The guitarist whose 1960s rock ‘n’ roll band gave the Woodstock generation the famous “fish cheer” is now representing troubled youths as a public defender.
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors hired Barry “The Fish” Melton as a $42,000-a-year deputy public defender. His principal duties will be representing the legal interests of juvenile delinquents.
It does not bother the 46-year-old rocker, who along with Country Joe McDonald formed the legendary Country Joe and The Fish band some 30 years ago, that his clients are unaware of his musical roots.
“Of course, my young clients don’t know me,” said Melton, who now lives in Ukiah. “They don’t have a clue who Country Joe and The Fish were.”
In the 1960s, Melton’s band provided a rallying cry with the “fish cheer.” Mainstream radio stations played a sanitized version that spelled fish, but the more earthy version at the Woodstock festival became an anthem for Vietnam War protesters as part of the group’s “The I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.”
Melton earned his law degree in 1982 and started a private practice on Haight Street in San Francisco. In 1985, the San Francisco Bar Association named Melton that year’s “Outstanding Lawyer in Public Service.”
Two years ago, Melton ran unsuccessfully for a Municipal Court judgeship in San Francisco.
His new supervisor in Mendocino County is nonchalant about the celebrity status of his new employee.
“I had not thought of him in that manner,” said Ron Brown, the county public defender, who said Melton was just one of 40 or so lawyers applying for the job. “I looked at his qualifications, and they were excellent.”
Melton said he loves the more rural, relaxed lifestyle in Mendocino.
“My case load is somewhat less serious than it was in San Francisco,” Melton said. “Mendocino just does not have anywhere the homicides that San Francisco has.”
His northern exodus could be a geographical problem for his musical gigs, which he plays from time to time with his band of rock ‘n’ roll legends called the Dinosaurs. The group includes musicians from Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company.