8:00pm, Hatcher Graduate Library Gallery

Photo from the stage of Woodstock by Jim Marshall

If you come to the University of Michigan Library today, you can see original Country Joe and the Fish albums along with other album covers and political buttons from the 1960s. If you come to the Library on November 13, 2008 at 8:00 pm, you can experience Country Joe McDonald live in person.

The University of Michigan will host 'An Evening with Country Joe' on November 13, 2008. The event will take place at 8:00 pm in the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library (North) in the Gallery in Room 100. The event is free and open to the public but seating is limited and available on a first come first served basis. Doors open at 7:30 pm.

The event is one of a series of programs related to the exhibit, "The Whole World Was Watching: Protest and Revolution in 1968" currently on view in the Gallery in Room 100. The exhibit examines 1968 through the perspective of the University of Michigan Special Collection Library's Labadie Collection of social protest materials. The Labadie Collection includes materials from the 19th century to the present and is a rich trove of material from the 1960s including those featured in the exhibit.

Country Joe was invited to perform by Julie Herrada, who curated the exhibit. "I wanted an event that would personify the times and 1968 in particular. Country Joe is representative of the theme of protest and revolution in 1968. In the late 60s when he performed as Country Joe and the Fish, he and the 'Fish' were incredibly popular." Their lyrics spoke to protest songs like the 'I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag' with its rousing chorus:

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
There ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopie! We're all gonna die!