The Tragedy Of Creedence Clearwater Revival

in just three years credence clearwater revival led by singer john fogerty released a slew of memorable rock and roll hits behind the scenes however the band's surge to the top was marred by infighting and lawsuits this is the tragic real-life story of ccr creedence clearwater revival's famous anti-war tuned fortunate sun is sung from the perspective of a less privileged youth who cannot afford to evade the u.s draft the song has become synonymous with the era to the point of parody songwriter john fogarty and drummer doug clifford who formed a high school band called the blue velvet along with john's brother tom and bassist stu cook lived this reality when john and doug were drafted bogerty knew that his draft number was coming up so he immediately signed on to the us army reserves where he worked as a supply clerk while only on active duty for six months fogarty traveled to fort bragg in north carolina underwent advanced individual training at the quartermaster school in fort lee virginia and between those periods was stationed at fort knox despite living among fellow soldiers fogarty told the military times that the vietnam war was still unpopular with his fellow countrymen bogarty told the outlet the war was very unpopular even with us in the military we weren't in love with that war nobody really wanted to go fight in the jungle fogerty's time in the military gave him the perspective that eventually led him to write many of his famous songs over the rest of the decade by 1968 as the war was still raging on bogarde's and clifford's stints in the army had concluded by the time creedence clearwater revival performed at woodstock in the summer of 1969 the band was at their zenith having just released their third album the critically acclaimed green river two weeks prior ccr came into woodstock as arguably the top act john fogerty had this to say about walking onto the stage that night by the time we got to woodstock i felt we were the number one band assuming that the beatles were god i thought that we were the next thing under them however as reported by the chicago tribune fogarty was so disappointed in ccr's performance that he refused to allow their music to be part of the documentary and live album released the next year the band's performance because of technical difficulties and weather delays was pushed past midnight on sunday august 17th as ccr performed to the 500 000 strong audience bogarty said the concert goers were quote all intertwined and asleep covered with mud in an interview with the la times fogarty looked back on the festival and partially blamed their performance on the grateful dead playing too long before well we were promised at prime time on a saturday night like nine o'clock yeah uh what they didn't tell me is you're gonna follow the grateful dead live for live music says rain badly damaged the dead's equipment and the band only played five songs during their hour and a half set whether it was the beatles in the 1960s fleetwood mac in the 1970s or guns and roses in the 1980s bands tend to hit snags once they've reached the top of the mountain creedence clearwater revival is only unique in this perspective in terms of how much contempt the band mates felt for each other or to be honest toward their leader john fogerty following the release of their debut album and the success of the single suzy q the band entered their first hollywood studio to work on proud mary fogarty told sweden's pop magazine that during the session the three other members became interested in having more of a say in the band's songwriting and recording process bogerty who aside from rehearsals and live recordings worked alone on the band's music sat down at dinner with the band and plainly told them that his direction could keep them from returning to washing cars despite being the youngest member of ccr and the younger sibling to bandmate tom fogerty john was in charge and under his strong and uncompromising leadership the band was the hottest group in america between 1969 and 1971. the group was a regular at summer festivals and on the pop charts however they were also a ticking time bomb with tom threatening multiple times to leave because of john despite overthrowing the beatles by 1969 as the highest selling band in the world credence clearwater revival could not sustain itself john fogerty was described as an autocrat by uncut and even admitted later in life that he held quote maniacal control over the band per the vh1 documentary legends john fogerty and creedence clearwater revival the group had reached a boiling point by 1970. doug clifford had this to say things were getting very difficult in the business arena it was taking a toll on john it was taking a toll on us because we weren't involved in these meetings and we weren't getting information back from jon a meeting was called on the eve of recording their seventh album and the three other members of ccr demanded more say in the band rising pressure within the band his failing marriage to his wife martha and the desire to remain on top of the music scene eventually led john to concede to their demands as much as we hated each other it all came back like we liked each other more than anybody else soon after the meeting that was supposed to ease the tension between john and the rest of the members of creedence clearwater revival the first shoe fell tom announced he was leaving ccr in january 1971. in an interview with uncut drummer doug clifford tom's closest ally in the band said of the anger between the two brothers tom had put up with a lot of stuff from john he didn't want tom to succeed tom tried to downplay his accent saying it wasn't planned that there was no bad blood and that he needed to develop his own talent doug and stew now had more power in ccr with fewer members and john loosening the reigns still tom left the biggest band in the world at their peak with tom gone and the quartet down to a power trio it was time for creedence clearwater revival to return to the studio and bump out another classic album 1972's mardi gras that was the plan at least with the continued tension and anger in the band toward leader john fogarty the three split the songwriting and singing responsibilities between them and ccr's seventh studio album became their final and most disappointing rolling stones john landau even called mardi gras the worst album released by a major rock group however the album was boosted to number 12 on the billboard album chart thanks to the john fogerty penned tune sweet hitchhiker john only wrote three songs for the album though and sang a cover of ricky nelson's hello mary lou stu cook and doug clifford took the new freedom fogerty gave them and penned and sang their own songs the album failed to generate the same critical and commercial success as ccr's previous efforts songs by both stu cook and john fogerty seem to describe their strained relationship and the band's inevitable demise such as take it like a friend by cook and looking for a reason by fogarty according to the daily review fogarty told john landau that he allowed the members to sing their songs to illustrate how much better he was by comparison unsurprisingly mardi gras was the last straw for credence clearwater revival and the group dissolved shortly after however this wasn't the end of conflicts between ccr and john fogerty fogarty fought everyone connected to ccr's music and in the years after the band's breakup that included the label that owned the songs he wrote and sang for decades bogarty refused to perform his old ccr songs blaming the bad deal he made with fantasy records in his early days for his boycott per the deal fantasy had the exclusive publishing rights to fogarty's music fogarty and fantasy records head saul zens grew to hate each other during and after ccr when the group broke up in 1972 saul refused to let john out of his contract something he did for the other members until he fulfilled the agreement as a result fogarty refused to work with zentz when zens sold off his interest in fantasy records fogarty returned to the label released the album revival in 2007 and became more comfortable performing his old songs again tom and john fogerty's story unfortunately does not have a happy ending after leaving creedence clearwater revival tom firmly put himself in saul sense's camp in john's legal battles against saul and fantasy records john said he attempted to mend fences with his brother for the sake of their mother the pair talked on the phone and agreed to write down the grievances they had with each other so they could work them out however after jon accused his brother of suing him and tom denied it the pair split again tom had filed suit against john in 1978 though tom dropped the suit five years later tragically in the 1980s tom went to the hospital for back surgery he received a blood transfusion and became infected with the hiv virus from tainted blood i love classic rock reports that the pair never reconciled before tom's death leaving john to move forward regretting his fallout with his brother john had this to say about forgiving his brother at some point i made a point to myself of forgiving my brother i just felt like i had to do that because he wasn't around for me to get to work it out with him the only positive aspect of credence clearwater revival's rock and roll hall of fame induction ceremony was that it didn't turn into a riot aside from that the ceremony was racked with bitter emotions between the three surviving members following the presentation given by bruce springsteen and speeches from the three living members a reunion performance was expected but john fogerty refused to share the stage with stu cook and doug clifford and instead gave a performance with a band of other rock musicians leaving two ccr members to watch others play their songs the reason for the snub was fogarty's bitterness over the continued lawsuits against him by fantasy which the two surviving members had a role in in his autobiography fogarty wrote about the bad blood between himself and clifford that led to the difficult induction ceremony in 1985 fogarty released a song called the old man down the road saul zentz ultimately sued fogarty over the song because it sounded too similar to the ccr tune run through the jungle which was also written by fogerty i've written a new song and they want to contend that the new song plagiarizes their song writing in his autobiography fogarty revealed that his lawyers had asked saul zens why he sued john for the old man down the road and zentz told him that clifford had played the song in his office and pushed the record executive to sue bogarty felt betrayed and after learning of ccr's induction he originally didn't even want to stand next to his former bandmates while a true credence clearwater revival reunion is impossible without tom fogerty there have still been rumors and hopes that the three surviving members will put aside their differences and perform under the ccr name this has largely been wishful thinking as the band remains extremely angry at each other in 1995 following the rock and roll hall of fame snub doug clifford and stu cook began touring as credence clearwater revisited the group announced their retirement following their 2019 tour which irked john fogerty as the announcement came right at the beginning of his residency in las vegas fogarty had sued the duo in the past challenging the use of a similar name to the original band and forcing them to change it until an appellate court ruled in their favor in 2014 the two members and the estate of tom fogarty sued john for trademark infringement over a series of album length performance concerts bogarde countersued so while it seems that ccr's days of performing are long over their short time in the spotlight left the world a collection of classic rock anthems and an even bigger collection of messy lawsuits and broken relationships check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one

Channel: Grunge

Views: 1,470,870

Rating: 4.8308334 out of 5

Keywords: grunge, grunge channel, creedence clearwater revival, band members, creedence clearwater revival band members, john fogerty, john fogerty creedence clearwater revival, creedence clearwater revival members drafted, drafted creedence clearwater revival members, ccr perfomed in woodstock, tom fogerty, tom fogerty creedence clearwater revival, band infighting, infighting in bands, creedence clearwater revival mardi gras, fantasy records, creedence clearwater revival ahll of fame

Id: wfjlLo2AgF8

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2021