Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942) is an American m… Read Full Bio ↴Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942) is an American musician who was the lead singer of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe & The Fish.

McDonald was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in El Monte, California, where he was student conductor and president of his high school marching band. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Navy for three years and was stationed in Japan. After his enlistment, he attended Los Angeles City College for a year. In the early 1960s, he began busking on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. His father, Worden McDonald, from Oklahoma, was of Scottish Presbyterian heritage (the son of a minister); he worked for a telephone company. His mother, Florence Plotnick, was the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants and served for many years on the Berkeley City Council. In their youth, both were Communist Party members before renouncing the cause, and named their son after Joseph Stalin.

McDonald has recorded 33 albums and has written hundreds of songs over a career spanning 40 years. In 1965, he and Barry Melton co-founded Country Joe & the Fish which became a pioneer psychedelic rock band with their eclectic performances at the Avalon Ballroom, the Fillmore, the Monterey Pop Festival, and both the original and 1979 reunion Woodstock Festivals.

In the fall of 2005, political commentator Bill O'Reilly compared McDonald to Cuban President Fidel Castro, remarking on McDonald's involvement in Cindy Sheehan's protests against the Iraq War.

In 2015, McDonald (with assistance from Alec Palao), formed The Electric Music Band; the intention of the group was to perform the early psychedelic material of the early career of Country Joe And The Fish. The band has performed 'Electric Music For The Mind And Body' in its entirety, and band members include Palao, The Rain Parade's Matt Piucci and Derek See of The Chocolate Watchband.

In 2017, McDonald released an album on his own Rag Baby label entitled "50".

McDonald was married to Kathe Werum from 1963 to 1966 and married Robin Menken a year after his divorce from Werum.[12] In 1968, Menken gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Seven Anne McDonald, in San Francisco. Seven, formerly a columnist for LA Weekly and now a movie producer and artist manager,[13] had a previous career as a TV child actor in the late 1970s and early 1980s, managed Johnny Depp's Viper Room nightclub and the alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins in the 1990s, and wrote for Details, Elle and Harper's Bazaar magazines in the 1990s and 2000s. According to Ron Cabral's biography on Country Joe and the Fish, Seven was the subject of and inspiration behind the song Silver and Gold. McDonald has noted that his ex-girlfriend at the time, Janis Joplin, showed much anger for breaking up with her to be with Menken but asked him to write a song about her; the result was "Janis".

McDonald has four other children, Devin (b. 1976) and Tara (b. 1980) from his marriage to Janice Taylor, and Emily (b. 1988) and Ryan (b. 1991) from his marriage to Kathy Wright.

As of 2012, McDonald still lived in Berkeley, California.

Travelling
Country Joe McDonald Lyrics

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I lost my baby in outer space
She's up there past the moon.
Searching the heavens for her face
I hope that I find her soon.

We both took rocket up past the sky
I lost her somewhere above.
I feel so lonesome I could cry

Since I lost my love.

Hey, hey, what do you say ?
I travel the distant stars.
Hey, hey, I'll find some way
To go wherever you are.

Hey, hey, what do you say ?
I travel the distant stars.
Hey, hey, I'll find some way
To go wherever you are.

Now if you travel the Milky Way
Far beyond the Northern Star
To the place where there is no night or day
To where all the planets are

You may see her pass you by
On a journey to the sun.
Tell her that I search the skies
To try and find her love.

Hey, hey, what do you say ?
I travel the distant stars.
Hey, hey, I'll find some way
To go wherever you are.

Hey, hey, what do you say ?
I travel the distant stars.
Hey, hey, I'll find some way
To go wherever you are.

Hey, hey, what do you say ?
I travel the distant stars.

Hey, hey, I'll find some way
To go wherever you are.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Country Joe McDonald's "Travelling" narrate the tale of a man who has lost his lover in outer space, and is now on an eternal quest to find her again. In the first stanza, the singer tells us that his lover is lost somewhere beyond the moon, and he is constantly searching the heavens for her. The next few stanzas recount how they both went on a rocket journey beyond the skies on an adventure in space. The singer then expresses his loneliness and grief as he lost his love somewhere up above. He longs to see her and hopes to find her soon.

The chorus of the song, consisting of repeating lines, expresses the singer's determination to go where his lover is, wherever she may be. In the third stanza, the singer tells us that if we travel far beyond the Northern Star, we may see his lover on her journey to the sun. The final chorus is the same as the others, indicating the singer's unwavering determination to continue his quest to find his loved one, even if it means travelling across the distant stars.

Line by Line Meaning

I lost my baby in outer space
I lost my significant other in an extraterrestrial location

She's up there past the moon.
She is beyond the moon in outer space.

Searching the heavens for her face
I am looking at the stars to search for her face.

I hope that I find her soon.
I really hope to find her soon.

We both took rocket up past the sky
We both traveled in a rocket beyond the sky.

I lost her somewhere above.
I lost her somewhere among the space.

I feel so lonesome I could cry
I feel lonely to the point of tears.

Since I lost my love.
Because I lost my love.

Hey, hey, what do you say ?
What's up?

I travel the distant stars.
I am traveling through foreign galaxies.

Hey, hey, I'll find some way
I'm determined to find her