- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Country Joe McDonald has released many more solo albums over the years since, but he has said that he is most proud of Thinking of Woody Guthrie.
Country Joe McDonald – Thinking of Woody Guthrie (1969): Country Joe McDonald, the bandleader of Country Joe and the Fish was already falling away from the band by the time his first solo album, Thinking of Woody Guthrie was released. As an example, while Country Joe and the Fish played “Rock and Soul Music” at Woodstock, the performance of the band’s best-known song there, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag”, preceded by “The Fish Cheer” – spelling “f–k”, not “fish” – is credited to Country Joe McDonald, not the band. Woody Guthrie has been an important influence on his music ever since his childhood, when Country Joe McDonald often heard his parents play Guthrie’s album Dust Bowl Ballads (1940).
Unlike his psychedelic rock music with the Fish, Thinking of Woody Guthrie is a folk-rock and country album very much in keeping with the musical style of Woody Guthrie, the iconic folksinger of the Depression era. Most of the familiar songs by Woody Guthrie are included on Thinking of Woody Guthrie, including “This Land Is Your Land”, “So Long (It’s Been Good to Know Yuh)”, “Pretty Boy Floyd”, “Tom Joad”, and “Pastures of Plenty”. Country Joe McDonald has released many more solo albums over the years since, but he has said that he is most proud of Thinking of Woody Guthrie.