His band ain’t playing Hail to the Chief
Revival
John Fogerty
2007, Fantasy Records, $17.98
John Fogerty’s material has always drawn on the mythology of the common men and women in this fair country. Whether writing about the bullfrog down by the Green River or expressing a workingman’s scorn for the rich who send the poor off to war int he Creedence Clearwater Revival classic “Fortunate Son,” Fogerty’s songs speak volumes more than the hundred or so words that make up one of his three-minute rockers. He continues this tradition on his latest disc, Revival. It’s vintage Fogerty. That classic guitar that sounds like it hails from the bayous and swamps of the South (even though he was from California!), lyrics that express disgust with the politics of the privileged and powerful, and hints of hope inside rock-and-roll songs whose simplicity underscores their fundamental truths.
The first song, “Don’t You Wish It Was True,” is a 21st-century “Imagine.” Fogerty draws a picture of a place where war no longer exists and the world lives as one. Also, like John Lennon’s utopia, this place is one we can now only dream. There may have been a time when parts of the world were closer to that imagined state - the track “Summer of Love” points to this — but that moment passed all too quickly. Now we are left with a world ruled by men and women who care only about enriching themselves and their class, no matter what the human cost.
That’s what most of this disc is really about. Of course, George Bush personifies this class of humanity that has plunged whole sections of the world into war while immobilizing his subjects with fear and tax cuts. This president, the ultimate “master of war” as well as “fortunate son,” is not spared one bit by Fogerty. He rips into Bush, his wars, his henchmen, and his so-called religion, warning us it’s going to be a “Long Dark Night” “before this thing is done.” And that’s just for starters. After an interlude of a couple of songs, Fogerty takes up the attack again. In “I Can’t Take It No More,” he sings about the wars in Asia and the lies told about them.
It is not my objective to reminisce on the past. However, given John Fogerty’s musical origins and the role that CCR songs played in my teenage years, it’s hard not to. That being said, the one song on Revival that best evokes the blistering anger one found in Creedence’s 1969 sides “Commotion” and “Fortunate Son” is the final selection, “Longshot.” Utilizing a classic blues lyrical technique, Fogerty lambastes the aristocrats and their ilk, while asking a would-be sweetheart to hang out with a guy like him - nothing but a regular Joe.
Like any regular Joe, he’s had his share of personal ups and downs. The distinction is that Fogerty also reflects upon and sings about those ups and downs. The tracks on this disc that address the personal are songs of hope and redemption. The same can not be said about those addressing the country’s rulers and their wars. Despite the dismal outlook on these matters, Revival and its creator still promote the belief that the energies released in music and love will prevail. The path toward the world envisioned in “Don’t You Wish It Was True” is neither easy nor obvious, but it is ours to take.
