Here’s an article with a little insight on what John Fogerty is up to and what we can expect at the concert July 26th. Don’t forget we’re playing Beat the Box Office for tickets before they go on sale this Friday. -Doug & Wendy
FOGERTY
We’ll be able to both hear and read about the music John Fogerty made with Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969 this year. As Fogerty is to expand his “1969” world tour celebrating the year CCR released three albums, he’s also announced an Oct. 6 publication for his autobiography, Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music, which Fogerty tells Billboard will be as frank and forthright as the song it’s named after. “I’m just being brutally honest,” he says. “I’m not trying to shock or surprise anybody; really, I’m just being honest. It’s just simply the only way I’ve been able to exist, anyhow. I don’t know any other way, for my own mistakes and certainly mistakes of others, if you want to look at it that way. In the end, human beings, we are what we are. I’m not running for president or anything, so I’m not white-washing the life that I lived.”
Pre-orders for the book are currently being accepted at online retailers. Prior to the book’s publication, Fogerty will be back on the road with the “1969” show, which he played to rave reviews in Canada. Though it also includes material from throughout the rest of his career, the concerts focus on the year CCR released three top 10 hits and ultimately multi-platinum albums — Bayou County, Green River and Willy and the Poor Boys — scored four top 5 hits (including “Proud Mary” and “Bad Moon Rising”) — played Woodstock and even outsold the Beatles during that time.
And in addition to the hits, on the Canadian run Fogerty and his band included rarities such as “Ramble Tamble,” “Keep On Chooglin’ ” and covers of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu.” “It’s amazing how well it all worked out,” says Fogerty, who credits his wife and manager Julie with the “1969” concept. “In ’68, of course, we had one hit, ‘Suzie Q,’ and being very aware of the syndrome of the one-hit wonder I had kind of taken stock and just looked at it and was like, ‘OK, a thousand other people have one hit. Now what?’ And, y’know, I was on the tiniest label in the world (Fantasy) and it was a jazz label to boot, so those people didn’t know anything about rock ‘n’ roll. I didn’t have a manager, didn’t have a publicist, none of the usual trappings. So I literally said to myself, ‘Well, I guess I’m gonna have to do it with music, ’cause that’s what I understand.’ So my idea was to make as much really good music as I could and have good songs on both sides of the single, like the Beatles did, and trying to make the albums interesting. I really just upped my game, I guess, though I didn’t have a phrase like that in those days.” The “1969” dates start May 2 at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis and are currently booked to Aug. 9, including a July 15 stop at the Hollywood Bowl.
Fogerty — who for nearly three decades refused to play his CCR songs until beginning again in 1997 — says the tour has “been a lot of fun, really an enjoyable presentation. You’re presenting an era, really, which has been as much fun for me as the audience, I think.” He’s currently being sued for trademark violation by former bandmates Stu Cook and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford (currently leading Creedence Clearwater Revisited) and the estate of his late brother and CCR guitarist Tom Fogerty and issued a public statement saying that, “I am at a wonderful place in my life. I am playing the music that I love and wrote…No lawyers, lawsuits, or angry ex-band members will stop me ever again from singing my songs. I am going to continue to tour and play all my songs every single night I am out on the road.” A retrospective Fogerty box set is also expected to be released this year, but no details have been revealed for that yet.
We’ll get to see it all July 26th at CN Centre. Tickets go on sale Friday morning at 10.
