John Fogerty’s favourite Creedence Clearwater Revival song took him 20 years to write
Songwriting was a skill that John Fogerty had to learn, but his knack for knowing what made a good song title was with him from an early age. However, it would take him a couple more decades to understand the art of execution.
Fogerty knew from being a whipper-snapper that it was music that he wanted to make his living, forming what would later become Creedence Clearwater Revival when he was just 14. But, much to his frustration, those plans for world domination were later put on hold when he was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War.
After finishing his service, Fogerty, along with the rest of Creedence Clearwater Revival, were hellbent on making their younger selves, who formed the band all those years prior, proud.
It was a mission that they accomplished with aplomb, crafting a string of beloved classics, like ‘Proud Mary’ and ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’, that Fogerty still sings around the world to this day.
However, while he can now reflect fondly on what they made together, it wasn’t always that way due to the messy legal battles that ensued following their split. After their break-up in 1972, Fogerty closed the door on that part of his life and refused to play any of their hits during his live performances after going solo. The reasoning for this rejection was Saul Zaentz, the Fantasy Records founder, who owned the rights to the material made by the young, naïve group and cost them millions of dollars.
Thankfully, Fogerty is in a much better place these days and can proudly look back upon their career with a sense of happiness. It took until 1987 for the singer-songwriter to perform any Creedence Clearwater Revival track during his solo shows, and it wasn’t until 2023 that he regained control of his masters.
It was a crying shame that he shunned the catalogue of songs, which are more than just songs to him, but the story of his life. None matter more to him than ‘Green River’, his favourite, which is a piece of music that he first promised himself to write one day as a child.
The track, from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1969 album of the same name, captures the spirit and essence of everything he wanted the band to be, as well as carrying an unmatched level of sentimentality. Musically, ‘Green River’ was a homage to Sun Records, formerly the home of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and other iconic American musicians from the 1950s.
More importantly, though, it was a love letter to Putah Creek, Northern California, where he’d vacation every summer as a child. He didn’t know what it would sound like, but even back then, Fogerty knew it was one hell of a song title.
Reflecting on the album Green River to Uncut in 2012, Fogerty explained that his songwriting was now in a place where he “began to feel I had the freedom or power to do what I wanted.”
Listing specific highlights from the record, he added, “And where I went, starting with ‘Bad Moon Rising‘, was right to my emotional, musical core, which was very resonant of Sun Records,” before picking out ‘Green River’ as “my favourite song from the Creedence era because it really had the whole Sun Records vibe to me – and the album, too.”
As much as the song is a reference to the luscious green river of Putah Creek, the title was on his mind even before he laid eyes on the beautiful landscape.
Pinpointing the very moment that the idea for ‘Green River’ was born, Fogerty added, “‘Green River’ came from sitting at the counter at the drugstore a block-and-a-half from my house in El Cerrito. They served soft drinks, and behind the counter was a big bottle of Green River, which was a syrup. On the label, there was this artist’s rendering of a sunset behind a little creek. I said, ‘Green River’… that’d be a cool song. Someday, I should grow up and write it.”
Thanks to the serendipity of his love of Putah Creek, the song that was eventually written wasn’t just about a bottle of syrup. With one song, Fogerty successfully bottled up his precious childhood memories into a classic anthem, and it’s easy to understand why ‘Green River’ means more to him than anything else.
