(New York) After a half-century of legal battle, the American musician John Fogerty announced Thursday that he regained his copyright on the songs he had composed for his flagship group of the 1970s, Creedence Clearwater Revival.
At a time when his rock and folk peers — Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan or Neil Young — are selling the rights to their works for hundreds of millions of dollars, Fogerty, 77, is doing the opposite.
“As of January, I am the owner of my own songs again. I thought that would never happen. I can’t wait to tour and celebrate this year! “, rejoiced the artist on his site, speaking of a” resurrection “.
In fact, one of the most painful pages in the history of copyright and intellectual property of a musician in the United States is turned: Fogerty — composer of the famous Proud Mary, Have You Ever Seen the Rain and Bad Moon Rising — fought for 50 years in court to regain control of it after what he called a bad contract with a record company.
In the heart of the 1960s, the “pope” of the time for music and cinema, Saul Zaentz, who died in 2014, signed Fogerty and his group Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) with his record company Fantasy Records.
Very quickly, the rights of the famous song against the Vietnam War Fortunate Son are at the heart of complaints, proceedings and press campaigns led by John Fogerty.
When his group CCR collapsed in the early 1970s, the fight intensified with Fantasy Records in an attempt to break the contract. In vain.
Result, a long period of silence for the artist, who even refuses to sing the titles of his former group.
It was not until 2004 that the Concord record company bought Fantasy, but John Fogerty did not recover his rights.
Recently, the musician made an offer with financial details remained confidential, to which Concord subscribed.
According to the media Billboard, first to reveal the agreement Thursday from the mouth of John Fogerty, the Concord house should retain the rights of CCR already in its possession while the musician should regain all his copyrights.
These rights make it possible to receive dividends on the broadcasting of a title on the radio or in digital broadcasting, on album sales or on their use in an advertisement or in a film, and the holders of recording rights can decide future editions.
In a statement, Concord president Bob Valentine called Fogerty’s work “one of the greatest compositions of the 20th century.e century” and said he was “more than happy” to have sealed an agreement.