Country Joe McDonald - War War War (1995)

One of few things Ronald Reagan and counterculture firebrand Country Joe McDonald shared was an affection for the poetry of Robert W. Service. This unsung but exceptional 1971 oddity finds one-time acid-rocker McDonald setting nine of Service's World War I poems to music. Service was an ambulance driver and correspondent during the Great War, and his "bits of rhyme [and] songs from out the slaughter mill" recount in antiquated but vivid and often stirring prose the horror of the men who faced the "crimson chorus of the guns." McDonald sings Service's words with a distressed sincerity that is worlds removed from his impertinent Woodstock-era persona. Musically, Country Joe keeps it simple--12-string guitar is complemented with harmonica, tambourine, foot stomps, and the barest hint of organ. All of this adds up to an anti-war folk classic that deserves to be brought out of the mothballs. --Steven Stolder