John Fogerty performs during the 2014 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at Fair Grounds Race Course, New Orleans
Photo by Jeff Kravitz
John Fogerty is 77 years old today.
A musician, songwriter and guitarist, Fogerty is best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band, Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), and as a solo recording artist.
Born in Berkeley, California, Fogerty is the younger brother of the late Tom Fogerty. He attended El Cerrito High School along with the other members of CCR and took guitar lessons from Berkeley Folk Festival creator/producer, Barry Olivier.
Inspired by rock and roll pioneers, especially Little Richard and Bo Diddley, John and his brother, Tom Fogerty, joined Doug Clifford and Stu Cook in the late 1950s to form the band, Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets, in El Cerrito, California.
After signing with the jazz label, Fantasy, in 1965 they became The Golliwogs and released a few singles that were largely ignored.
Fogerty was almost drafted in 1966, instead joining an Army Reserve unit. He served at Fort Bragg, Fort Knox and Fort Lee. He was discharged from the Army in July, 1967. In the same year, the band changed its name to Creedence Clearwater Revival.
At this time, he took his brother's place as lead singer for the band. By 1968, things started to pick up for the band. The band released their eponymous debut album and also had their first hit single, "Susie Q". Many other hit singles and albums followed, beginning with "Proud Mary" and the album Bayou Country.
John Fogerty, as writer of the songs for the band (as well as lead singer and lead guitarist), felt that his musical opinions should count for more than those of the others, leading to resentments within the band. These internal rifts, and Tom's feeling that he was being taken for granted, caused Tom to leave the group in January, 1971.
The two other group members, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford, wanted a greater role in the band's future. Fogerty, in an attempt to keep things together, insisted Cook and Clifford share equal songwriting and vocal time on the band's final album, Mardi Gras, released in April, 1972.
This album included the band's last two singles, the 1971 hit "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" and "Someday Never Comes," which barely made it into the Billboard Top 20.
Cook and Clifford told Fogerty that the fans would not accept "Mardi Gras" as a CCR LP, but he said, "My voice is a unique instrument and I will not lend it to your songs." He gave them an ultimatum: either they would do it or he would quit immediately. They accepted his ultimatum, but the album received poor reviews.
It was a commercial success, however, peaking at #12 and achieving gold record status. It generated weaker sales than their previous albums. The group disbanded shortly afterwards. The only reunion with all four original members would be at Tom Fogerty's wedding in 1980.
John, Doug and Stu played a 45 minute set at their 20th class reunion in 1983, and John and Doug would reunite again for a brief set at their 25th class reunion in 1988.
John Fogerty began a solo career, originally under the name, The Blue Ridge Rangers, for his 1973 LP debut. Fogerty played all of the instruments on covers of others' country music hits, such as "Jambalaya" (which was a Top 20 hit).
After performing country and western tunes, he released a rock single in late 1973, also as The Blue Ridge Rangers. The two John Fogerty penned songs were "You Don't Owe Me" and "Back in the Hills" (Fantasy F-710). In early 1974, Fogerty released two rock tunes on a seven-inch single. The two songs were the vocal "Comin' Down The Road" b/w the instrumental "Ricochet."
His second solo album, John Fogerty, was released in 1975. Sales were slim and legal problems delayed a followup, though it yielded "Rockin' All Over the World," a Top 40 hit for Fogerty in North America.
Fogerty's solo career re-emerged in full force with 1985's Centerfield, his first album for Warner Bros. Records (which took over co-ownership of Asylum's contract with Fogerty). Centerfield went to the top of the charts and included a Top 10 hit, "The Old Man Down The Road." The title track is frequently played on classic rock radio and at baseball games to this day. But that album was not without its legal snags.
Two songs on the album, "Zanz Kant Danz" and "Mr. Greed," were believed to be attacks on Fogerty's former boss at Fantasy Records, Saul Zaentz. "Zanz Kant Danz" was about a pig who can't dance, but would "steal your money."
When Zaentz responded with a lawsuit, Fogerty issued a revised version of "Zanz Kant Danz" (changing the lead character's name to Vanz). Another lawsuit (Fantasy, Inc. v. Fogerty) claimed that "The Old Man Down The Road" shared the same chorus as "Run Through the Jungle" (a song from Fogerty's days with Creedence to which Fantasy Records had owned the publishing rights).
Fogerty ultimately won his case when he proved that the two songs were wholly distinct compositions. Fogerty then countersued for attorney fees (Fogerty v. Fantasy). After losing in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Fogerty won his case in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled the trial court has discretion in awarding fees to defendants or plaintiffs.
In 1990, Tom Fogerty died of AIDS (specifically from a tuberculosis infection) at the age of 48, having contracted HIV from blood transfusions for back ailments.
John Fogerty has mentioned that the darkest moments in his life were when his brother took the record company's side in their royalties dispute, and the fact that when his brother died, the two of them were not speaking to each other.
Fogerty traveled to Mississippi in 1990 for inspiration and visited the gravesite of blues legend, Robert Johnson. There he realized that Robert Johnson was the true spiritual owner of his own songs, no matter what businessman owned the rights to them. It was then that Fogerty decided to start making a new album and to perform his old Creedence material regularly in concert.
It was at this time visiting the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church cemetery that Fogerty met Skip Henderson, a New Jersey vintage guitar dealer who had formed a nonprofit corporation, The Mt. Zion Memorial Fund, to honor Johnson with a memorial marker.
Fogerty subsequently funded headstones for Charlie Patton, James Son Thomas, Mississippi Joe Callicott, Eugene Powell, Lonnie Pitchford and helped with financial arrangements for numerous others.