Fortunate Son - John Fogerty

Fogerty was, of course, the lead singer/lead guitarist for Creedence Clearwater Revival and has also enjoyed a successful solo career. In this, his autobiography, you get his viewpoint on the contentious ride of CCR and its aftermath as well as lots of personal insights.

As the book starts, he spends a good amount of time on his younger days, where he really grew to love music and where he became interested in the technical side - recording, engineering, production - as well as the musical side. He worked hard on his vocals as well as his guitar (and some keyboard work) and worked with several groups. Naturally, there was a lot of instrumental projects in the early days, since that was the fad at the time, but with the advent of the Beatles, vocals were essential. He dug the early American rock'n'roll, as well, and puts in a special mention of the Sonics and Paul Revere and the Raiders!

There were a couple of bands that he joined previous to the formation of CCR (who had at least two previous names, including the Golliwogs, which was used on their earliest recordings), and he did not start as the singer, but his ambition and talent put him in the forefront. He obviously - and famously - has bad blood between him and the other members and he responds to some of their accusations in this book and makes accusations of his own. He has little good to say about any of the other guys and continually complains about their lack of talent and the fact - in his eyes - that he had to show them what to play on guitar, bass and drums. Of course, a bad contract signed by inexperienced youngsters add to the animosity that he shows in the book.

Regardless, I do enjoy reading about his songwriting style and where ideas for some of his most famous numbers came from. He is rightfully proud of his accomplishments but he does border on braggadocio at times. He also gets a bit long-winded here'n'there (about things like hunting - does anyone really care?) and he does gripe'n'grumble quite a bit. He got screwed, for sure, but the book dwells on it - a LOT. Even writing about the CCR days, which should have been the best part of his life, he was bitter and angry and only got more so after the band broke up and he spent decades like this. I'm not sure how he made it through it all and really don't know how his wife handled it. It's kinda funny - she will talk about how wonderful he was and how helpful with the kids and all that and in the next breath say that it was the worst time of their lives and she almost left him. It sounds like he basically had a undiagnosed nervous breakdown.

But, even though he never truly rights the injustices done to him, he does come to terms with it all and, with plenty of help from his wife (he has her co-write part of the book), he sounds like he has adjusted and is even reasonably happy. Nice to hear after 300-some pages of misery.

I wouldn't say that this was an enjoyable read, but it does give a good indication of the man behind the songs. CCR will always remain an important part of my life and the melancholy is all part of the story.