The record
At a glance
- Artist
- Country Joe and the Fish
- Released
- July 1969
- Album
- Fourth studio album
- Original tracks
- Ten
- Label
- Vanguard VSD 79299
- Producer
- Samuel Charters
Why it matters
A transitional album that documents its own instability
Here We Are Again is not a seamless classic-lineup follow-up. It joins three recording blocks made after Bruce Barthol left and while David Cohen and Hirsh approached their own departures.
McDonald, Melton and Hirsh appear across the sessions, but the bass role moves from Mark Ryan to Jack Casady to Peter Albin. Cohen plays on the December New York and January San Francisco groups, while Mark Kapner replaces him on piano for I'll Survive and Maria.
Samuel Charters and engineer Ed Friedner provide production continuity. Ed Bland and Ed Bogas supply track-specific arrangements, including horns and strings.
McDonald wrote most of the album; Melton wrote Baby, You're Driving Me Crazy, I'll Survive, Maria and Doctor of Electricity.
The music moves between direct songs and expansive arranged pieces. Crystal Blues lasts more than six minutes, while My Girl is just over two.
The title suggests simple return, but the record repeatedly confronts absence, survival and incomprehensible voices. Its importance is documentary and musical: the original ensemble is dissolving, yet the studio becomes a way to keep creating new forms.
New York and San Francisco
Three sessions after the classic lineup fractured
Together was successful in 1968, but Barthol departed later that year. Here I Go Again, Donovan's Reef and For No Reason were recorded at Vanguard Studios in December 1968 with Mark Ryan on bass. Five tracks were recorded at Pacific High in San Francisco in January 1969 with Jack Casady on bass and Cohen on keyboards. I'll Survive and Maria came from a March 1969 Vanguard session with Peter Albin on bass and Mark Kapner on piano.
Hirsh drums across all three blocks. Cohen and Hirsh left the working group around this period, so the album does not represent a stable touring unit.
Charters produced all sessions and Friedner engineered, later remixing the album in New York. Bland arranged five songs and conducted horns and strings; Bogas arranged four, one jointly with Charters. Vanguard released VSD 79299 in July 1969, shortly before McDonald's solo appearance at Woodstock.
Changing session groups
McDonald, Melton and Hirsh across changing ensembles
McDonald provides continuity through a light, direct vocal even when the rhythm and arrangement personnel change around him. Melton's four compositions make him a parallel author, not merely the surviving lead guitarist. Hirsh is the only rhythm-section player across every block, giving three bass approaches a common pulse. Cohen's final-era keyboards shape eight tracks but should not be assigned to the Kapner session.
Ryan supports the leaner December quintet, Casady the more arranged Pacific High material, and Albin the March pair. Kapner's piano gives I'll Survive and Maria their own session identity. Bland's horns and strings add scale without becoming a permanent band lineup. The credits make instability precise; describing a generic group would erase the album's actual construction.
Arranged transition
Songs, arrangements and studio groups
Here I Go Again makes return cyclical through road rhythm, memory and orchestral lift. Donovan's Reef expands into a dark, surreal social panorama. It's So Nice to Have Your Love uses arranged warmth and Casady's bass for a smoother surface. Baby, You're Driving Me Crazy gives Melton a concise, energetic centre.
Crystal Blues stretches vocal and instrumental tension across six minutes. For No Reason returns to the December group and a sparer questioning form. I'll Survive uses Kapner's piano and Albin's bass for a direct statement of endurance.
Maria turns the same March ensemble toward character and intimacy. My Girl compresses the Pacific High palette into the album's shortest song. Doctor of Electricity closes with television, radio, machines and voices that cannot be understood.
Track guide
Ten scenes from departure to electrical breakdown
Here I Go Again
McDonald opens with return as repetition rather than triumph. Ryan and Hirsh keep the road moving while Bogas's arrangement enlarges memories of love and wartime absence. The title's again carries both persistence and exhaustion.
Donovan's Reef
The December group enters a darker surreal landscape. Cohen's keyboards and Melton's guitar surround images of masks, pain and social obedience. The reef is less destination than unstable mental terrain.
It's So Nice to Have Your Love
Pacific High, Casady's bass and Bland's arrangement create a warmer, fuller surface. The simple title gains weight through horns or strings without losing McDonald's directness.
Baby, You're Driving Me Crazy
Melton's first album contribution is compact and rhythmically immediate. The arrangement turns romantic pressure into forward motion, contrasting with the more elaborate songs around it.
Crystal Blues
The first side closes with its longest form. Casady, Hirsh, Cohen and the guitars sustain a slow build while Bland's arranged colour refracts the blues rather than smoothing it.
For No Reason
Returning to the December quintet makes the second-side opening leaner. McDonald's question is supported by Ryan's bass and Cohen's keys, with Bogas organizing the space around uncertainty.
I'll Survive
Melton's song introduces the March trio of Kapner, Albin and Hirsh beneath the two principal voices and guitars. Survival is stated plainly, and the changed ensemble makes it a fresh beginning rather than a reprise.
Maria
The same March session turns toward a named person. Melton's slide guitar and Kapner's piano give the portrait movement, while Bland's arrangement adds shape without disguising its separate origin.
My Girl
The shortest track returns to the Pacific High group. Casady and Hirsh keep the love song concise, while Cohen and Bland's arrangement provide more colour than its duration suggests.
Doctor of Electricity
Melton closes with modern systems speaking in incomprehensible language. Cohen's keyboards, Casady's bass and Bogas's arrangement make the machine increasingly crowded. The repeated invitation to join sounds both communal and coercive.
Here again
Return, survival, love and failed communication
Return and repetition frame Here I Go Again and the album title. Love appears as memory, support, pressure and named address across several tracks. Survival answers the absence and loss introduced by the opener. Donovan's Reef and Crystal Blues use altered perception differently: surreal panorama versus sustained refraction.
Doctor of Electricity turns communication technology into alienation. The rotating bassists make instability audible even when the lyrics do not address the band. Arrangements repeatedly enlarge private statements into public scenes. The record is unified by reconstruction, not by one lineup or concept.
Vanguard VSD 79299
A lyric insert for an assembled record
Vanguard issued the ten-track LP as VSD 79299 in July 1969. The original package included lyrics and detailed credits, essential for understanding the session groups. Tom Weller created the cover art.
The five/five side division places Crystal Blues and Doctor of Electricity as unlike large-scale endpoints. Later summaries that collapse the credits into one band lineup lose information present in the original package.
July 1969
July 1969 before Woodstock
The album appeared in July 1969, between Together's lineup fracture and McDonald's August Woodstock appearance. Here I Go Again was paired with Baby, You're Driving Me Crazy as a Vanguard single. The LP did not restore the commercial momentum of the first three albums.
Reviews often hear a band name continuing after the cohesive classic group had ceased to function. That context is accurate but should not erase the deliberate arrangements or specific session performances. Its reception has remained secondary to both the 1967 albums and the Woodstock-era fame of the Rag.
The fourth album
A bridge whose session map deserves attention
Here We Are Again is the most detailed studio record of the band's transition from classic lineup to flexible ensemble. Its three bassists connect the Fish to broader Bay Area networks without becoming a supergroup claim. McDonald and Melton emerge as parallel writers for the next phase. Cohen and Hirsh leave substantial final-era contributions despite the lineup's instability.
The arranged songs demonstrate that orchestration can clarify rather than merely decorate psychedelic rock. Doctor of Electricity remains a sharp endpoint for the album's concern with failed communication. The precise session map rewards hearing differences instead of demanding seamlessness. Its legacy is strongest as an assembled album with its own logic, not simply evidence of decline.
Original programme
Three recording blocks, one LP
The original LP contains ten tracks, five per side. The lyric and credit insert is essential to identifying players whose roles change across the sequence. Listen for the leaner rhythm sound on Here I Go Again, Donovan's Reef and For No Reason. Tracks three through five and nine share the fuller Pacific High palette.
I'll Survive and Maria form a self-contained piano-and-slide-guitar pair. Hirsh's drumming is the clearest instrumental thread across the changing ensembles. Arrangement credits must be read per song rather than generalized across the LP. McDonald's Woodstock appearance is a separate solo performance, not an alternate edition of this album.
A listening path
Hear the lineup change as structure
- Hear the first two tracks as the December New York group.
- Notice the fuller Pacific High sound on tracks three to five.
- Reset at For No Reason when the December lineup returns.
- Identify Kapner's piano and Albin's bass on the March pair.
- Return to the Pacific High palette for My Girl.
- Let Doctor of Electricity close through communicative overload.
- Then compare session groups rather than forcing one band sound.
Research trail
Sources and further reading
- First-party programme, sessions and credits — CountryJoe.com
- Album, credits and critical review — AllMusic
- Institutional band discography — MusicBrainz
- Country Joe McDonald discography — CountryJoe.com
- Vanguard label discography — Both Sides Now Publications
- Original track and package record — Digital Pitt