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Monday, March 03, 2008 John Fogerty’s Latest Album Returns Him To A Past He Once Tried To Forget.By Brian Wise
There are few artists who can draw on a song a catalogue as rich as the one created by John Fogerty. The founder of Creedence Clearwater Revival returns to Australia this month to highlight his latest solo album Revival and to also delve back into his illustrious career.
Anyone who saw Fogerty during his last visit might recall the string of Creedence Clearwater Revival hits with which he peppered his concerts: ‘Proud Mary,’ ‘Born On The Bayou,’ ‘Who’ll Stop The Rain,’ ‘ ‘Green River,’ ‘Bad Moon Rising,’ ‘Lodi,’ ‘Keep On Chooglin’,’ ‘Travellin’ Band,’ ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain?’ ’Looking Out My Back Door,’ ‘Who’ll Stop The Rain,’ ‘Fortunate Son,’ Suzie Q’ – and more.
Those songs adorned classic albums such as the self-titled debut in 1968, Bayou Country, Green River, Willy & The Poor Boys and Cosmo’s Factory and Pendulum in 1970. Even the ill-fated Pendulum in 1972, which was mainly written by the other CCR members Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, still contained several great Fogerty songs (‘Sweet Hitchhiker’ and ‘Someday Never Comes’).
It is an incredible string of great songs, matched by few other bands, and augmented in concert by material from Fogerty’s own formidable solo career, which has produced an almost equal number of memorable songs.
Soon after Creedence disbanded Fogerty produced the fine Blue Ridge Rangers country album in 1973. This was followed by the self-titled John Fogerty in 1975, which produced ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’ (later a huge hit for Status Quo) and ‘Almost Saturday Night’(also a hit for Dave Edmunds). Several long recording gaps over the next three decades were broken by Centerfield in 1984 and then Blue Moon Swamp in 1997 as Fogerty came to grips with a long-running battle with his record company. Somehow he had signed one of the worst deals in record company and publishing history.
Once again signed with Fantasy - after a change of ownership made it possible - Fogerty’s latest album Revival is a nod to a past that he has now embraced after years of bitter dispute, which at one point led to the label’s late owner suing Fogerty for plagiarising himself! For years Fogerty refused to play the old songs while former colleagues went out on the road as a version of his old band with a different lead singer!
Those battles are behind him now and when John Fogerty takes the stage he is happy, energised and backed by one of the best rock bands you are likely to hear – with the great Kenny Aranoff on drums.
“I feel really, really good, I really do,” said Fogerty when I spoke to him last year soon after the release of Revival. “It feels very much like a lot of my earlier work. My personal life is wonderful.”
“I must say words almost escape me. It’s so surreal,” he said when I suggested that it must be strange to see the Fantasy logo on his work again. “It’s something out of the twilight zone almost, or perhaps if a flying saucer came down and someone told me ‘You’re going to sign a new contract with Fantasy Records,’ I would be pinching myself to see when I’m gonna wake up!”
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he continued. “I really am just so fortunate that everything has turned out okay. For a long time, of course, I didn’t play the songs and I had all these battles and issues. Some of these things you just can’t avoid in life but I’m so happy that everything has come around full circle, you might say, and that I now get to enjoy this music with the fans - especially in a live setting. We all get to have a fun time together! It makes me feel really great.”
Of course, the very title of the latest album, Revival, is redolent of the past – his band, his love of gospel, country and rock ‘n’ roll, his re-energised career. The fact that Fogerty has come to terms with his past can be clearly heard, especially on ‘Creedence Song,’ written from the point of view of a son or daughter and an homage to his own past. It is also perhaps an acknowledgment that his old band produced some great music.
“Well, it could be my son or daughter but also it could be a total stranger,” explained Fogerty. “This life could have happened to someone out there. The guy singing the song, of course, is probably the younger person but he’s singing about a man who perhaps played in a little band, a little rock and roll band (because I see that specifically) and was influenced by Creedence and others. So he’s probably someone that came of age in the ‘60s or ‘70s and then is repeatedly told when he asks the question ‘Gee, what should I do now?’ and someone will say, ‘You can’t go wrong if you play a little bit of that Creedence song.’ I believe that perhaps, at least metaphorically, has happened a lot of times.”
Fogerty claims that Revival is not only one of the quickest albums he has ever recorded but is also a deliberate attempt to recapture the spirit of his early recordings.
“I felt that my prior albums were missing the mark, were not completely in my own centre,” he noted. “I tended to go off on little tangents, being things like acoustic guitar music or country or sometimes even a little bit of folk music. I just felt that I really wanted to get back to what I understand as rock ‘n’ roll and make a whole album to prove to myself – and maybe to the world at large – that I still know what it is. So I feel good about it. I think that’s what I was trying to do and I’ve pretty much achieved that goal.”
Read the full stiory in March Rhythms.
Revival is out now on Fantasy Records through Universal in a 2008 Tour Edition. John Fogerty will be appearing at Bluesfest and around Australia, full dates in the Gig Guide.
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