{"id":2053,"date":"2020-12-12T18:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T18:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2053"},"modified":"2020-12-13T17:41:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T17:41:15","slug":"ftv-john-fogerty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=2053","title":{"rendered":"FTV: John Fogerty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Back in the fall of 2019, the last round of touring by Creedence Clearwater Revisited (or CCR2 as we referred to them) was chronicled in this space (FTV:\u00a0 CCR\u00a0 10-16-19).\u00a0 The article included the following description of their interview with the original CCR and CCR2 rhythm section:\u00a0 \u201cWhen CCR\u2019s <\/span>Complete Studio Albums Deluxe Box Set<\/span><\/i> was released in November of 2018, <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine <\/span><\/i>sat down with drummer Doug \u2018Cosmo\u2019 Clifford and bassist Stu Cook to discuss what Clifford\u2019s wife calls, \u2018the saddest story in rock\u2019n\u2019roll.\u2019\u00a0 Cook describes it as, \u2018the most stupid feud in rock history.\u2019\u00a0 Fortunately, the joy they found playing the music again helped temper some of the hard feelings, but how does one totally forget when they are party to one of the biggest career crash and burns in music history?\u201d\u00a0 As the end of 2020 neared, my COVID 19 expanded reading time included John Fogerty\u2019s self-penned biography <\/span>Fortunate Son:\u00a0 My Life, My Music <\/span><\/i>(Little Brown Books, 2015).\u00a0 I thought back to the previous CCR\/CRR2 themed article and decided that airing one side of the band\u2019s story was unfair to Fogerty.\u00a0 This edition of FTV is meant to balance out the scales in that regard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When my high school buddy Mitch Eastman loaned me a copy of <\/span>Willie and the Poor Boys<\/span><\/i>, the cover led me to think they were some kind of country band.\u00a0 Once Creedence Clearwater Revival\u2019s music began to dominate the airwaves, it proved that looks can be deceiving.\u00a0 Sporting a flannel shirt long before the grunge wave rolled out of Seattle, the bushy moustached John Fogerty wasn\u2019t like anyone else that was popular at the time.\u00a0 I liked their records and my high school band, The Twig, ended up learning a couple of their songs along the way.\u00a0 I remember <\/span>Have You Ever Seen The Rain<\/span><\/i> because the little six chord break in the middle perplexed our guitar player Gene to no end.\u00a0 When I was first learning guitar, those six chords were already drummed into my head from watching bass player Mike mouth the order to Gene almost\u00a0 every time we played it.\u00a0 <\/span>Fortunate Son<\/span><\/i> always got a big reaction at college gigs and high school dances.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>I loved playing <\/span>I Heard It Through The Grapevine<\/span><\/i> because of the tribal drum beat, plus it was one of the few songs we did in front of a live audience the same week we learned it.\u00a0 It was a trial by fire inspired by playing a gig in the round.\u00a0 Being surrounded by a mob of kids literally jumping up and down made us exchange smiles as we charged ahead with something so new to our set list that we had not planned on playing for a few more weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Proud Mary<\/span><\/i> did not appear on a set list until my second band, Knockdown, and it always went down a riot at the NCO Club at Sawyer Air Force Base.\u00a0 Our guitar player, Ray \u2018The Human JukeBox\u2019 Bennett taught me the ins and outs of singing harmony the first time I remember playing the tune together.\u00a0 We were auditioning a new keyboard player and Ray stopped the song in mid-chorus and said, \u201cNo, no, no . . . we aren\u2019t doing this like a sing-a-long.\u00a0 I will sing this part, YOU sing the harmony part.\u201d\u00a0 It was at this point that I realized that I had been singing harmony parts on some of our songs in The Twig, I just didn\u2019t know the hows or whys.\u00a0 I just thought it made some songs sound better.\u00a0 Okay, before you start wondering how an article about John Fogerty segued into a bunch of memories about me, it will help clarify things if I can explain why I enjoy reading books about musicians so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was bit hard by the music bug and between 1965 and 1975, my learning curve involved\u00a0 more than just learning the drum parts and lyrics to songs.\u00a0 During this period, I started to dabble in guitar, revisited my long abandoned interest in keyboards (dissecting guitar chords opened my eyes to how they connected with notes on piano scores), and began fooling around with ways to record music on tape.\u00a0 The older I got, the more I found that this is a typical path taken by amatuer and professional musicians during their formative years.\u00a0 I paid for my college education playing in bands while attending school full time and working as a dishwasher in the summer.\u00a0 It was a great way to support myself, but it also convinced me that music as a full time job would be a hard way to make a living (for me, at least).\u00a0 It could (and did) remain a great hobby once I got \u2018a real job\u2019 teaching Junior High Geography and Earth Science.\u00a0 As a talented musician – songwriter, John Fogerty had what it takes to make a comfortable living in his chosen profession, but it took many years to get there.\u00a0 Fogerty \u2018learned the ropes\u2019 by hanging around studios and experimenting with new technology and sounds.\u00a0 With that said, I find it fascinating that famous name musicians seem to have similar \u2018origin\u2019 stories, the difference being which fork(s) in the road they choose to take along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0John Fogerty grew up with five brothers and a working mother in El Cerrito, CA just across the bay from San Francisco.\u00a0 Before his parent\u2019s marriage broke up, he remembers them introducing him to music at an early age.\u00a0 John discovered that he had a certain natural knack for picking out different instruments and nuances in the music he was exposed to.\u00a0 When he first joined up with (CCR drummer) Doug \u2018Cosmo\u2019 Clifford in junior high, it was pretty much the same experience we had when Geno Betts and I first started playing music together in eighth grade:\u00a0 just guitar and a snare drum playing music together just for the fun of it.\u00a0 Geno and I\u00a0 evolved our shared interest into The Twig in which we played together from 1969 through 1971.\u00a0 John and Cosmo played together as The Blue Velvets, one of the many musical groupings Fogerty would perform with before he hit the big time with CCR.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While he explored how to play music, Fogerty absorbed the growing genre called \u2018rock and roll\u2019 via records and live music events.\u00a0 He explored the recording field by seeking out small, homegrown music labels in the Bay area which shows he had more than a casual interest in the music business.\u00a0 By the age of 14, he was picking up hints and tricks around the studios he visited and\/or worked at.\u00a0 His self taught piano skills landed John on some early sides cut by various artists, including his older brother Tom (The Blue Velvets would serve as Tom\u2019s backing band and eventually morphed into the original CCR lineup most are familiar with).\u00a0 One of the things John remembers about these early days in the studio is that he was the only one who wanted to hang around and learn more when the other guys drifted off to chase girls and other pursuits.\u00a0 In later years, after the acrimonious CCR breakup, phrases like \u2018control freak\u2019 and \u2018never listened to anyone else in the band\u2019 were hung on Fogerty to explain why the band went down the tubes.\u00a0 Fogerty readily admits that he had a stubborn streak (particularly when it came to the music he heard in his head) and wasn\u2019t the sharpest knife in the drawer when it came to business decisions.\u00a0 I now have a better handle on why this perception of Fogerty lingers to this day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From a young age, John Fogerty was focused on putting together the pieces needed to get where he wanted to end up in a music career.\u00a0 Cosmo Clifford became a fine drummer, but he was not a student bent on learning about things about timing, like \u2018the shuffle beat\u2019 that John picked up from listening to a lot of R&B and Gospel artists.\u00a0 Bassist Stu Cook originally came to the band as a piano player, but he was not as invested in learning the craft as well John (Fogerty describes Cook as the \u201cWe can\u2019t do that!\u201d guy in the band).\u00a0 Early on, this early incarnation of the band did not play many gigs and rarely hung out together when not recording.\u00a0 Cook ended up on bass because Fogerty saw acts like The Beatles thriving on a line-up where everyone played an instrument and bass was not just an afterthought.\u00a0 He talked Stu into buying a cheap bass and taught him how to play it as they went along.\u00a0 As John\u2019s musical ability grew, he even managed to get his older brother Tom to learn enough guitar to be a solid rhythm player in CCR.\u00a0 Yes, Fogerty became the de facto leader of the band (or \u2018Tsar\u2019 according to some accounts), but the end results kind of speak for themselves.\u00a0 John Fogerty would have become a famous musician without the other three CCR players.\u00a0 It is a shame that the band imploded the way it did, but when they first rose to stardom, the rest of the band was not second guessing their musical direction.\u00a0 Once they rest of the band insisted that they should write songs as well, the band was heading for the exits.\u00a0 As John hints several times in <\/span>Fortunate Son<\/span><\/i>, perhaps if he had learned the business end as well as the musical end during his career, maybe CCR could have had a better ending than it did.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In April of 1964, Fogerty walked into the Fantasy Record Label office in San Francisco to try and get a record deal.\u00a0 One of the three Weiss brothers who owned the label, Max, responded to the instrumentals John played him by showing him the Billboard chart for that week.\u00a0 The top five songs were all by The Beatles so he suggested that Fogerty try writing some songs with words.\u00a0 They eventually cut a record but when it came out, it wasn\u2019t labeled with their newly chosen name, The Visions.\u00a0 The Weiss boys decided to call them The Golliwogs.\u00a0 The label wanted the band\u2019s name to identify with the British bands sweeping the country.\u00a0 People in some of the countries invaded by England back in the days crafted little voodoo dolls the Brits called \u2018Wogs\u2019 or \u2018Golliwogs\u2019, at least that is how Max Weiss connected the name to the British Invasion.\u00a0 The band hated it, but it was just another lesson the band would learn about label – artist relations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fogerty figured out early on that the \u2018producers\u2019 picked by the label really didn\u2019t know much about crafting songs.\u00a0 John had already absorbed a lot of the inner workings of a studio and though not credited (or paid) as such, he took over more and more control of the recording process.\u00a0 The sound that Fogerty heard in his head created a catalog of radio friendly songs that made them one of the most successful bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s.\u00a0 Did the band resent John Fogerty acting like the band\u2019s leader?\u00a0 Not at first.\u00a0 The bad blood between the band and John did not develop overnight, but rather over time as he took more control of the band\u2019s recording process.\u00a0 Many people do not know CCR was at Woodstock because John refused to let their set be used in the subsequent movie.\u00a0 He felt that it had been a poor set, but the rest of the band thought it would have led to a great deal of income over the decades.\u00a0 They were right and John was wrong in this case.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A bad investment deal that the band unanimously agreed to enter into (an offshore bank to avoid paying a high tax rate on their royalties) was another major money loser.\u00a0 The last album Creedence recorded together crashed and burned when the band demanded more say in the music they would record.\u00a0 John stepped back and let everyone have a whack at writing songs for the new album and he, for one, was not the least surprised when it tanked.\u00a0 At the time Saul Zaentz had purchased the Fantasy label (he had been the sales rep when Fogerty first joined the label), he put a new contract in front of the band so they could cut their ties to the Weiss brothers.\u00a0 Cook\u2019s father was a well known entertainment industry lawyer so the band asked Stu to have his dad review their contract.\u00a0 Fogerty now thinks that the elder Cook never saw it because when asked about it later, Stu simply said, \u201cIt is okay to sign the contract.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The bad blood between Zaentz and Fogerty grew from this disastrous group decision (and yes, back then, it was a democratic band with all holding equal voto power).\u00a0 When the band broke up, it was Fogerty who was held to a contract specifying that Zaentz owned the publishing rights to John\u2019s songs and 180 more he was obligated to write over a period of seven years.\u00a0 Fogerty was disgusted enough with the situation to walk away and refuse to sing his own songs (to prevent Zaentz from making any money from them) for many years.\u00a0 The rest of the band got along with Zaentz and the label, so as one might assume, there has been a lot of finger pointing and blame being passed around.\u00a0 \u2018The stupidest feud in the music business\u2019 was not all John\u2019s fault.\u00a0 Sadly, a tainted blood transfusion given to Tom during an operation infected him with AIDS.\u00a0 He died without the brothers ever resolving their hard feelings over the band breaking up.\u00a0 Cook and Clifford went on to form Creedence Clearwater Revisited (<\/span>FTV:\u00a0 CCR <\/span><\/i>10-16-19) who were planning to do their final tour just prior to the COVID 19 outbreak of 2020.\u00a0 When interviewed by <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine<\/span><\/i> back in 2019, Cook never elaborated on the bad contract they had all signed with Fantasy back in the day or the band\u2019s unanimous agreement to enter into the off shore banking agreement.\u00a0 Cook just focused on Fogerty\u2019s poor business acumen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The one good thing that did come from Zaentz taking over Fantasy was his willingness to let the band come up with a better name than \u2018The Golliwogs\u2019.\u00a0 After the band suggested a host of terrible names, an ad Fogerty saw on TV touting \u2018clean water\u2019 put him on track to join the word \u2018Clearwater\u2019 with another word they had tossed about:\u00a0 \u2018Revival\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018Creedence\u2019 was originally taken from the custodian at one of their friend\u2019s apartment buildings.\u00a0 That they briefly considered naming the band \u2018Credence Nuball\u2019 after him isn\u2019t important.\u00a0 The word \u2018creedence\u2019 hung around long enough to be joined in John\u2019s mind with the other phrases.\u00a0 As Fogerty recalled, \u201c[In my head] This was all happening in a matter of a few seconds, maybe a minute or two.\u00a0 Suddenly, it just popped:\u00a0 <\/span>Creedence Clearwater Revival<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 I <\/span>loved <\/span><\/i>it.\u00a0 But I thought, \u2018<\/span>Wow, that is a mouthful.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 It sounded even more American.\u00a0 It told you this was an American rock and roll band, and it was unique.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how it all kind of clanged together in my head.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fogerty knew the next job was to sell it to the band:\u00a0 \u201cI knew the personalities in my band well enough to know that I had to not take ownership of the name.\u00a0 It had to look like it was in the air and just happened.\u00a0 The other guys were not all that sure.\u00a0 I think Tom might\u2019ve convinced them.\u00a0 No more Golliwogs.\u00a0 We were now Creedence Clearwater Revival.\u201d\u00a0 With things now falling into place, the band committed to daily rehearsals.\u00a0 Before they would jam, they would talk about music as John jotted down ideas for songs in his notebook.\u00a0 When it came time to actually write the songs, none of the other guys in the band had anything to contribute.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t \u201cJohn forced us to record his songs.\u201c\u00a0 Fogerty recalled, \u201cI would ask, \u2018Does anybody have anything, any new songs?\u2019\u00a0 and there\u2019d be a silence and some mumbling…So I would show the band what I had come up with on my own.\u201d\u00a0 It sounds more like John was the rudder of the ship, not the dictator of the band.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fogerty recounts a lot more about his life in <\/span>Fortunate Son<\/span><\/i>:\u00a0 His first marriage (\u201cWe were too young\u201d) and how he ended up getting reclassified from 4-F to 1-A in the military draft.\u00a0 He ended up avoiding Vietnam by joining the Army Reserves and still has some guilt issues over the decision.\u00a0 Meeting Vets who tell him how CCR\u2019s music helped them survive the horrors of \u2018Nam has helped him come to grips with avoiding the conflict.\u00a0 The song <\/span>Fortunate Son<\/span><\/i> has been used by a number of political candidates in the recent past and it still makes Fogerty wonder if they ever listened to the whole song.\u00a0 He is most definitely pro-American, but his feelings about war run deeper than the \u2018patriotic\u2019 stamp put on many of the conflicts America has been involved with.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Fogerty has been married to his current wife, Julie, since 1991.\u00a0 He credits her for his success and a new degree of calmness he has worked hard to gain over the past three decades.\u00a0 Julie was one of the strong voices that convinced him to start singing his classic CCR songs again.\u00a0 Julie, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison pointed out that, \u201cIf you don\u2019t start singing the songs you wrote again, everyone will think <\/span>Proud Mary<\/span><\/i> is a Tina Turner song.\u201d\u00a0 John has even mentioned a willingness to revisit CCR with Cook and Clifford if the cards were right.\u00a0 His former bandmates have stated that they see this offer as merely a way for Fogerty to re-write some of the band\u2019s history so he can polish up his own PR image.\u00a0 Having now read both sides of the story, I am not so sure that is the final word in the matter of \u2018Fogerty vs CCR2\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I have said many times, \u201cWhen it comes to bands burying the hatchet and staging reunions, never say never.\u201d\u00a0 I have always loved his music, but I now have a new found respect for John Fogerty\u2019s career.\u00a0 He was put into some difficult situations and has survived to enjoy life and music in spite of all the bad stuff.\u00a0 We could take some lessons about rolling with the punches from him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Does this version of Green River from 2004 look like John is having fun?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0Back in the fall of 2019, the last round of touring by Creedence Clearwater Revisited (or CCR2 as we referred to them) was chronicled in this space (FTV:\u00a0 CCR\u00a0 10-16-19).\u00a0 The article included the following description of their interview with the original CCR and CCR2 rhythm section:\u00a0 \u201cWhen CCR\u2019s Complete Studio Albums Deluxe Box Set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2053"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2059,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2053\/revisions\/2059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}