The agreement that John Fogerty and his Creedence Clearwater Revival colleagues made with Fantasy Records president Saul Zaentz when the band signed on to his label should serve as a lesson to anyone considering a career in the music business.
During the process, Fogerty gave up publishing and distribution rights to a wealth of hit songs that he had written most of.
The Berkeley native battled to regain his music for more than fifty years, exchanging lawsuits and countersuits in the process.
The Fogerty songs “Mr. Greed” and “Zanz Can’t Dance” were the subject of a lawsuit by Zaentz alleging defamation of character, forcing the author to alter the song’s title and lyrics to “Vanz Can’t Dance.” In a separate lawsuit, Zaents claimed that the Fogerty song “The Old Man Down the Road” was plagiarised from the Fantasy song “Run Through the Jungle,” which was written by Fogerty but protected by copyright. It was Zaentz’s lost outfit.
The hatred became so intense that Fogerty refused to perform any CCR songs live for around 15 years following the dissolution of Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1972 because he didn’t want Zaentz to profit from his appearances. (On July 4, 1987, when Fogerty performed at a concert for Vietnam Veterans, that determination faded).
When Concord Records acquired the Fantasy catalogue in 2004, everything started to shift. Restoring and increasing Fogerty’s artist royalties—which he had given up to Zaentz in 1980 to escape his Fantasy contract and hadn’t earned in 25 years—was among the first things on the agenda. With Concord (now the owner of Fantasy Records) keeping the CCR master recordings already in its catalogue, the 78-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer announced on Twitter at the beginning of this year that he would take control of upwards of 65 CCR copyrights, including songs like “Fortunate Son,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Proud Mary,” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” Fogerty is happy that the lengthy court struggle, which lasted more than 50 years, has come to a close.
In a recent interview, he declared, “It’s the most rewarding and fulfilling thing career-wise.” “For a very long time, I was not allowed to own the songs that I composed and wrote. Regretfully, as soon as the contract was signed in early 1968, ownership was transferred to a label. It implied that I never owned the songs I wrote. As soon as I completed writing them, they entered a section. I’ve spent years and years trying to figure out all the pleasant man-to-man and legal ways to test things, but I was always turned down. I started to feel really disappointed by it. You arouse a great deal of feeling, particularly over time. Now that’s a huge relief. Simply said, I don’t have to worry about it anymore. Of course it was incorrect. I must admit that I’m feeling festive. I’m simply grateful that I got to share this with my family and my fans, who have become such an important part of my musical journey thus far, and that I am still here.
For Fogerty, 2024 is a victory lap that involves a family-oriented tour. Sons Shane and Tyler, who play in a psychedelic rock band called Hearty Har, are also supporting their father. Julie, the wife and manager, played a key role in helping her husband reclaim his music. Even Kelsy, the daughter, joins her siblings on stage for the “Proud Mary” encore of the tour. It should come as no surprise that Fogerty is making up for lost time by touring the extensive CCR catalogue now.
“It’s such a brand-new feeling for me because of the celebration of me getting ownership of my songs,” he said. More than 50 years have passed. That’s actually [the tour’s] central subject. Since I composed most of the songs on those recordings, I’ll be covering a lot of the Creedence catalogue plus, as some have phrased it, some deeper album cuts. This is especially true if you were really into all those records. These are songs I know extremely well, however some of the other songs may not be known to the general public, such as the person who only listens to radio hits. Those will be brought out of retirement, given a stage to themselves, and given new life. You’ll see those album cuts from a different angle as a result. Primarily, the overall feeling is the immense happiness I experience from at last finding a connection. I think my fans will understand this, especially the ones who have been there for me all these years. They most likely have a gut feeling about how I feel.
Following his signing with BMG in 2019, Fogerty has also been gradually producing new music. He only took a break to release “Fogerty’s Factory,” which features covers of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans” and Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me,” as well as CCR and solo hits. The album was released in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Creedence album “Cosmo’s Factory.”
With assistance from brother Bob, who took the original picture, Fogerty and his children recreated the album cover. In addition, the founding member of CCR wrote two new songs: “Joy of My Life” and “Weeping in the Promised Land,” the latter of which was inspired by his wife Julie, with whom he recently celebrated his 32nd wedding anniversary.
“This proves that you’re with the right person you’ve been looking for and truly never imagined you would find,” he remarked. “The remainder of the narrative in that song is accurate. After returning from a songwriting trip and being gone for almost a week, I laid down next to her. As she was drifting off to sleep, my thoughts began to work on the song that would eventually become “Joy of My Life.” It’s simply incredibly unique.
Fogerty and his family plan to spend as much time as possible travelling in the hopes of visiting the studio before the year ends.
“I’m working on material, and writing a song with my kids and getting it recorded in some way would be the ultimate fulfilment,” he stated.
“It might be a song that is kind of formally in my career, you can say, or it could be for the boys’ band Hearty Har. We haven’t done it yet, so I’m not really sure what that could be. However, I believe I can impart a great deal of experience to them, and they have a lot of talent. More than anything else, performing in front of an audience is the best aspect of being a musician. Sharing your tunes and playing with other people is just a beautiful experience. This is something I’m really looking forward to.