Music of Moonchildren - Part 2: “I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag”

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 Vietnam
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,
Next stop is 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.

Those verses are from I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag by Country Joe McDonald and the Fish, one of the most popular and well known songs that voiced vehement opposition to the Viet Nam War in 1968.

Thanks to Songfacts.com again, for more information:

This is a satire of US government attitudes toward the Vietnam War. Country Joe McDonald released it at the height of the war after he had been discharged from the US Navy for several years. He wrote it in about 30 minutes after it popped into his head.

The song attempts to put blame for the war upon the politicians and leaders of the US military and the industry that makes its money from war, but not upon those who had to fight the war... the soldiers. It expresses the thoughts of a person trapped in the military system and forced to go to war by something called "conscription." Conscription, or the "draft" as it was called, was a system that picked young people and forced them into the military and into the war. The only other choice was jail or an attempt to "dodge the draft" for religious, physical or mental reasons. It was very hard to get out of the draft because so many people were being killed in the war that they would take just about anyone.

The song attempts to address the horror of going to war with a dark sarcastic form of humor called "GI humor." GI humor is a way people have of complaining about their situation so it will not get them in trouble and keep them from going insane in an insane environment: war.This was the title song for the group's second album. When they performed it at Woodstock, they became legendary.

The song was of course, wildy controversial, for obvious reasons. One of the closing verses was:

Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.

There have been many covers of the song since it first came out, and it has been frequently rewritten to protest other wars.

If you want to hear what all the fuss is yourself, then go to Amazon.com. They will let you listen to a sample of the song if you go here. And Sonfacts.com has more information and lyrics available here.