John Fogerty – Old Man Down The Road

One thing that Max Picks has taught me is that I haven’t posted as many hits as I truly like. I usually concentrate on the album cuts but songs like this I really like. This one is a good example. I thought for sure I did it before but never have. Well, I guess I’ve given away one Pick…

It was one of the very very very very…yes that is bad English…but what I mean to say is a VERY rare new song that our band played. See…I even liked older songs much more in the mid-eighties. We were already playing many CCR songs so this just fit right in perfectly. It seemed weird playing a song in the top 10 back then. It’s a fun easy riff to play on guitar. Something a beginner could do. 

It was one of those songs in the mid-eighties that I could not get enough of. Real drums and real guitar riffs. Fogerty had been out of the spotlight since 1975…this single was released in December 1984 right before his great album Centerfield. I didn’t buy this single…I knew it was Fogerty so I just bought the album. It was Creedence in the 80s to me. His next album I won’t talk about as much but this was an instant classic. The album had Big Train From Memphis, I Saw It On TV, Centerield,  and Rock and Roll Girls plus more very good songs. This is the song that signaled his comeback.

After it was released John had said the song was supposedly about “the devil” and that would be Saul Zaentz who owned all of Fogerty’s publishing from the CCR days. To top it off and make the song pretty much true…Saul Zaentz sued Fogerty for sounding like himself in this song. He claimed this song sounded like Run Through The Jungle…one that Fogerty wrote with Creedence. John has since said that Saul probably jumped into his mind after the lawsuit…and he developed that riff and just wrote around it. 

The B-Side to this single was Big Train From Memphis (Below) which I loved. It’s one of my favorite Train songs. The song peaked at #10 on the Billboard 100, #12 in Canada, #11 in New Zealand, and #90 in the UK. Wow…I don’t guess the UK were Fogerty fans.

John Fogerty was in court playing the song on guitar to show how he wrote it and said this later: “Yeah, it’s the same interval. What am I supposed to do, get an inoculation? I proved that, no, I didn’t copy myself, I invented something new that really sounds a lot like me. Do you find fault with Elvis for sounding like Elvis? When McCartney sounds like McCartney or Dylan sounds like Dylan? No one else ever had to go through that.”

John DID win the court case. If he had lost that case…all hell would have broken loose on solo artists who left bands for a solo career that sounded like themselves.

Big Train From Memphis

Old Man Down The Road

He take the thunder from the mountain, he take the lightning from the sky,
He bring the strong man to his begging knee, he make the young girl’s mama cry.

You got to hidey-hide, you got to jump and run;
You got to hidey-hidey-hide, the Old Man is down the road.

He got the voices speak in riddles, he got the eye as black as coal,
He got a suitcase covered with rattlesnake hide, and he stands right in the road.

You got to hidey-hide, you got to jump up run away;
You got to hidey-hidey-hide, the Old Man is down the road.

Ah!

He make the river call your lover, he make the barking of the hound,
Put a shadow ‘cross the window, when the Old Man comes around.

You got to hidey-hide, you got to jump and run again;
You got to hidey-hidey-hide, the Old Man is down the road.
The Old Man is down the road.

Ah!
You got ta, you got ta, you got ta, hidey-hidey-hide!

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

34 thoughts on “John Fogerty – Old Man Down The Road”

  1. I love train songs, but this one was new to me. ‘The Old Man Down the Road’ is a song about leaving home and running into a despicable Devil like character that speaks in riddles, his eyes are as black as coal and this old man is blocking the way with his suitcase covered in rattlesnake hide. Saul Zaentz may very well be the devil.

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  2. A good song for sure that must be the answer to many trivia game questions, with him being sued for it as you describe! I had this album & ‘Eye of the Zombie’ that followed, they did sound like new CCR but that’s entirely what we’d expect from the guy who (basically) WAS CCR.

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      1. agreed, both albums had some really good tunes but a bit of filler, or ‘misses’, but probably ‘Centerfield’ was a better lineup all-over. The one tune I recall, off top of my head , liking a lot from ‘Zombie’ was ‘Soda Pop’.

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      2. I forgot about Soda Pop…I’m listening right now…yea he was bringing in more 80s sounds on this album…I think people wanted CCR sounding songs. That is why his first one was so big.
        Remember at that time? CCR was huge again…

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  3. That pretty much sums up one of the big problems in the music business – when someone can own the rights to your work so you can be sued for sounding like yourself. That said, it is pretty much the same song. If he’d copied anyone else he would have lost the suit. It sounds way closer (to my ears) than “My Sweet Lord” and “He’s So Fine”, which cost George Harrison more than half a million dollars.

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    1. You brought up something I wanted to check out. I’ve played both of them before…so I grabbed my guitar. The differences is the reason he won I’m sure. RTTJ is one chord…just one chord…a Dm…this song is 4 chords. The similiar part is the walkdown at the end of each riff. The feel of them are the same…partly because they are both based in minor chords…Dm and Em for this song.

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  4. That hurts deep when I hear what Fogerty had to go through in court. Seems like there is a long line of artists who have been tormented that way. What are they going to do now with AI “creating” music from bits and pieces they glean from the internet? Good tune! Heading out in a few to have “Christmas” with my fam. Have a great Sunday, Max.

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    1. Just think if he would have lost.
      Yea that is when AI goes too far…separating tracks is one thing (and that has been around for a while)…but creating something new is totally another.
      Have a good time! Merry Christmas

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      1. Just got home and we had a wonderful time together. She is such an adorable little darling, and she is sharp as can be. We were playing a game where she was eating strawberry yogurt and would load the spoon up to a heaping pile. When I took the spoon and tapped some off and said smaller bites she laughed like she had set me up and I fell for it. Another game is “Chase me, ______” that involved her mom first, then uncle, then me, then her dad. And she has an endless supply to keep going. I’m tired out now!

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      2. Awesome that you had a good time!
        They can wear you out Lisa! I’m glad you all finally got a time to get together. We had my nephew’s 3 year over…he wore me out.

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    1. It was like manna from heaven…for me. It was guitar based and cut right through. I really like that Blue Ridge Rangers album a lot.

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      4. I forgot about that one…I picked the album up at a second hand place…he did a great job of Sea Cruise also….a lot of horns.

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    1. Yes it is…through and through. Centerfield may be the best baseball song ever by itself.
      John…what are your favorite baseball songs?

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      2. Thats a cool list! The only one I never heard of is…It’s A Beautiful Day for a Ball Game…
        I knew Talking Baseball would be on there…or a good feeling it would.
        The only one I would add is

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  7. “Old Man Down the Road” is classic John Fogerty and has one of the craziest background stories I know, namely that lawsuit by Saul Zaentz. How should I put it diplomatically, what a miserable person! I also love the “Centerfold” album and got it on vinyl at the time it came out. I still should own that copy!

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    1. He was awful…and the reason Fogerty went 10 years before releasing something. It is a great album…through and through. I like the non hits as well.

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  9. I’m a little behind the curve here Max, pun intended. I was pretty excited when this album came out. That old man video was brilliant. JF really took one on the chin for recording artists and you’re right had he lost, everything would have changed. I’m so glad that bitterness went away and he was eventually able to play his old CCR songs again. His Revival album was just that and more. I’ve seen him perform twice and the second was the tour when he told a bit his personal story. Truly one of my most treasured live performances. If you look up the definition of a Rock and Roll guitar god, it should show his picture.

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    1. No problem Randy…. He is one person that I haven’t got a chance to see and yes I regret it. .If I get another chance I won’t miss it.
      This album was out of my dreams…a pure rock album in the middle of the 80s.

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