Social commentary’s relationship with rock and roll spans back to the days when Joan Baez played to protestors on the green quads of the U.C. Berkeley campus and beyond. At nonprofit Death Penalty Focus’ Annual Monterey Death Penalty Benefit Bash on Saturday at the Monterey Conference Center, John Magnie and Barry “The Fish” Melton and his band will reinvigorate the good old fashioned intermingling of rock and roll with a controversial cause: the abolition of capital punishment.

Magnie, the squeezebox master of the New Orleans-based subdudes, has been taking a break from the band, living in Fort Collins, Colorado, to play with an eight-piece horn band. But he still carries around a notebook, just as he’s done for the past 35 years, in case he has an idea for a song or a tune.

“Usually it happens in the most unexpected places,” Magnie says. “I may even hear a little bit of a melody or rhythm in Wal-Mart or something; just last week I did that while I was walking around Wal-Mart shopping and heard a little bit of something coming over the sound system that had a groove and inspired a lyric idea.”

Magnie also likes to keep his fingers on the pulse of important social issues as much as the keys of an accordion. When Denny LeBoeuf, a friend of Magnie’s wife and a staff attorney with the ACLU, asked him to participate in the Monterey Death Penalty Bash, he didn’t have to think twice.

“She’s a passionate lawyer and I’ve always believed in her cause,” he says. “They needed a little help in the gathering here so I got the call. It’s an issue important to me but I also like to support people like Denny and those who are fighting for what they believe in.”

When asked what songs he has lined up for the benefit Magnie says he’s still putting it together.

“I kind of let things gel a little before a gig,” he says. “I haven’t quite addressed that yet.”

Magnie and the subdudes’ extensive repertoire contains a wealth of songs fitting for an anti-death penalty benefit. “It’s So Hard,” the final track on the subdudes’ 1994 album, Annunciation, has a bluesy Creedence Clearwater Revival vibe riding thunderously along with lyrics questioning mortality: “It’s so hard, living in a human world/ It’s so hard, all on your own/ I don’t know, I want to believe/ But it’s so hard, so hard.”

Magnie may not have put together a setlist yet but he knows he will feature the piano for a majority of the performance and he plans on covering artists with strong political sensibilities, like Dylan and Professor Longhair.

The second act, Barry Melton – one of the co-founders of the 1960s psychedelic outfit Country Joe & The Fish – will be very appropriate for the occasion. According to the Rough Guide to Rock, Country Joe & The Fish made “substantial contributions to the halcyon days of psychedelic music.”

Melton was involved with the band that wrote one of the most well known anti-Vietnam War songs ever that begins with one of the most powerful opening lines to any song to come out of the hippie era: “One, two, three, what are we fighting for?”

“I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” was a song that easily could define an entire generation. You may remember Melton in Woodstock: The Movie. He’s the longhaired blonde guy in a floral shirt holding a joint up to the camera.

Melton eventually went on to practice law before the courts of the State of California and before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1982. He was also admitted to practice before most other U.S. District Courts in California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s a classic case of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” But it’s also the right kind of mind needed to infiltrate the system.

One of his first cases involved defending a San Francisco health food store against the city opposing its unisex bathroom. Melton won and got paid in groceries.

Two years ago, Melton retired at 61 years old from his position as Yolo County public attorney, so now the kick ass guitarist can retreat fully back to music.

In a Q&A with the Rip Post, Melton’s explanation of why he went from anti-establishment to establishment becomes crystal clear: “As a musician in a rock band, whatever influence or social impact I may have had is fairly abstract. We provided a focal point or meeting place for people. As my county’s public defender I have a very tangible, direct and measurable impact on lives of the people involved in the 10,000 cases per year my office handles.”

The Annual Monterey Death Penalty Benefit Bash happens 8pm Saturday, Feb. 19, at Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza, Monterey. $45 advance; $55 door. 415-243-0143.