John Fogerty

I saw this fellow in Las Vegas in January.  His voice sounds great, and he is full of energy.  He played for 2 hours no break.  I read his autobiography and learned he is an avid runner.  Despite what you might think with his tremendous lifetime songbook, his life has not been easy.  In fact he has spent most of his career trying to get ownership of the songs he wrote from his original record label.  The guy is one of those singer/songwriting geniuses that I miss so much in the 21st century. I was so surprised to find out that many people think Ike and Tina Turner wrote Proud Mary.  No, John Fogarty did. He kept a little notebook in which he wrote down words or phrases that appealed to him as perhaps the subject of a song.  Proud Mary was his first entry. He doesn't know where it came from, but there it lay on the page until he received his honorable discharge papers from the army.  He was so happy he ran outside and did a cartwheel.  He ran back in the house and, well, let him tell it: "...picked up my Rickenbacker. I'd been working on these chords, and now I had such a rush of energy and good feeling, like a weight had been lifted off--it was just whewwwww.  And out came the first line: 'Left a good job in the city..."* Proud Mary became a boat, rolling down the river! Great story and great concert, John. He's touring across the country, so if he gets close, go see him.  He is up there in the stratosphere with the rock & roll greats. 

* John Fogerty, Fortunate Son, (New York Little, Brown and Company, 2015). pp. 156-157.