Electric Music For The Mind And Body (studio album) by Country Joe And The Fish

This is such a good psychedelic album. It has an eerie feel to it in places, created using the organ textures and lead guitar accents. The first two tracks on side two (vinyl) bring in a more upbeat song structure. ‘Flying High’ and ‘Section 43’ are personal favourites.

From jwammo12 07/07/2021 12:39

There is a higher end frequency that they seem to overdo in their sound, but man is this great 60s blues/psychedelia

From seb7 02/19/2021 03:41

A favorite of mine

severely dated

From teague 09/07/2020 00:02

Much like Days of Future Passed, Electric Music for the Mind and Body plays with the building blocks for a genre that is yet to be, in this case heavy metal. Each of the components are there, (psychedelic rock, acid rock, blues rock) but they're never fully combined. Unfortunately, Country Joe and the Fish's debut LP is not similarly as good as the aforementioned Moody Blues effort. The songs, as short as they may seem, ramble and wander and the guitar and organ become grating very quickly. Flying High is great though, a psychedelic 60s classic.

From mdbaxter 08/18/2020 16:48

On the whole, an impressive record but it unfortunately suffers from the recording technology of the time. The overly sparse sound features some of the best electric guitar that you can find.

From Sandrof1969 02/13/2018 19:33

Bello, per quanto datato, questo esordio dei Country Joe & The Fish: un rock psichedelico legato alle radici soprattutto blues, abbastanza visionario e con qualche punto di contatto con l'allora ultimo Dylan.

From planetneutral 01/15/2018 17:34

Far more drenched in psychedelia than I was anticipating. Some good, some testing my patience.

Criminally overlooked! Easily one of the best, if not the best, psychedelic albums of the late 60s Haight-Ashbury scene. I would heartily recommend this album to Deadheads but I already know that they are blissfully cocooned (or is it entrenched?) in their own solipsistic bootleg heaven. However, fans of Love, Jefferson Airplane & Moby Grape will rejoice at having another album to enjoy at 4:20.

You can, as many probably are aware of, in several rock encyclopedias and other publications on rock and pop learn that this first album by Country Joe and the Fish is regarded as a classic, and that people with an interest in the psychedelic music of the 1960s should hear and appreciate it.

This I have now done - 3-4 times. And I must say that I'm a bit confused. Compared with albums from contemporaries like the Byrds, the Doors, Jefferson Airplane and many others, I think this album falls entirely.

I have a hard time finding really good songs. The vocals are mediocre at best. There may well exist excellent instrumental passages - especially solid blues guitar, but this applied course also for many of the group's contemporaries.

At the end of the day, it's probably about taste, and I have to just admit that this album does not hit me.