Country Joe McDonald The \"Fish\" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag Woostock
Country Joe gave an unexpected and unplanned solo performance of the song on the stage of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, as a stop-gap between two other performers. He used a Yamaha FG 150 acoustic guitar, left lying around the back of the stage, with a rope used as a makeshift strap. In the Woodstock: Now & Then documentary, he said that he was unprepared and used the excuse of not having a guitar to try to not play, and the Yamaha was given to him. He then said he couldn't play without a guitar strap, at which time the rope was tied to the guitar.
Country Joe reported being paralyzed by stage fright given the sheer size of the audience,[3] but then noticed that most of it was not paying any attention to him. He managed to gain wide and steady attention by giving his \"Fuck Cheer\".[2]
The song was never a big hit, but was nonetheless well-known, and in the Woodstock film the audience can clearly be heard singing along.
Country Joe further taunted his audience by saying:
“ Listen people, I don't know how you expect to ever stop the war if you can't sing any better than that. There's about 300,000 of you fuckers out there. I want you to start singing. Come on. ”
