Joe and Barry have gone out and recruited three new Fish for the latest album but they could have used anonymous sidemen and nobody would have known the difference. It's not that they're bad; just that they sound like they're bored stiff by the entire thing. The dull thumping of the piano and drums in "Rockin' Round the World" is the best example of this but the same sluggishness pervades almost every cut on the album. However, this instrumental listlessness is not confined to the new members of the group; Barry Melton's guitar playing is strictly chickenshit. He seems to have gotten hung up on echo effects and he never does get into playing with the energy he has shown in the past.

And yet, I don't really think that it's all the musicians' fault. The main problem is with Joe's songs. They have none of the humor and insight, none of the liveliness of his earlier efforts and since they are performed in such an uninspired manner, they fall flat on their faces. Just think that the man responsible for "Harlem Song" and "Fixin'-To-Die Rag" can think of nothing more politically viable to say than, "Tell them guys in Washington, D.C. to leave my friends alone" (from "Hey Bobby")! And from "Hand of Man": "From the spark in the dark on the hand of man/Peace and understanding spreads through our land," you'd think he'd never been to Chicago.

Joe's love ballads aren't quite as disappointing. "Mara" and "She's a Bird" are certainly listenable but they lack the beauty and atmosphere of "Pat's Song," "Janis" and most of his other earlier soft material. In fact, the only number that is up to the Fish's previously high standards is Barry's "The Love Machine" on which he growls as convincingly as ever.

To me, C. J. Fish is a mediocre album by a mediocre group and as such, shouldn't produce much of an emotional response at all. Yet, hearing this album and calling Country Joe and the Fish a mediocre group makes me very sad. I don't know why it's this way, but whatever the reason, that magic madness of the Fish of yesteryear is gone. Maybe they can put it back together but from the evidence presented on this album, it doesn't seem likely. (RS 60)

MICHAEL G. DAVIS