Today John Fogerty hits 80. I don’t know exactly why I find myself always semi-surprised or taken aback a little when one my rock gods/goddesses turns 80. At 74, and not far behind them, it shouldn’t really register with me; but it always does as my first thought is usually “Wow they are 80!”
Fogerty however, holds a special spot in my music Hall of Fame as I still consider him and Creedence Clearwater Revival America’s greatest rock and roll band. Any mention of Fogerty will always brings back a flood of memories mostly good ones, some sad and some bitter sweet for me.
For example, when Doug Courtney and I were living in Florida, we saw Creedence at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969 and that was a great experience. Many years later at Wolf Trap, Mike Raley and I caught Fogerty’s concert tour featuring his Creedence songs of 69. It was one of the last concerts that Mike Raley and I attended before Mike moved on down the road.
I also recall reading John’s Fortunate Son biography while being in the hospital with Mom during and following her cancer surgery.
Memory-wise, I won’t even go into all those long nights spent driving around Ridge drunk and high with the eight track cranking out CCR as loudly as possible. Most of those are also good memories save for an accident or an arrest here and there.
Today, John is still doing it and is currently out and about touring the States and Europe. Here he is from a few weeks ago appearing at this year’s New Orleans Jazz Festival:
