If there was ever a cautionary tale about the music industry, it is the bond that John Fogerty and his Creedence Clearwater Revival bandmates made with Saul Zaentz, owner of Fantasy Records, when the band landed on his label.
In the process, Fogerty signed away the distribution and publishing rights to a trove of hits, most of which he had written. More than five decades of litigation followed, as the Berkeley native fought a never-ending battle for his songs, sending lawsuits and countersuits back and forth. At one point, Zaentz filed a defamation suit related to the Fogerty songs “Mr. Greed” and “Zanz Can’t Dance,” forcing the songwriter to change the title and lyrics of the latter to “Vanz Can’t Dance.” Zaents also filed a plagiarism suit, claiming that the Fogerty song “The Old Man Down the Road” was taken from the copyrighted but Fogerty-written “Run Through the Jungle.” Zaentz lost that case.
The animosity reached a point where Fogerty refused to play CCR songs in concert for about 15 years after Creedence Clearwater Revival disbanded in 1972 because he did not want Zaentz to make money from his performances. (This resolve subsided when Fogerty played a Vietnam Veterans concert on July 4, 1987.)
The tide turned when Concord Records bought the Fantasy catalog in 2004. One of the first acts of the agency was to immediately reinstate and increase Fogerty’s artist royalties, which he had given up to Zaentz in 1980 to get out of his Fantasy contract and which he hadn’t received in a quarter century. This year began with the 78-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer announcing on Twitter that he would gain control of more than 65 CCR copyrights, including songs like “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Proud Mary” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” For the first time ever, Concord (now owner of Fantasy Records) will keep the CCR master recordings already in its catalog. It’s the end of a lengthy legal battle that has dragged on for half a century, and Fogerty is grateful to have it settled.
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“This is the most rewarding and fulfilling thing I can do in my career,” he said in a recent interview. “I was denied ownership of the songs I wrote and created for so long. Unfortunately, ownership of the songs I wrote was given to me the second the contract was signed in early 1968. That meant that the songs I wrote were never mine. They were already going into a section by the time I finished writing. I spent years trying to find every legal and friendly man-to-man route you can take and was always turned down. That was a huge disappointment to me. You create a lot of emotions, especially as time goes on. Now it’s a huge relief. I just don’t have to worry about that anymore. It was wrong, of course. I’m definitely in a celebratory mood. I’m just glad I’m still here and I can share that with my fans and also with my family, who are such a big part of my musical journey at this point.”
For Fogerty, 2024 is a victory lap that includes a tour that is a family affair. Wife and manager Julie (who has been instrumental in helping her husband get his songs back) is by his side, while sons Shane and Tyler, who have a psychedelic rock band called Hearty Har, are also sidemen for their pop. Even daughter Kelsy appears onstage, performing with her siblings during the tour’s “Proud Mary” encore. Not surprisingly, this current tour makes up for lost time during which Fogerty has spent so long away from delving into the extensive CCR catalog.
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“Because I’m celebrating getting ownership of my songs, it’s a whole new feeling for me,” he explained. “It’s been more than 50 years. That’s really the theme (for this tour). I’m going to play a lot of the Creedence catalog and include some deeper album cuts, as some people call it, especially if you were really into all those records — because I wrote those songs. These are songs that I know very well, but maybe the rest of the world — like the person who’s only heard hits on the radio — (maybe not) know some of the other songs. We’re going to bring them out of retirement, bring them onstage and breathe new life into them. In that sense, it’s going to give you a different perspective on those album cuts. And most of all, the mood of it all is the great joy that I feel because I’m finally connected. In a way, the people who are fans, especially those who have supported me all this time, will understand that. They probably know intuitively how I feel.”
After signing a deal with BMG in 2019, Fogerty slowly worked on new material as well, pausing only long enough to release “Fogerty’s Factory,” a collection of CCR and solo hits as well as covers of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans” and Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me” that coincided with the 50th anniversary of Creedence’s 1970 album “Cosmo’s Factory.” For the album, Fogerty and his offspring even recreated the original album cover, with help from their brother Bob, who shot the original image. The CCR founding member also wrote two more new songs, “Weeping in The Promised Land” and “Joy of My Life,” a piece inspired by his wife Julie, with whom he recently celebrated his 32nd wedding anniversary.
“It’s a testament to being with the right person that you’ve been looking for and never thought you’d find,” he said. “The whole rest of the story in that song is actually true. I laid down next to her after I got home from a songwriting trip and I’d been gone for about a week – and she fell asleep, and all of a sudden my mind started writing the song that eventually became ‘Joy of My Life.’ It’s just really special.”
For now, Fogerty and his family will spend a lot of time on tour and hope to be able to visit the studio before the end of the year.
“I’m working on material and the most fulfilling thing would be to write a song with my kids and then record it in some form,” he said. “Whether it’s for the boy band Hearty Har or as a song that’s kind of officially part of my career. And I’m not really sure what that might be because we haven’t done that yet. But they have a lot of talent and I think I have a lot of experience that I can pass on to them. The best part of being a musician is playing in front of an audience, more than anything. It’s just a wonderful experience to share with other people and to introduce and play your songs. I’m really looking forward to it.”
John Fogerty
Where: Pacific Amphitheater, 100 Fair Dr, Costa Mesa.
When: 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, September 3rd.
Tickets: $55 – $121
