by Shawn Perry
Every once in a while, on this rock and roll rollercoaster I’ve been riding on, there comes an event that cannot be missed. Seeing singer, songwriter and guitarist John Fogerty up close and personal within the cozy confines of the Grammy Museum’s Clive Davis Theater could be counted as one of those kind of events. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Cosmo’s Factory was the third album I ever owned — it remains a cornerstone of my musical upbringing. This is really why I do what I do (whatever it is that I do).
To me, there’s always been a sense of comfort and wonder in Fogerty’s songs; by extension, to hear him speak about his life, his family and his music candidly without reservation, without putting on airs, served to reveal the man behind the music. When he played back his songs on an old Studer four-track, then strapped on a guitar and sang and played some of the songs he’s famous for, that sweetened the deal beyond expectations. At the heart of tonight’s proceedings was Fogerty’s memoir, Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music, which is what much of his conversation with noted music journalist David Wild revolved around. At presstime, the book is set to debut on the New York Times Best Sellers Hardcover Non-Fiction list at #14 on October 25, 2015.
Stories about the bitter break-up of Creedence Clearwater Revival often dominate the news when it comes to John Fogerty. Tonight, much of that was set aside in lieu of the great songs the man has written. Based on that alone, it’s not that difficult to come to your own conclusions about what and, more specifically, “who” the captain of the good ship CCR was. Wild started with the obvious: “Proud Mary.” Fogerty backtracked to his first exposure to music and his introduction by his mother to songwriter Stephen Foster. It planted the seed for Fogerty’s musical career. “Stephen Foster could have written ‘Proud Mary’,” he said. Fogerty then took a small notebook from his wife Julie (sitting in the front row and someone the singer adoringly mentioned throughout the evening) and explained that when he started to get organized, he used the notebook for song titles, phrases, ideas, whatever popped into his head. He held it up and said the first thing he wrote in it was two words: “Proud Mary.” He’d never been to the bayou or New Orleans; he was a kid from El Cerrito, California, just across the bay from San Francisco. Images of “rolling down the river” just came to him and “Proud Mary” turned into the name of a riverboat. Fogerty said it took him between 20 minutes and an hour to write the whole song.
It would be easy to assume that “Green River” was inspired by the same Southern flavors, but Fogerty explained the song was actually about Winters, a small town near Sacramento he spent time in as a boy. From there, Fogerty touched on perfecting his singing style, starting a band with Doug Clifford and Stu Cook, and backing his brother Tom, who started out as a singer himself before switching over to rhythm guitarist for Creedence. Fogerty’s ascent into music was disrupted by the Vietnam War, when he served a stint in the army. It was during his service that he wrote “Porterville,” a song about being from the wrong side of the tracks. His time in the military and the war in general would later inspire him to write “Fortunate Son.”
While he didn’t dwell on the band’s breakup and shady business squabbles, it did come up. “We would have been happier had we been failures,” he remarked at one point. He explained that part of the problem was a desire on part of the other members to write and sing songs, even though he’d “never heard any of them play a riff.” That and a bad deal with Fantasy Records led to acrimonious feelings between Fogerty and his bandmates that last to this very day. He added (and also states this in the book) that “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” was about the band’s break-up.
Fogerty’s life for a good 10 years after Creedence was spent away from the spotlight. By the mid 80s, however, he was back with his platinum-selling Centerfield album, which Fogerty says he felt vindicated by. Still, the ghost of Creedence Clearwater Revival and Fantasy Records lingered in the shadows. He was sued by Fantasy label head Saul Zaentz, claiming defamation of character in a lyric in the song “Vanz Kant Danz.” Fogerty was also accused of copying himself in “The Old Man Down the Road,” which Zaentz said was a direct lift from CCR’s “Run Through The Jungle,” a song that despite Fogerty writing it was owned by the record company.
Around this time, Fogerty met his wife Julie. “Julie saved my life,” he said. His career and his life have been on a steady, life-affirming course ever since. He touched on coaching Little League and flying planes. But music is where his heart has always been. “It seemed like something I could do,” he humbly commented. Fogerty and Wild tracked through “Broken Down Cowboy” from 2007’s Revival and “Mystic Highway” from 2013’s Wrote A Song for Everyone. Before the interview was over, Fogerty said, “I’m so grateful for my life.” Five minutes later, the man was on stage with a guitar in his hand, and everyone else in the room was grateful to bear witness to an intimate five-song performance. Unlike so many of his peers, Fogerty’s voice seems untarnished by age or years of touring. With only an acoustic, he shrugged off “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” with a few choice chords and an easy-going vocal. He then grabbed a gold-top Les Paul and was joined by his son Shane — a recent USC graduate his proud father announced — brandishing a Rickenbacker for “Lodi” and “Down On The Corner.” Fogerty switched over to his signature blue-plaid Les Paul and said, “I don’t know what to say about this song, but I should say I’m profoundly grateful this thing came to be at all.” And with that, the familiar chords of “Proud Mary” rang out. It all ended with “Fortunate Son,” and the singer quickly left the building. For the rest of us, this night of conversation and music from one of the most iconic singers, songwriters and guitarists in rock and roll was definitely one for the books. I know I’ll be reading Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music to get the rest of the story.
