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    Country Joe and Me
    Country Joe and Me
    Country Joe and Me
    Ebook214 pages1 hour

    Country Joe and Me

    By Ron Cabral

    ()

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    About this ebook



    Country Joe and Me
    is about a rock-folk icon and a San Francisco public school teacher.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> A long time ago Country Joe McDonald and his
    Navy pal Ron Cabral had an idea to write a book about the story of their lives.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> They met in 1960 while serving in the U.S.
    Navy as 18-year old sailors at Atsugi, Japan.



    Follow their interactions over several decades a roller
    coaster ride of shared experiences in the military, education and music. Told
    by Cabral from the perspective of ground zero it offers a unique look at the
    emergence of Country Joe and the cultural, political, and musical revolution
    that blossomed in San Francisco and Berkeley during the late 60s and early
    70s-- There are chapters on Country Joe and The Fish, Janis Joplin and Joes
    brief love affair with her. Go behind
    the scenes with Bill Graham and Jerry Garcia during Summerlandstyle="mso-spacerun: yes"> - a very special project for high school
    students initiated by Country Joe while he was a volunteer teacher in Rons
    school called Opportunity High.



    Also included are the lyrics to some of Country Joes most
    important songs, memorabilia, rare photos, a discography and a lot more--style="mso-spacerun: yes"> There is a special Afterword by Country Joe
    on his role with the Vietnam Vets over the years. A must read for every Country Joe fan. This is the only book
    currently available on Country Joe. For more information on Country Joe see
    www.countryjoe.com.



    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateApr 6, 2004
    ISBN9781410765383
    Country Joe and Me
    Author

    Ron Cabral

    Ron Cabral a native of San Francisco and graduate of San Francisco State University became a teacher in 1965 and later a middle school principal with the San Francisco public schools serving for 35 years.  Between the years 1967 and 1973 while teaching and starting a family he became deeply involved in the emerging music revolution-taking place in his hometown of San Francisco.  He promoted concerts and managed a few rock bands some of which played at Fillmore-West and Winterland for rock czar Bill Graham.  A trombone player and percussionist since his youth he had occasion to record with Gold and play briefly with Country Joe and The All-Stars. In 2003 Ron backed Joe on trombone at several appearances in the Bay Area. In 2004 and 2005 he went on the road with the Country Joe Band (all former members of Country Joe and The Fish) to sell his book Country Joe and Me. Those road trips were two West Coast Tours traveling from LA to Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. Ron met Joe McDonald (the subject of Country Joe and Me) while serving in the U.S. Navy in 1960 - they have remained friends ever since.   Ron is married with 3 grown children and 5 grandchildren. He lives in Concord, California. He is currently co-writing his second book called San Francisco to Jonestown - a story about the many students he knew who happened to be members of the Peoples Temple who were enrolled in his Public Alternative High school by Jim Jones in 1976. Most of those 125 students went on to a place called Jonestown never to return.

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      Book preview

      Country Joe and Me - Ron Cabral

      © 2004 by Ron Cabral. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

      or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,

      recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

      ISBN: 1-4107-6538-5 (e-book)

      ISBN: 1-4107-6537-7 (Paperback)

      ISBN: 1-4184-0642-2 (Dust Jacket)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2003110579

      Cover Design by Ralph Solonitz

      1stBooks-rev. 04/05/04

      Contents

      PREFACE

      1: RED DIAPER BABY

      2: IN THE NAVY

      3: BACK IN THE USA

      4: AND THIS IS REALLY IT

      5: JOE AND JANIS

      6: COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH

      7: ROCKING EDUCATION

      An Interview with Country Joe

      8: MANDRAKE’S

      9: SUMMERLAND

      10: JOE THE FAMILY MAN

      11: JOE AND THE VIETNAM VETS

      PREFACE

      This is the story of two young Americans—Country Joe (Joe McDonald) and Me (Ron Cabral). We became deeply involved in some of the massive changes that were happening around us, both as participants and in some cases as guiding forces in the direction of some of the events. Our lives have continually crossed paths and intertwined through four decades of mutual tumultuous history involving a counter-cultural revolution, psychedelic music, war, political activism, and alternative education.

      Our journey begins in 1960 as two eighteen-year olds meet up in the mysterious Far East 5,200 miles from home with no clue as to what the world & life had in store for them. What are the odds of two guys right out of high school ending up in Japan in the same small U.S. Navy unit, both assigned to the same barracks, both trained trombone players, both from California, both air controllers, and both with immigrant Russian Bolshevik grandmothers? Too many coincidences…too many planets lining up…something magical was in the works.

      And the parallels have always kept showing up…hanging together in the Navy and then going our separate ways only to meet up again and again over the years. Suddenly it’s 1963 and Joe arrives at my parent’s house in San Francisco while he is on a Jack Kerouac like On the Road trip of sorts traversing the West Coast-all the way to Alaska and back to Southern California. Joe is soon to plant roots in the Bay Area.

      …Fast-forward to 1967 and the world I thought I knew had turned upside down.

      One of us is in the audience in Golden Gate Park at San Francisco’s Human Be-In and accidentally spots the other on stage playing a tambourine-Joe had somehow turned into County Joe of Country Joe & The Fish. Then it was California Hall, The Avalon Ballroom and The Fillmore. Both of us become embroiled in the music and political revolution boiling over in San Francisco and Berkeley…one as the leader of an important rock band, musician and songwriter and the other as a public school teacher, band manager and occasional concert organizer…Good times and brawls with Bill Graham happen along the way.

      While teaching at a public alternative high school (Opportunity High) I was able to bring Joe in as a volunteer teacher and he stuck around for almost two years. We teamed up to create a unique music education program in the school during the early 70’s. Around the same time we both became family men with wives and numerous children to help raise—Joe’s brood ranges in age from 35 to 12 mine from 36 to 28.

      Joe always a rock star and folk singer eventually becomes a strong advocate for Vietnam Veterans causes. He is also a scholar on War Nurses and Florence Nightingale and he is also a leading interpreter of the songs and life of Woody Guthrie. I became a middle school principal and had a 35-year career in the San Francisco Schools. At the same time that I worked in the schools I was also a Photojournalist writing and taking photographs on maritime subjects for 20 years for Coast Guard magazines.

      Joe continues to perform with vigor all over the USA and in Europe. He continues to write songs and release new recordings. I wrote this book because I believe strongly in Joe and that this story needed to be told, it is about my Navy buddy who eventually became Country Joe. It is also about some of the shared experiences we had in the military, in music and in education during the heat of the ‘60’s and early ‘70’s.

      This story is history written from the inside. It is a biography, an autobiography and documentary about two people who lived it and also made it happen.

      Ron Cabral

      Concord, California

      June 11, 2003

      Image353.JPG

      Joe and Ron. Photo by Kathy McDonald.

      This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents Flora and Ernest Cabral also to the memory of Joe’s parents Florence and Worden McDonald

      1: RED DIAPER BABY

      Washington, DC—1942

      Joe was named after Joseph Stalin in the days before everyone realized that Stalin was an insane maniac. Joe was born January 1, 1942 in Washington, D.C. to Worden and Florence McDonald. Joe’s parents were both on the left side of the ideological fence, and you could probably call them American communists if you wanted to throw around labels.

      Joe’s grandmother Bella Voronoff was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who had opposed the Czar in Russia in 1905. She and her sister Rose left Russia to seek a new life in America. Bella often took Joe’s mom to political meetings in D.C. Oddly enough, Bella also became one of the first female truck drivers in the D.C. area.

      Image360.JPG

      Baby Joe

      Photo by Worden McDonald

      I met both Joe’s parents in the late 60’s after they finally moved to Berkeley from Southern California. I liked them right away and they were always very friendly to me—Joe had introduced them to me as his Navy pal from Japan. After Joe began to work his way into the music industry, Joe’s parents liked to reminisce and relive some of Joe’s early musical leanings.

      Worden said, When Joe was about 10 years old, he played the harmonica, I would ask him if he could play a certain song, and he would always say no. But then he’d say ‘well if you could whistle it for me I can play it.’ Then he would just play it—I always thought that was pretty amazing.

      Worden also said, Joe began playing the trombone in school. He liked it right away and started practicing at least three hours a day at home. He got pretty good at it as time went along. When Joe got to high school he had a good sound—I enjoyed hearing him practice.

      Joe’s father Worden McDonald grew up in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and the Depression era. He was a very adventurous young man who had gone to seek his fortune in Alaska. During the 30’s, however, Worden began to participate in the American Labor Movement, and his politics took a turn for the left. A few years after his ideals jelled, he met and married Florence. It seemed a perfect match.

      Besides excelling in music, Joe was also a good horseback rider as a youth in El Monte.

      It seemed that when he wasn’t busy with guinea pigs, horses, rabbits or dogs he was taking a music lesson or practicing, said Joe’s mother, Florence.

      Joe grew up in the period during and right after World War II. The country and society was still in shock at the atrocities man could commit. Joe was always a very sensitive child his music seemed his link to sanity, Florence said.

      When I was very young I learned from my mother about the death camps for Jews in World War II. My mother and I had many arguments about our heritage. I couldn’t understand how we as non-believers and non-practicing Jews could have been killed for being Jewish if we had lived say in Germany or Russia during WWII.

      When the pogroms come they will find you, Joe’s mother always said. Joe had nightmares about these things when he was very young. Joe had dreams about being taken away to concentration camps by boogiemen. He had a hard time with these dreams for a long time.

      Later in life, I realized that I was defined as a Jew by Jew haters not by myself. Also I came to realize that my mother was suffering from survivor guilt and post traumatic stress syndrome from her experience of being the child of Russian Jewish immigrants.

      Most people do not grow up with the reality Joe experienced as a red diaper baby. The truth was that Joe’s parent’s politics filled some American’s with hate and anger. It isn’t fair to place that burden on children. Like so many others, I was forced to react to the situation inherited at birth. All red diaper babies know what I am talking about, said Joe.

      Joe never cared much for the rhetoric or activities of the radical labor movement in which his parents were engrossed, according to Florence. She never seemed disappointed, and in fact, was very proud of the music bug that gripped Joe in his youth. The music of the men and women struggling for a better life appealed to him, she said.

      Florence McDonald went on to be elected to the Berkeley city council and served in that office for many years. Worden remained an activist around Berkeley and wrote a book called An Old Guy Who Feels Good. Joe even though he had disagreements with his parents from time to time always remained devoted to them.

      Joe lived in El Monte in Southern California, from the ages of 5 to 17 in the time when no freeways went through the town. His father was a long time employee of Bell Telephone in downtown LA, but he loved to play farmer in their quarter acre homestead by having a nice garden and animals. Those days gave Joe a real love and appreciation for animals.

      Joe had a special horse named Rebel. They never used a bit on him because it hurt his mouth. Joe liked to ride him bareback. One day Worden rode Rebel to pick up Joe after school. Joe had his trombone with him, and he climbed up behind his father with the trombone case hanging alongside the horse. On the way home Worden decided to let Rebel experience meeting a train at a railroad crossing. The train started coming and as it got closer, its whistle grew louder and louder. Rebel started jumping around while Worden tried in vain to control the horse.

      Joe held on to his father as he fought the animal that got more agitated and tried to rear up. Joe slid off with his trombone when he finally got the opportunity. With Joe off the horse, Worden got the animal under control. After that though, Rebel didn’t seem to mind trains at all.

      Joe had a number of harrowing experiences on the back of a horse while growing up. Joe was riding Rebel bareback in his small back yard one day, and he brought the horse to a brisk canter. The canter was a crazy move, as Joe’s yard was such a small area with a garden, some fruit trees and a garage all crammed into a small area. Joe suddenly lost control and slipped off Rebel falling down his side, bouncing off his chest, and landing flat on his back on the ground in front of him. Joe looked up to see a hoof coming right down on his face. At that point Rebel looked Joe straight in the eyes and lifted his hoof out of the way and hopped over him. Joe always said Rebel was a good horse.

      Joe and I have shared ancestry when it comes to communist Russia.

      My grandmother, Thelma Gorbonoff, and her family also fled Czarist Russia in 1906-07. At that time men were conscripted for 25-year hitches for the Czar’s Army. They were poor peasants living in Siberia near the town of Chita, when they decided to flee and head east towards Harbin, Manchuria. They loaded up all the horse-drawn wagons they could find and drove across the Siberian plains much like the pioneer’s of the old west did crossing along the Oregon Trail. If both

      Joe’s and my family hadn’t fled, we certainly would not have had as much fun in the 60’s.

      After a huge ordeal they arrived in Harbin to hear of jobs in a place called Hawaii. Dole Pineapple Company had sent recruiters out to Harbin to try and hire white labor to work in the fields in Hawaii. It was a time of racism and yellow peril fears in Hawaii. They offered the Russians one ruble a day if they agreed to make the long sea voyage to Honolulu. My grandmother’s family signed up.

      As they were boarding a ship in Korea for the trip to Hawaii via Japan, Thelma’s younger brother, a 10-year-old boy, disappeared

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