John Fogerty— Still Prolific

John Fogerty was the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the extremely successful 1960's band, Creedence Clearwater Revival. Following a prolific run of hit albums and singles between 1968 and 1970, Fogerty's productivity slowed to a crawl; his solo career became dogged with legal troubles, and he practically disappeared from the radar for a brief period time. The public's expectations of Fogerty were stratospheric, based on the music he'd produced with Creedence, and this proved to be a hopeful look at possibility. "Don't You Wish It Was True" opens the album Revival, which was released in 2007 [but we HAD to mention it] with John Fogerty dreaming of looking into heaven and seeing light, beauty, and harmony.

The music shuffles and swings, evoking pictures of porch swings in front of grand, Southern houses and kids playing in parks. It's a bittersweet wish for freedom from earthbound tribulations that evokes the best of the CCR years. The lyrics infuse such a laid back Zen-like attitude that you'll find yourself thinking about the fact that maybe you should talk to your neighbors a bit more... "An angel took my hand, said you don’t have to hurry/ Got all the time in the world, don’t worry/ Don’t you wish it was true/ What if tomorrow everybody was your friend/ Anyone could take you in/ No matter what or where you been."

Fogerty's writing process hasn't changed much over the years but the artist admits that it's definitely evolved. "The thing is, when you're writing a song, let's say you've got a good verse going and your next move is the bridge or the second verse or whatever. That's when you have to want it to be a good song— not a throwaway song or in-a-hurry song. So that's when the labor begins. That's when you don’t settle for the first thing that occurred to you. You stick with it until it really fits. Sometimes that comes to you in an instant, and other times it doesn't occur to you. And then one day you’re riding along in the car and you step out into the parking lot in the mall, or maybe you're brushing your teeth... and suddenly that thing you've been thinking about for a long time just goes through your brain at a different angle, and you go— of course! And then it's clear as a bell."