Even in an era of fetish reissue projects, this LP-only box set compiling Country Joe & the Fish’s first two albums is an outlier. Arriving a few months after the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, Craft Recordings, a label devoted solely to deluxe reissues — R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People, John Lee Hooker’s King of the Boogie honouring his centennial, and The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings of Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane — has assembled a package worthy of the excess of the historic period it depicts. While most know Country Joe & the Fish for their performances on the Woodstock soundtrack — “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” and “Fish Cheer” (“Gimme an F!…”) — their first two recordings for Vanguard, Electric Music for the Mind and Body and I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die, remain seminal tracts of 1960s counterculture music. With its marriage of folk, early psychedelic rock, jazz, bluegrass, and even jazz, the former has weathered the passage of time remarkably well.
This limited-edition package includes both 1967 albums in mono and stereo versions on 180-gram vinyl in tip-on jackets. (Yes, there are two copies of each album.) The mono version of Electric Music for the Mind and Body boasts rare alternate cover art, while the remaining discs have standard issue covers. Fans can debate all day long about the merits of which mix is better — for our money the stereo LPs win hands down given the claustrophobic, eight-track, live-in-studio sound of the originals.
The Wave of Electrical Sound box also contains a plentiful amount of ephemera, including replicas of The Fish Game, a Fish Fan Club book, and a Fish calendar designed by artist Tom Weller. Also included is a DVD of How We Stopped the War, a 30-minute documentary, filming the band on its way to an anti-Vietnam War rally, directed by David Peoples (screenwriter for Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, and Unforgiven). Also included are a 24-page book comprising rare photos, artwork, and a stellar liner essay from writer, producer, and musician Alec Palao. The stereo mixes of these albums are available separately, making the decision to purchase the box one for hardcore fans, or collectors with a fetish for unusual packages.
The Fat Angel Sings 