Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty picks out the “best song” he’s ever written

Songwriting is an art form that can’t always be explained, even by those responsible for creating the magic. However, on other occasions, the motivation for these pieces of musical majesty is straightforward and can be clarified with extreme ease. In the case of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, his “best song” was born out of pure jubilation.

Before beginning his musical career full-time, Fogerty’s life took an unwanted detour when he was drafted to serve in the US Army. While he would have preferred to devote this time to honing his craft, the musician and his country were embroiled in the controversial Vietnam War.

Thankfully, Fogerty only needed to participate in training before being put in the reserves for a year before being discharged in 1968. He was never deployed to Vietnam. Despite being thousands of miles away from the conflict, his time stationed as a stocking clerk at Fort Knox military base gave him insight into the severity of the situation.

Fogerty had no desire to get on the frontline but put his problems with the Vietnam War to one side and served the people of America upon being drafted. By the end of his tenure with the US Army, he’d already formed Creedence Clearwater Revival and started waiting for the opportunity to pursue his passion on a full-time basis.

Upon his discharge, Fogerty was ecstatic and filled with immense relief. Naturally, during this moment of extreme emotion, he turned to his pen, and the result was the blazing ‘Proud Mary’, which he funnelled his energy into creating.

Explaining in Bad Moon Rising: The Unofficial History of Creedence Clearwater Revival by Hank Bordowitz, Fogerty said of the song: “The Army and Creedence overlapped, so I was ‘that hippie with a record on the radio.’ I’d been trying to get out of the Army, and on the steps of my apartment house sat a diploma-sized letter from the government. It sat there for a couple of days, right next to my door. One day, I saw the envelope and bent down to look at it, noticing it said ‘John Fogerty.’”

He continued: “I went into the house, opened the thing up, and saw that it was my honorable discharge from the Army. I was finally out! This was 1968 and people were still dying. I was so happy, I ran out into my little patch of lawn and turned cartwheels. Then I went into my house, picked up my guitar and started strumming. ‘Left a good job in the city’ and then several good lines came out of me immediately.”

Fogerty elaborated: “I had the chord changes, the minor chord where it says, ‘Big wheel keep on turnin’/Proud Mary keep on burnin” (or ‘boinin’,’ using my funky pronunciation I got from Howling’ Wolf). By the time I hit ‘Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river,’ I knew I had written my best song. It vibrated inside me. When we rehearsed it, I felt like Cole Porter.”

Although Fogerty labelled it his “best song”, he became estranged from the track for many years due to the success of Ike & Tina Turner’s version. However, thanks to Bob Dylan, he reclaimed ‘Proud Mary’ in 1987, and it is now a staple in his setlist.

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