John Fogerty – I have no problem with ‘Wooly Bully’ and ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ sitting right next to each other
JF: Absolutely. It’s funny, because “Deja Vu” is on the same record as the other songs; it tends to seemingly force people into [thinking], “‘Deja Vu’ is political rhetoric, you shouldn’t put that on the album because that doesn’t mix with rock ‘n’ roll.” That’s the fun-minded people talking. And then the more current-event-oriented, quasi-intellectual people are saying, “You shouldn’t have these lightweight, silly songs on the same album with this wonderfully insightful song,” whatever that means. But I did it that way. It’s the same guy. Guess what I’m saying is, I’m an adult, I’m not a child. I really have no trouble acting like an adult. You know, “Wooly Bully” is one of my favorite songs of all time. I have no problem with “Wooly Bully” and “Blowin’ In The Wind” sitting right next to each other as two of the greatest records ever made.
Up until the time where I had written “Deja Vu”, I was writing what I would call rock ‘n’ roll pop songs, and trust me, coming up with “Rhubarb Pie” in the form that you know it is an evolutionary process. I’ve probably been thinking about something called “Rhubarb Pie” for years, if not decades. Actually, probably going back to when I was ten, it just kind of was never ready.
Whatever that is in the filter, there’s a separate sense besides the ability to create a song. There’s a separate sense, kind of like the OS system on a computer maybe, that tells you that this is good or that this is crap [laughs]. Maybe it doesn’t tell you right away, but eventually, hopefully, if you’ve got your antenna working, your crap filter is also on.
Trust me, I’ve released a few records that I’ve muted the crap filter; I didn’t mean to do it but it was on mute and I should have enabled it. I’ve always said that about Eye Of The Zombie, even though I still really like the [title track] single; a lot of the rest of it is just sort of overblown, pretentious, pompous and preachy. I’ve also said that about a really unavailable record called Hoodoo that people have heard in the seventeenth generation from a flea market. It actually sounds better the cruddier the sound quality gets. You know, I was missing in action, just a lot of elements of my creativity were not fully enabled.
ND: From the beginning, people were always surprised that you were from the east Bay Area in northern California and not the south. What about the south appeals to you?
JF: My view may be somewhat of a fairy tale, my own contrived vision of the south, that things are mellow and happy and a slower pace of life, sort of idyllic, very much like the Stephen Foster type songs. Foster, by the way, was my very first musical moment. I was in preschool, probably three years old, and my mom brought home and played “Oh! Susanna” and “Camptown Races” and explained to me that that was Stephen Foster. So I’ve been paying attention ever since. But in the last seven years or so I learned that Stephen Foster wasn’t from the south and that he’d only spent a few months in the south in his entire life. Very much like me, in other words.
III: IT’S NOW FINALLY A STRAIGHT LINE ACROSS THE SCREEN
ND: Everything you release inevitably gets compared to Creedence. But do you compare your music to Creedence as well?
JF: No, not anymore. More than twenty years ago there was such a looming presence in my mind from all basically bad stuff — my former bandmates, the head of Fantasy Records, all the rest — that was looming there, and as you know, for quite a long period of time I refused to perform my old songs that I had written with Creedence. I mean, a long time, probably more than fifteen years, I just said, “Hell no, I ain’t doing it.” Number one, that probably ruined my career. My wife keeps telling me that that’s one of the reasons why…if there had been a continuous flow throughout my career, things would be a lot easier now. But I’m hoping to change that.
Number two, when the album Centerfield came out, there was a lot of press and media comparisons to Creedence. Even my former bandmates went in the press and kind of forced the comparisons; I’ll just say they were very unhappy that I had made a good record and they didn’t. There was a lot of jealousy, and even the term “John is ripping off Creedence” was bandied about. At the time that kind of hurt a little, I sort of smarted. And I had to sort of field those questions [in the press]. I think I’ve long since kind of forgotten that as an issue because it’s just not true. For anyone who cares to delve, John Fogerty wrote all the songs and sang them and that’s kind of the end of the story right there.
So, happily, now, here in the 21st century, because I am a happy man, I’ve reconnected, I’ve rewired, all those elements are finally back in place in my mind. It’s a wonderful feeling. It happened because of my wife’s love, I have absolutely no doubt about that. And the result is, I don’t go from the songwriting urge or concept to the finished product by way of Fantasy Records, Creedence Clearwater Revival, lawsuits — in other words, turn down all those avenues and then finally get to my song. It’s now finally a straight line straight across the screen just like it was in 1969.
ND: In hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently with regard to Creedence?
JF: Oh my gosh. Almost everything. It’s so funny, I’ll see these movies about some old guy, maybe it’s his testimonial and he’s getting a gold watch, and he says, “I wouldn’t change anything, I had a great life.” I always look at those things and I go “WHAT?” I would change so many things because a lot of stuff just turned out wrong, or badly. I certainly wouldn’t sign the contract with [Fantasy Records boss] Saul Zaentz without having a good lawyer in my camp. I certainly wouldn’t have been nearly so generous artistically particularly with the other members that became Creedence because people mistakenly feel that this was some sort of equal [creative] input. Even though I shared everything equally the input was definitely not equal, and the credit and glory was shared equally and that’s probably something that hurts me now, meaning people call them Creedence songs when, in fact, Creedence did not write a single song. John Fogerty wrote most of those songs.