Left of the Dial |
John Fogerty: The Long Road Homeby Donny Kutzbach |
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For thirty years, it’s been one of rock music’s most contentious, ugly and crippling battles. It’s the story of one artist losing his music, legacy and identity to a piece of paper he signed as a kid. When small San Francisco jazz label Fantasy Records signed John Fogerty and his band (initially as The Golliwogs) in the mid-’60s, few suspected that they would not only go on to become the label’s flagship band but also a group that would revolutionize rock. That group became Creedence Clearwater Revival and, powered by Fogerty’s songs and uniquely soulful voice plus the crack band of his rhythm guitarist brother Tom, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford, the group’s charged brand of rock and roll dripped pure Americana (soul, r&b, country and cajun blues) in a time when virtually every other group was aping a British sound. CCR supplanted the Beach Boys to became “America’s band” with a series of landmark albums and a seemingly endless string of hits. Though he was capable of writing loose, good-time boogies like “Proud Mary,” Fogerty was more than the happy-go-lucky-hit writer. Songs like “Fortunate Son” and “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” were cries of rage directed at America’s involvement in Vietnam. CCR was the celebrated, flannel-clad band of the people. There was, however, a fly in the ointment. Fantasy owner Saul Zaentz had Fogerty bound into a contract that gave him not only control of CCR’s masters but practically sole ownership of all of Fogerty’s CCR songs. It’s a fight that stretched back to CCR’s end in 1972 until the last year, included Fogerty refusing to play the songs that made him famous for decades, Zaentz suing Fogerty for plagiarizing himself and having Zaentz depicted as a cash crazy cartoon pig in one of Fogerty’s music videos. Ugly stuff, but it’s all finally found a resolve. When famed TV producer Norman Lear and his company Concord took over Fantasy and the rights to the CCR catalog his first move was to reach out to Fogerty and try to make right what was wrong for so long. The first result is this compilation. It’s the first of its kind and a welcome one: a complete career spanning look into Fogerty’s uniquely American art, from CCR up to last year’s solo effort, that captures baseball, the bayou and the trials and travails of playing in a traveling band. Through 25 songs there’s certainly a few glaring omissions (like CCR’s “Wrote A Song For Everyone” and the explosive “Effigy” as well as his Buffalo name-checking solo hit “Rock and Roll Girl”). Otherwise, it’s hard to complain about this stellar collection from one of America’s greatest voices.
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Issue Navigation> Issue Index > v4n44: Permanence and Change (11/2/05) > Left of the Dial > John Fogerty: The Long Road Home This Week's Issue • Artvoice Daily • Artvoice TV • Events Calendar • Classifieds |
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