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Interview, Sweden,
summer 1997 (by Michael Bernander)
"I was alone when I made that music. I was alone when I made the arrangements,
I was alone when
I added background vocals, guitars and some other stuff. I was alone when I produced
and mixed the albums.
The other guys showed up only for rehearsals and the days we made the actual recordings.
- For me Creedence was like sitting on a time bomb. We'd had decent successes
with our cover of Suzie
Q and
with the first album, when we went into the studio to cut Proud
Mary. It was the first time we were in a real
Hollywood studio, RCA's Los Angeles studio, and the problems started immediately.
The other guys in the band
insisted on writing songs for the new album, they had opinions on the arrangements,
they wanted to sing.
They went as far as adding background vocals to Proud
Mary, and it sounded awful. They used tambourines,
and it sounded no better.
-That's when I understood I had a choice to make. At that point in time we were
just a one hit wonder, and Suzie
Q
hadn't really been that big a hit. Either this (the new album) would be a success,
something really big, or we might
as well start working at the car wash again. There was a big row. We went to an
Italian restaurant and I remember
that I very clearly told the others that I for one didn't want to go back to the
car wash again. Now we had to make the
best possible album and it wasn't important who did what, as long as the result
was the very best we could achieve.
And of course I was the one who should do it.
-I don't think the others really understood what I meant, but at least I could
manage the situation the way I wanted.
The result was eight million- selling double-sided singles in a row and six albums,
who all went platinum.
And Melody Maker had us as the best band in the world. That was after the Beatles
split, but still... And I was the
one who had created all this. Despite that, I don't think they understood what
I was talking about./.../ They were
obsessed with the idea of more control and more influence.
So finally the bomb exploded and we never worked together again."
Review, Concert, Los Angeles, USA, 1997 (By Jay Cocks
and James Willwerth)
There is a secret at the heart of all John Fogerty's songs, an unbroken connection
to the magic and mystery in
the American musical past that conjoins Delta blues and garage bands, urban riffs
and pedal steel, folklore and
the Brill Building. You can find its point of fine convergence in the fierceness
of Fogerty's singing, the grace of
his imagination, the implacable drive of his spirit. He can do what only the greatest
American songwriters can:
make music that sounds, even when you first hear it, as if you've known it forever.
Music that's more than
something you grew up with. Music that's a birthright.
But all this has come at a heavy price. Fogerty's wondrous new album, Blue
Moon Swamp (Warner Bros.),
follows a decade of anger, frustration, fear and hard-won resolution. But you
don't hear the turmoil that went into
the making of these songs. Instead you feel the confidence and ebullience of an
artist renewed, covering the ground
at the height of his power, even if the album's 12 tunes work out, on average,
to one every 10 months or so.
Ask him why the album took so long, and Fogerty, 52 this week, has an explanation
as honest and ardent as his
lyrics: "The record was no f__ing good until now. There was no way I was going
to make a record that was no good.
You keep going until you get it. Thirty years ago, I was part of a world-famous
Rock'n'Roll band. It's silly to think I'd
ever be there again. But the one thing I can control is that I can still make
a full-fledged bad-ass record.
Can I do it in one year? I'll try. But if it takes five years, I'll do that."
That band he talks about was, of course, Creedence
Clearwater Revival, one of the most successful of all American
rock groups and, hands down, one of the greatest. From roughly mid-1968 through
1972, Creedence had a string of
gold albums and Top 10 singles (Proud
Mary, Lodi, Who'll
Stop the Rain), almost all written by Fogerty. But the band
broke up in 1972, burned out and greatly ticked off that the lion's share of the
attention was directed to Fogerty.
He rated all of it, and more. But Fogerty, on his own, seemed to be fighting demons.
Adopting a fictitious band name,
he made an album in 1973 called Blue
Ridge Rangers (Fantasy) on which he sang heavy doses of country, bluegrass
and R & B, and played every instrument. He released a superb solo album under
his own name two years later but got
entangled in protracted legal bloodletting with the head of his former label,
Saul Zaentz (who is also the much Oscared
producer of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and The English Patient). It's a fight
that continues to this day.
"I haven't been paid properly in 17 years," Fogerty says. "That will give you
a handle on why I was so angry." He didn't
record again for almost 10 years, and when he did, on 1985's smashing Centerfield
(Warner Bros.), he got in some licks
at his adversary in a hard-driving tune called Zanz
Kan't Dantz, with a chorus that warned:
"Zanz can't dance/ But he'll steal your money/ Watch him or he'll rob you blind."
The ordeal left its mark in personal frustrations and creative stagnation. Fogerty's
first marriage broke up in 1987.
He heard music in his head but couldn't reproduce it to his own satisfaction.
As he worked on Blue Moon
Swamp's
eerie A Hundred And Ten
In The Shade, he thought the tune needed the insinuating underpinning of a
bottleneck guitar.
Instead of hiring a player, Fogerty commenced to teach himself the technique and,
after a year, "I got fairly proficient.
[Then] it became obvious that it was the wrong sound. It didn't match what was
in my head. I finally realized it was the
Dobro sound I was hearing." So he taught himself to play Dobro, an acoustic instrument
that is played slide guitar-style
on the lap. It turned out to be a 3 1/2-year undertaking. But he got it right
that time.
He also got himself a new wife, Julie, now 37, a stepdaughter and two young sons,
a "reconnection to the man who
wrote those songs" for Creedence that for years he refused to sing, and a new
album that can stand with the best
he's ever done. He plays the Dobro on a tune for Julie--Joy
Of My Life, "the only love song I've ever written" and
a symbol of his revival. "I'd lost the ability to create," he says. "I've found
it again. I call it the miracle."
Trying to dredge Blue Moon
Swamp out of himself, Fogerty took several trips--"pilgrimages," he calls
them --to the
Mississippi Delta. "I was chasing ghosts," he says. Perhaps it was those ghosts
of Robert Johnson and all the other
blues men who drove off his demons, and produced a miracle that all of us can
share.
Hi everyone.
In the text below, (RR) stands for Radio Reporter, (JF) is for John Fogerty and
(?) is for a hard-to-hear word.
I do not really know who made this interview but if you read this and remember
that it was you, please contact me by e-mail and I´ll get in touch with you.
I would like to sign your name to it !
I did hit the radio power-on button a bit late that day and "…..rollin´down the
river " was on. I do not know how much of the interview I missed out on but this
is what I heard:
(JF) You know that….that….back in 1988 I was….eeh…I went through a trial for
plagiarism where the old record company of Creedence said that my new song at
the time " Old Man Down The
Road " they said was a copy of my old song " Run Through The Jungle " and I went
through a plagiarism trial and the jury said;
No, this is a new song, it´s not the old song. So I won the trial but that made
me set out and try and resolve all the problems that you´ve been hearing about
for
years. I tried very hard to resolve the problems with Fantasy
Records, Saul Zaentz,
especially when you go through a trial it takes so much time out of your life,
so
much energy and also so much money, and I just fought; This is ridiculous you
know
just keep having all these things so, I tried very hard to resolve those differences
and also with my former members from CCR which we have had many disputes over
the
years and a lot of them, let´s say, come about because the other members of CCR
would
align themselves with Saul Zaentz against me. It´s a matter of fact one things
that
came out in that trial was that one of the members of CCR took my record " Old
Man
Down The Road " and went down and played it at Fantasy Records and said; -
You should
sue John because he´s ripping us off, or something like that, so Mr. Zaentz in
the trial
gave the testimony that he actually got the idea to sue me from my former
band mates. So I have had my problems with those guys too. I spent about three
years
tried trying to solve things and I´m sad to say that it did not come to a happy
resolve,
it did not work. Everything just sort of stayed like that.
(JF) The most happy thing during the last…..this time since my last album which
is
really been eleven years, about ten years ago I met my wife Julie, and this has
been
a very happy thing for me it´s been a very good thing for me and also for my music.
Julie is very positive, she´s very helpful and she´s very loving…. and through
her
help….through her eyes I have leaned to stay away from thinking about all the
negative
things I´ve been involved in and to keep my focus on positive things. ( Increase
volume
of " Hurricane " )
(JF) I think that this record is a good indicator of my mental health, my emotional
health. It´s just…..If you where a psychologist or something you would just take
the
record and go; Oh, he´s OK…..get out of here…..he´s OK. I mean it´s almost like
a
meter that´s registering joy, happiness…..you know….he´s OK.
(RR) Do you think that you can actually fake for your listeners or viewers how
you
are actually feeling when you write songs ……could you have been in another mood
than…
but still have this….. ?
(JF) Well, you know….I could´nt….I´m not made that way….For instance, would (?)
I used to be very angry about the songs and all that, I just said; - I´m not
gonna sing those songs. Even though they are my songs, you know. That´s how
attached I am to my own feelings. I think you can maybe use what we call
" poetic license " and imagine something, like the way the way for "
Proud Mary ",
I imagined the Mississippi river and a river boat and they where in the culture,
they where in books, movies and stuff…. and I had never done that. But I think
when something….my album, my CD
" Blue Moon Swamp "…. how can I say it…..is so
obvious the atmosphere is joyful and the feeling is positive and hopeful and
full of life, full of joy. I don´t think you can fake that. ( Playing some from
the song " Blueboy "
)
(RR) On what times do you write your songs ?
(JF) Well, when I was trying to get the songs together for this album, I would
write whenever….I would sort of commission (?) myself time to go and do that.
A lot of times I would actually go away. In Southern California, we live in Los
Angeles, it´s pretty hard to get away from anything, so I would have to actually
drive outside….you know… go out in the country….. there´s a river…..it´s unusual,
in Southern California there´s no water, it´s a desert, but there´s one river
which is about three and a half hours drive….and I would go up there and rent
a
cabin and just stay there for a week….you know…. I did this many times I don´t
really know how many times and I would just stay and concentrate on writing and
try to get my songs together. That would be very concentrated …. you know….a lot
of energy on one thing….just writing songs. In other words….when you´re very busy,
you need to set aside time because if you don´t allow the time….if you don´t make
an appointment it won´t ever happen.
(RR) So you sat like nine-to-five in the cabin and like……
(JF) Yeah, but it was not nine-to-five. It was….I would go up there and stay….it
was so far away I would stay for like….I think the most I ever stayed was five
days
but being away from my wife and family five days seem like an long long time.
(RR) But you must have written a lot of songs then and it must be hard as well
to
choose what to put on the record or maybe that´s…… ?
(JF) You know, Bob Dylan had come seen me at the studio at one point and then
he
came and saw me…or I saw him again, I think it was on a Springsteen concert and….
when I saw him again a year late like that he said; - You must have 200 songs
now.
I said; No, I still have the same ten (laughing), which is my way of saying the
way I work I don´t keep writing and writing……how can I say it…It´s more like I´d
start out on a song and I do a little bit, I do a verse or a few lines and I have
to decide right away…is this going some place or is it garbage. I mean if it´s
garbage….
( makes sound like throwing it away )…You know….and I have a lot of garbage…I
mean…
you know….mostly…primary (?) right I start ten little sparks like that to have
one
thing be any good, maybe even more than ten…maybe twenty. I mean, in all modesty,
I must say the only difference between me and some other guys sitting in their
rooms,
I have a lot of garbage and I throw the garbage away and I try to, not always
I´m
ashamed to admit, but I try to…And then I try to only end up with something that´s
very good. (Playing part of " I
Put A Spell On You ").
(RR) When do you know that it´s a good song ? Do you feel that instantly or do
you….?
(JF) It is a feelin', I must tell you. You get excited…You go….- This is gonna
be cool.
For instance, when I where writing the song " Hot
Rod Heart " that is on "
Blue Moon Swamp",
my normal way of working is I have a guitar in my hands and I´m looking for something
on
the guitar and I was doing that…more or less what the record sounds like…and I
was doing…
you know…." dow Dow Dow Dow" (making a sound) and I go; - Gee, it sounds kind
of like
moving….okey…You know, that´s the way it struck me at the time and that´s how
I…kind
of….Ohhh let´s go ridin´ (humming)…. What do you ride in America…..we´re always
say we´re
cruisin´, right...…Cruising down the open road (humming)….alright. That was nothing
remarkable.
That was more like saying something everybody says, lets go…..yeah, it´s like
I´m exciting
about it…ohhh…let´s go ridin´ cruisin´ down the open road…but it was still just….pretty
cliché,
pretty generic. I kept going, thinking a bit, and then I said; - We can put the
top down,
listen to the radio….cause I could have gone anywhere….could have gone (humming
and
singing in another tone)…whatever….but instead I went …..(singing the recorded
tune).
And then I said; - Now I´m exited. This could be very good. So I mean….that´s
when
that happens…but if I didn´t have that second part, I would have said; - This
is garbage,
and I would have thrown it away. (Playing part of " Hot
Rod Heart ").
(RR) If you´re only producing yourself isn´t that hard then to have all those
roads (?)
when you´re working with an album like that ?
(JF) My answer would be; -Yes, it´s hard. I mean….I´ve always produced myself
since
I was a child, since I was probably fourteen…And of cause I produced all of the
CCR
records…and…yes, it means you are thinking about more than one thing. Of cause
while
I was making " Blue Moon
Swamp ", since it took four and a half years, there where
many times when I asked myself that question and many many many times when my
wife
asked me that question…You know…cause she where hearing from her friends and other
people…. Don´t you think someone else could help you…produce or what ever word
they
understood…and I would think about that but then I go; - But, do I trust given
this,
my first record in how many years, I´m just gonna give this to somebody else…and
then
when I´m doing a song like "
Hot Rod Heart ", you know, " Put the top down, listen to
the radio " (singing), maybe he then he says; - I know….let´s have ……a sting section
come in right there…with two oboes…You know ( laughing )…and he´s the producer,
I
mean in other words: Do I trust some other guy to take this thing I´ve been working
on and just (clap his hands twice)…I had to tell myself NO…I care too much. So,
to
answer your question: Yes, it´s harder but to make something really good I´m the
only
one who understands how to get there or I´m the only one who actually know when
we have
got there. It´s an answer that is really more of a question, you might say: That
means
I have to keep doing it this way.
(RR) Do you care a lot about what critics actually say when you´ve been living
with
your songs for years ?
(JF) Well you know what. When the critics say I´m really good and it´s a great
record
and the songs are good, they are really smart. But when the critics say; no, it´s
no
good and the songs are no good and the singing is no good, then I know they don´t
know
what they are talking about ( laughing out loud ). Yeah, actually you asked me
a fair
question…..Do I care what they say? Yeah, cause…I mean I was having fun with you
because
it´s just so funny we tend to do that in life with politicians and what ever,
if he says
something (??) he´s smart and if he says something we don´t like…he´s stupid.
Yeah, I
think…as long as I feel the critic is knowledgeable (?) that I try to see his
point of
view no matter what way it´s going. I´ve been very lucky, it´s kind of scary actually,
most people has been liking the record and that´s kind of scary cause that´s not
normal.
Even in the days of CCR… you know…it was probably 50/50….hard to imagine now….but
when " Proud Mary "
came out, the album I mean, it was not seen as a big success by maybe
50 % of the critics. Who are these guys? We want the Grateful Dead. OK….. (Playing
part of " Proud Mary
") (Playing part of " Southern
Streamline " )
(RR) Do you feel that you reached a new audience, have you felt you still have
this
is Creedence fans saying yes to the new album from John Fogerty? Do you think
that
you have found a new younger audience?
(JF) You know what, I really have no way of knowing. I can only judge by the people
that have come and seen me, meaning, seen me personally and that is just a tiny
percentage of…you know…all the people that are hearing the music in our culture.
I don´t mean just my record, I mean everything. It seems like the people who are
older, you know….my age, in America they call them Boomers, it seems like they
look
at it as; Oh its great. You finally made a record. This is the sound that I know
from you and I love…and that goes all the way down to people in their twenties
cause
somehow they have discovered CCR, I don´t know where, collage or someway along
the
way, cause even that´s unusual people twenty-two years old, twenty-three, listening
to Led Zeppelin, Creedence, and Jimmy Hendrix or even The Beatles, you know.
I mean, I find that unusual because ten years ago things wheren´t like that. But
then….does the audience go even lower that that in age, I don´t know I can´t be
sure.
I´ve seen people down to about twenty years old who´ve come up and talked to me
but
younger people don´t tend to do that so I can´t really say I know what´s going
on.
(RR) Are you excited about getting out on a tour ?
(JF) Very, very. I have waited a long long time to play my old songs and to play
rockin´guitar with a really good band. We´ve already been touring in the States
and so far it´s just been great ! (Playing part of " Down
On The Corner ")
(JF) I would like to say to the fans, particularly those of Sweden, (kiss-sound)
thank
you for buying or liking my new album, I mean I never expected in a million
years that things would be like this, so thank you very much. (Finishing of
with some tunes from "
Down On The Corner ").
Introduction
Before Blue Moon Swamp
came out this past summer, it had been 10 years
since John Fogerty's last album and tour. Creedence
Clearwater Revival
broke up in 1972 -- after 18 Top 30 hits -- and since then, Fogerty has
tried unsuccessfully to regain ownership of his songs, which are now held
by Fantasy Records owner Saul
Zaentz. Fogerty wouldn't stand with his former
Creedence mates at the group's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, and
recently won a ruling -- which was later overturned on appeal -- that barred
them from touring under the name Creedence Clearwater Revisited (see
Main Menu for topics).
These scenarios once paralyzed Fogerty's creativity but not anymore. Happily
remarried, Fogerty tells his concert crowds "I'm staying here this time".
Sounds like a good moon rising.
RockVillage: So what does it feel like
being on tour and playing music for
people again?
John Fogerty: Well, I'm enjoying it very
much. When you've been away like I have,
you plan things and you talk about stuff, but there's always that feeling of make
believe 'til you cross the line. The most remarkable thing about all this to me
is,
the audience really lets me know that they're right there with me. There's such
a
sense of trust and love; I never really counted on that. I just had no way of
knowing
something like this would be there. If I'd only known that sense of strength had
been
there before, I somehow would've dragged myself out on a stage even without a
new record.
RV: The California appeals court recently
overturned the decision that kept your former
band mates from touring as Creedence Clearwater Revisited. What's your opinion
on that decision?
JF: I'm amazed the judge or the law, in
general, doesn't seem to get it. When you
have a rock 'n' roll band with a name, it's not like Coca-Cola. People expect
to see
the same people. When they're not seeing the same people, then it's a fraud. I
think
those guys are a fraud. It's so tacky they even want to do it. They have tried
forever
to make it look like Creedence Clearwater was this collective being but, in fact,
Creedence Clearwater is the name of a mythical being. John Fogerty wrote all those
songs and sang 'em and showed the guys what to play. Because they have acted the
way
they have, these people are not my friends. So my reaction to the court finding
is almost
beside the point. It's so tacky they want to use that name when they are not that
group.
RV: Your battles -- with the other Creedence
guys, Fantasy and Saul Zaentz --
really put a crimp on your career, didn't it?
JF: It put a hurt on the music. It made
the music painful to me, and it certainly
got me in a confused personal state. They've kind of ruined for me any of the
old memories
we've had together. I just feel their cheapening what used to be the good name
of Creedence
Clearwater. I still have a disappointment and, in another compartment of my brain,
there
is certainly some anger and some disgust, but it doesn't rule my life like it
used to.
RV: How did you work your way out of it?
JF: I did a lot of soul searching and
musical expanding. I took a lot of
trips down to Mississippi in 1990, '91. I was just having this urge and longing,
but I really didn't know why. I managed to find myself in what folklore says is
the burial place of Robert Johnson. He's supposedly buried under this tree. I
was standing at the tree, and I thought about Robert Johnson the man, who we
know very little about. And then I thought about his songs, and the thought went
through my mind that his songs are probably owned by some guy in a big building
in Manhattan ... but that's not the point.
What's important is the songs, the music. That's all that's left. That works
for me as well. Some day, some guy is going to be looking at my tree, and he's
going to say, "I heard there was some problem, but I don't know much about that.
All I care about is John Fogerty's songs." That's how I relate to it now; I am
the spiritual owner of the songs, regardless of what tall building they ended
up in.
RV: The songs on Blue
Moon Swamp sound more natural, more like you being yourself,
than what we heard on your '80s albums.
JF: I'm just more comfortable with being
myself. It's no secret that for
20 years there, people -- not people, specific people, four to be rather blunt
--
have been pointing at me and going, "He shouldn't sound like Creedence" which,
of course, is really stupid 'cause I'm sounding like John Fogerty and John Fogerty
wrote all those songs that made Creedence famous. If you were to state it a little
stronger, when most people say Creedence, they mean John Fogerty. I finally stopped
hearing those voices. I'm not really sensitive to those criticisms anymore. When
I
write a song like "Southern
Streamline", that has some of the flavor of a
Creedence song, it's pretty obvious it ought to be that way. In fact, it would
be silly if it was any other way.
RV: This is a fabulous guitar album, too.
What accounted for that?
JF: I got a lot better, to be really blunt
about it. When the song "A Hundred And Ten In The
Shade" came to me, sitting by a dirt road, it just
came out of nowhere. I eventually took up the Dobro.
I've now been at it for a little over three and a half years, but it took me
three years to get good enough to play what I needed on that song. As I got
better and better on the Dobro, I started veering back to my guitar more and
more and I said, "Gee, you always wanted to be a really good guitar player.
In fact, you promised yourself that when you were young." The Dobro kind of
opened that door for me. Having picked up something I knew nothing about and
starting to get where I could at least handle myself, lent itself to a much
more developed guitar style and that's what's showing up on this record.
RV: So does this feel like a resumption
or a whole new career?
JF: I just feel like I've got myself back
on the little railroad track
or the path I was headed towards almost 30 years ago. It was so long ago I
was out there with Creedence, that's almost like another person's life.
Perhaps I'm in the same place I would've been had I not taken those side roads,
or perhaps I'm not as far down the road. Nonetheless, I feel happy with my
musical progress now.
Creedence's Legacy: Fortunate Son's or Bad Moon Rising?
Jam TV Column, by Gary Graff
Stu Cook puts it well. ``If I took this story to Hollywood, there is nothing this
bizarre,'' he says. ``It out-bizarres every soap opera I can dream of.''
He's talking about the continuing saga of Creedence
Clearwater Revival, the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame band that broke up in 1972 and has ever since been embroiled
in lawsuits, bad feelings and sound-bite sniping between John Fogerty, the group's
front man and songwriter, Fantasy Records and Cook and drummer Doug Clifford,
the
group's rhythm section.
It all starts with CCR's original business dealings, which did not give Fogerty
ownership of his songs -- including still-played hits such as ''Proud Mary'',
''Bad Moon Rising'', ''Born on the Bayou'', ''Fortunate Son'' and ''Down on the
Corner''.
That embittered him so much that for a decade and a half Fogerty refused to even
perform
those songs.
He also had to pay Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz, apologize and change the
title
of his 1985 song ``Zanz Kant Danz'' after Zaentz sued him for slander.
Fogerty's relationship with his former band mates -- including his brother Tom,
who died in 1990 of respiratory failure -- has been no better. He snubbed them
at their 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, playing Creedence
songs with other musicians. When Cook and Clifford toured with other musicians
as Creedence Clearwater Revisited -- not the real thing, as they say, but an incredible
simulation -- he successfully won an injunction that was overturned.
There are lots of complex legal and ethical issues at work here, along with a
certain
sadness over the disintegration of personal and musical relationships that began
nearly 40 years ago in an El Cerrito, Calif., high school. But it's also fascinating,
and it all boils down to one thing -- who has the right to perform this music?
Separate chats with Fogerty and Cook gave each a chance to address the issue from
his
particular vantage point. Here's what they have to say about it in point-counterpoint
fashion (but with no ignorant sluts in sight):
Fogerty:
``All this stuff is just so stupid, the problems I have with former Creedence
members,
the problems I have with Fantasy Records -- particularly Saul Zaentz. So I made
a
concentrated effort to resolve everybody's differences...I spent about three years,
a lot of money, a lot of time, trying to put it all aside and put it all to bed
for
everyone and have everybody come out in a dignified manner.''
Cook:
``I see that in print all the time...John has never tried to resolve anything
with
Doug and I. In fact, it's the opposite; Doug and I have made overtures to John
throughout
the years. It's never been right for him to try and reach out to our extended
hand.
There's just so many complexities to this whole issue, due to many years of
non-communication between John and the rest of his former band mates
Fogerty:
``Sadly, I have to tell you that after all that effort, I stood there holding
the bag.
During that time, the other guys in Creedence went and sold their voting rights.
We had
artistic control of our product in...quite a few matters, and they went and sold
their
rights in those matters back to Saul Zaentz. It's like the stupidest, most moronic
thing;
every artist who's ever been worth anything has tried to achieve artistic control.
I managed to finally achieve that for us in 1972, and these guys went and sold
it right
back. So that made me pretty upset with the former Creedence members.''
Cook:
( The bassist explains that he and Clifford sold their voting rights -- in exchange
for a
``substantial royalty increase'' -- so they could get out of what he calls ``the
Fogerty
sandwich'' in which the brothers couldn't agree about licensing CCR's songs,
particularly for soundtracks. )
``What John doesn't talk about is what he sold as well. Back in 1980, he sold
his rights
to his (artist) royalties to get out of the contract...then felt he was free and
could
just bad mouth the record company at will. We always thought that was a strange
situation; while hurting them, it hurts us, too. However he diminishes the sales
of
Creedence product to hurt Fantasy, that also hurts us and our families, because
we still
get our artist royalties.''
Fogerty:
``What they do has nothing to do with me. In an almost ironic thing, what they
do has
nothing to do with the songs, either. They have tried forever to make it look
like
Creedence Clearwater, this collective being, wrote these songs and arranged them.
But in fact, Creedence Clearwater Revival
is the name of a cartoon. It's the name of
a mythical being, a mythical figure. John Fogerty wrote all those songs and played
them and showed those guys what to play.''
Cook:
``Creedence Clearwater Revival was
a four-piece band that played the songs (mostly) of
John Fogerty. There is nothing mythical about it. The stuff that we contributed
is
conveniently forgotten in this conversation with John today. It was my idea to
record
(Dale Hawkins') `Suzie
Q.' as a psychedelic jam; I even suggested the arrangement.
It's easy now for John to just say `I wrote `em, I arranged them and everything
there is mine,' but come on...''
Fogerty:
``These people are not my friends. And, also, they've kind of ruined for me any
of the
old memories that we had together. I just feel that they're cheapening what used
to be
the good name of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
I think they're really doing a
disservice to our collective memory, and to the fan's appreciation.''
Cook:
``Creedence Clearwater Revisited exists to celebrate the music of Creedence. When
we
went out, no one -- specifically John, who had been on his 10 or 11-year boycott
of Creedence material -- was doing this music. We thought John's action was creating
bad will instead of good will...so we went out to celebrate the music. By the
end of
the show, people are chanting `CCR!' It's not about the politics or the personnel
of
that great band. It's about the music. That's really what most fans care about.''
Fogerty:
``I am the spiritual owner of the songs...That's how I coexist with everything
now.
It's up to me to perform these now, for my fans, and not wait `til later, when
I'm
dead and everybody says `Oh, gosh, I wish he would have come out of his cave and
done those songs.' ''
Cook:
``Why should only one person be allowed to go out and represent this music? Who
made
the rules in this? This is rock 'n' roll; there aren't any rules.''
Fogerty:
``I think it's great (when he hears `Proud Mary' at a wedding reception). I have
to
say there was a period of time when I was only bitter, because I don't own `Proud
Mary' and I was so kind of snookered and cheated and lied to. But most of the
time,
because the guys who are playing it don't know, they're not doing it to hurt me.
They're honoring me, and the fact people still love this music...That's all there
is to it. It's not their fault what happened to me, legally. So the way I look
at
it now...it is quite a blessing that people still react to these songs and have
actually provided a platform for me to have a career that has lasted all this
time.''
Cook:
``It seems to me that every bar band and Bar Mitzvah band in American can play
it.
Why can't Doug and I play it? That's one of the points; I think John would probably
not have a problem if it was some band that didn't include us.''
Fogerty:
``When you have a band, you've agreed to be a band. Then you have to make due
with
the people you are. In the days of the Creedence, the only option I had was to
leave the group. It wasn't really a clear option, and in fact, the opposite
happened -- the other guys started rearranging the rules, and pretty soon it
just all fell apart.''
Cook:
``The sound of Creedence was the four of us playing together. We supported him
in
everything he tried to do. We were a band. We were behind him 100 percent. To
read
it now, it's like he dragged us kicking and screaming to the Top 10. Right. If
we
were that crappy, he should have gotten another band.''
Fogerty:
``What has happened is I have a very strong sense of myself, finally, the way
I
did in 1969 and 1970. When I had gotten so involved in those legal-financial
problems, it put a hurt on the music. It made the music painful to me, and it
certainly got me in a confused personal state.''
Cook:
``I'm quite surprised that a guy who has a new album out is focusing so heavily
on things which really shouldn't be on his plate at this moment. Why he feels
he has to attack us while promoting 'Blue Moon Swamp' is another one of the
mysteries of this whole mess.''
Footnote:
Gary Graff is a nationally syndicated journalist who covers the music scene
from Detroit. He also is editor of MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide
and coeditor of MusicHound Country: The Essential Album Guide.
