These two short compilations, part of the label’s new Vanguard Visionaries series, offer a good, if brief (each CD only running to 10 songs), overview of this iconoclastic performer.
McDonald will always be most associated with the rollicking I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag. Recorded with his group The Fish, the newer version here isn’t quite as charming as the original, but that doesn’t mitigate its standing as one of the best anti-war songs ever. The rest of the Fish set mixes together political satire such as Superbird (Tricky Dicky), the goofy singalong Marijuana (sole lyric: “I like marijuana/I sure do like to get stoned”), and Janis, a sweet, folky ode to Joplin.
The McDonald solo set has more covers, including Ring Of Fire and two of Woody Guthrie’s tunes, Talkin’ Dust Bowl and an abbreviated This Land Is Your Land, cutting out the more overtly political verses, and adding a lengthy spoken intro about McDonald’s admiration for the singer/songwriter. There’s also further political commentary (in Sexist Pig) and McDonald offers a summation of his life in the selfexplanatory Entertainment Is My Business. What’s sorely needed on both discs are liner notes to put McDonald’s career in context.
