County Joe's 'Fixin'
To Die Rag' From Woodstock Rebooted For Our
Modern Iran Dilemma
by Roger Freed
Back in the
height of the Vietnam era a little ditty made it
onto the airwaves that protested the undeclared
war in a darkly humorous way. It was called
“I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag” by
Country Joe and the Fish which became a theme for
the war protest movement. Performing it at
Woodstock thrust it to national attention and
made it an anthem of counter culture America of
the '60's..
Now it belongs
to the history of Hippie lore of that turbulent
era, but I have pulled it out of the attic chest,
aired it out a bit and present it here in a
reincarnated form for our modern political
situation. I offer it to you readers and
songsters to peruse given our current pre-occupation
with yet another uppity foreign country that we
can't quite keep under our thumb. Washington war-hawks
who strangely don't have any military experience
themselves are screaming to start another war
which we, the uncombed masses, will have to fight
for them. Here is an answer to their insistence:
The
Fixin' To Die Rag For This Generation
Well, c'mon all you
big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again,
he's got himself in a terrible jam
way off yonder in I-Iran.
So put down your books and pick up a gun
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun!
Chorus
(repeat throughout the song):
And its one, two, three,
what are we fightin' for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
next stop is I-Iran!
And its five, six, seven
open up the pearly gates,
Well, there ain't no time to wonder
why
Whoopee! We're all gonna die!
Bolton says we must
change the regime
before it gits even more extreme.
Why can't we do what we done in '41
without even using a single gun?
Depose the guy who would have made it
free
and brought about Iranian democracy
and instead put into their Casbah
a toady that they called 'The Shah'.
Pahlavi got things done the way we said
leaving many tortured or even dead
until the Persians had had enough
and also started to play a little rough.
Going back to their Islamic roots
they kicked the Shah out with both their
boots
And brought in someone also a meanie
I believe his name was something Khomeini.
We wondered why they hated us so
but the time came to reap what we'd sowed.
They got bold and a little bit sassy
and came and grabbed our embassy,
glued together the secret documents
telling how we screwed with their
government.
Since then we've been each others worst
nightmare
threatening each other on a dare.
So if Don and John want to go a round
and pound Iran into the ground
Give them the chance to prove their
mettle
before starting another soup in a Mideast
kettle.
Put uniforms on these chicken-hawks
send them to fight, then watch how they
squawk.
Let the two who want the war the most
see what its really like, then see if
they boast.
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