On the heels of VETERANS DAY 2014, for this weeks POLITICAL NOTES selection, I chose an anti-war song that was pretty controversial when it was first released in 1969, and was thrust back into the news just this week! The song was written in 1968 by JOHN FOGERTY, the lead singer and founder of the great 60s rock group CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL. He later told ROLLING STONE magazine that he was inspired to write the song after watching the 1968 wedding of Dwight Eisenhowers grandson DAVID EISENHOWER to JULIE NIXON, daughter of future President Richard Nixon. He said that watching that wedding made him think about all the privileged young people who were able to avoid serving in the military while their less fortunate counterparts were shipped over to Vietnam to fight an unpopular war orchestrated by the elite. The song was released as a double-sided single by CCR in the fall of 1969, with DOWN ON THE CORNER as the B side. Billboard changed the rules for double-sided hits at the time, giving the release a big boost, The record had reached the top twenty on the magazines Hot 100 chart exactly 45 years ago this week, but, when combined with the B side hit, the single continued to climb, peaking at #3 on the chart just before Christmas of 69! Last week, four and a half decades after the song was riding high on the U.S. charts, its writer performed the song on South Lawn of the White House Lawn during A SALUTE TO THE TROOPS: A PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE, and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN performed it along with DAVE GROHL and ZAC BROWN at A NIGHT OF VALOR, a another concert in Washington D.C. to honor veterans on Veterans Day. The Salute To The Troops Concert aired on PBS and A Night Of Valor was broadcast as a special on HBO. While it was surely written to be critical of the Vietnam War, its not a militant anti-war song per se. But its anti-elitist, socio-economic theme and biting jab at the hippocratic ruling class really struck a chord with the late-60s youth movement, Like so many other potent 60s protest songs are, it still maintains and unquestionable relevance in the present day. Of course, FOX NEWS and other right-wing factions were critical of both of the past weeks performances of the questionably patriotic song, even though Fogerty himself served honorably in Vietnam and the song expresses his own personal views from that time! Fogerty responded to his critics a couple days ago, and reiterated the displeasure he has stated over the years about the songs exploitation for political purposes! Springsteen separately dismissed the critics of his Veterans Day performance as well. So heres this weeks POLITICAL NOTES.....The song thats continued to cause such a delicious fuss over the last four decades! Its John Fogertys political anthem FORTUNATE SON, appropriately performed by Fogerty and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN five years ago at the 25th Annual ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME CONCERT at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Fogerty.....and Springsteen.....were fortunate that there was no outcry from the right after this performance. FOX NEWS probably just missed it! youtube/watch?v=iQqHzPzQsMg
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 03:59:15 +0000
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