Bruce Eder: Country Joe & the Fish. Allmusic; Retrieved September 18, 2012.
Individual evidence
- ↑ McDonald on his homepage; Retrieved September 18, 2012.
- ↑ Craig Harris: Country Joe McDonald. Allmusic; Retrieved September 18, 2012.