Flying High: Craft to Release Country Joe and The Fish Vinyl Box

The Summer of Love may be 50 years over, but Craft Recordings is getting into the spirit of the season next month with a deluxe vinyl box set of every album released that year by psych-rock outfit Country Joe and The Fish.

The Wave of Electrical Sound is a 4LP/1DVD box that features remastered mono and stereo versions of the group’s two 1967 albums, Electric Music for the Mind and Body and I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die, both released by Vanguard Records. All records will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in replicas of the original tip-on album sleeves (the mono mix of Electric Music features an alternate cover). The box, limited to 2,000 units, includes a wealth of extras, including replicas of original band ephemera (including a fan club booklet, calendar and even a board game); a DVD of How We Stopped The War, a vintage short documentary from 1967 directed by David Webb Peoples (writer or co-writer of the films Blade Runner, Unforgiven and 12 Monkeys); and a new 24-page book of rare photos and new liner notes by box set producer Alec Palao. A digital version of the box is available now, with two mono bonus tracks featured on a reissue of I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die from Ace Records in 2013.

These albums, filled with rock, folk and blues-inspired compositions indicative of the California counterculture from which the group came. Led by singer/guitarists Country Joe McDonald and Barry “The Fish” Melton, this Berkeley-born group was key to the nascent cultural shift, with lyrics in praise of extreme sociopolitical freedom and pointed, satirical criticisms of The Establishment. Songs like “Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine,” “Love” and “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” from these two albums became key early recordings for the group and set them up for even greater success culminating with a performance at Woodstock in 1969.

The set’s available on January 26 and can be pre-ordered below!

The Wave of Electrical Sound (Craft Recordings, 2018)

Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

LPs 1-2: Electric Music for the Mind and Body (stereo and mono mixes – Vanguard VSD-79244/VRS-9244, 1967)

Flying High
Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Death Sound
Porpoise Mouth
Section 43
Superbird
Sad and Lonely Times
Love
Bass Strings
The Masked Marauder
Grace

LPs 3-4: I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die (stereo and mono mixes – Vanguard VDS-79266/VRS-9266, 1967)

The “Fish” Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag
Who Am I
Pat’s Song
Rock Coast Blues
Magoo
Janis
Thought Dream
Thursday
Eastern Jam
Colors For Susan

Mono album digital bonus tracks (from Vanguard/Ace CD VMD2 79266 (U.K.), 2013)

Janis (Instrumental)
I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag (Alternate Take)

Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.