After fighting for years to regain the rights to his songs, the former member of the American rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival returns to a French stage, Wednesday May 31, at the Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt.
John Fogerty, former leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival who fought for 50 years to recover his rights to his songs, will give a unique concert in France on Wednesday May 31 at the Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt. The rock legend hasn’t performed in the country for fifteen years.
Its name is forever linked to that of the group which enjoyed success in North America and then around the world from 1968 to 1972. However, after the end of “CCR” and until the beginning of the year 2023, Fogerty n was no longer the owner of his work.
Many of the group’s songs, interpreted in a direct and punchy style, were hits, with dazzling success, so much so that the magazine RollingStone designated it American group of the year in 1969. It was in 1968 that John Fogerty, his brother Tom, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook took the name of Creedence Clearwater Revival for four years. The Californians with cowboy looks, blue jeans and plaid shirts, concoct six albums in a style that goes against the trends of an era that was more interested in psychedelic experiments, with songs without frills, reviving the roots rock’n roll and rhythm’n blues, which laid the foundations of swamp rock.
The general public adheres to the spontaneity of these songs whose lyrics, sung in a clear and incandescent voice by John Fogerty, speak of the land, the bayous and the deep south of the United States, where the members of the group have not yet never set foot.
A long drawn out battle
“CCR” traveled to Woodstock, Proud Maryrock ballad with country accents, was covered by Ike & Tina Turner or Elvis Presley, GreenRivertheir second album, was a huge commercial success, and the song Fortunate Son was part of the film’s soundtrack Forrest Gump.
However, after having chained recordings and tours, John Fogerty began to lack inspiration. In addition, a coercive contract with his record label Fantasy imprisons him. He freed himself from it by giving up his rights to the Creedence catalogue. “Fogerty then sells off his past to own his future”told AFP Steven Jezo-Vannier, author of the book Creedence Clearwater Revival (2015). A long legal standoff will then oppose Fogerty, who will even refuse to sing the titles of his former group while he tries to recover his rights, and Fantasy. “The battle will last. It is only at the beginning of the 2000s that it will relax when Concord, which buys Fantasy, lets him recover his exploitation rights”, specifies Steven Jezo-Vannier. Finally, John Fogerty buys majority shares in Concord’s catalog at the beginning of 2023. He is then finally the owner of his work. “I can’t wait to tour and celebrate this year!”rejoiced the artist on his site, speaking of a “resurrection”.