WCSX Classic Cuts : Fortunate Son
WCSX Classic Cuts Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Fortunate Son” The Hook: The fastest song John Fogerty ever wrote. Album: Willy and the Poor Boys Year: 1969 Writer: John Fogerty Stats: A…
1st April 1970: American rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival in London, April 1970. From Left to right, Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, John Fogerty and Stu Cook. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)
Credit: Evening Standard / GettyimagesWCSX Classic Cuts
Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Fortunate Son"
The Hook: The fastest song John Fogerty ever wrote.
Album: Willy and the Poor Boys
Year: 1969
Writer: John Fogerty
Stats: A double-A-sided single with "Down on the Corner," it reached number-three on the Billboard Hot 100.
Background: Inspired by his anger at young men being sent off to fight in Vietnam by politicians whose own sons rarely did so, John Fogerty recalls that when he began writing "Fortunate Son," the words just came tumbling out.
John Fogerty on writing CCR’s “Fortunate Son.” OC:…little less. :27
“Probably the quickest song I ever wrote. I had all the chord structure, I had the guitar lick and I had the title and pretty much how the melody went, but no real words. And I went into my bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed with a little tablet and with probably a word changed here and there -- you know, cross one out, put one in -- I wrote three pages, one verse on each page, exactly the way you hear it on the record, in about 20 minutes, maybe a little less.”
