Recommendations of the Editorial team
40th place: John Fogerty
“I still know how I answered this question in 1968,” John Fogerty told Rolling Stone in 1993. “I said at the time:” I hope that my records will still be played on the radio in ten years. ‘”
At least on this point, the mastermind of Creedence Clearwater Revival should be wrong: even 50 years later, his songs are indispensable on the radio. In the psychedelic San Francisco of the late sixties, CCR were the big, danceable exception, insofar as they shook one catchy tune after the other.
Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Fortunate Son”:
They released no fewer than five albums between 1968 and 1970, including twelve singles that were supposed to make global hits. Fogerty’s songwriting reflected the down-to-earth perspective of an Army reservist in the working class who wrote his first hit (“Proud Mary” from 1969) two days after his return to private life.
No alcohol, no drugs, absolutely nothing
“I was sitting in the room alone late at night,” he recalled later. “It was completely quiet – no distractions, no alcohol, no drugs, absolutely nothing. I was sitting in the half -darkness and had my enlightenment. I suddenly understood what all the big songwriters have discovered at some point: that you can move with words.” At times he had already made him a little jealous that Dylan and the band were praised by critics about the green clover.
His approach provided no less relevant insights into the zeitgeist at the time, such as in “Fortunate Son”, his class -fighting billing with the Vietnam War – or in the threshold “Bad Moon Rising”, which converted the upcoming apocalypse into an irresistibly pumping rock’n’roller.