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Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son

Arguably the best song Creedence ever released. The single was Down On The Corner/Fortunate Son and the two combine peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1969. Fortunate Song also shows a #14 charting position by itself. Creedence and The Beatles released some of the best double A-Sided singles.

This is an anti-establishment song of defiance, both anti-Washington and against the Vietnam War. John Fogerty and Doug Clifford (drummer) both enlisted in the Army Reserves in 1966 (to avoid being drafted and shipped to Vietnam) and were discharged in 1968 after serving their military commitments.

John Fogerty: The thoughts behind this song – it was a lot of anger. So it was the Vietnam War going on… Now I was drafted and they’re making me fight, and no one has actually defined why. So this was all boiling inside of me and I sat down on the edge of my bed and out came “It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son!” You know, it took about 20 minutes to write the song

“The song speaks more to the unfairness of class than war itself,” “It’s the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them.”

From Songfacts

This is one of three political songs on the Willy And The Poorboys album. The others were “It Came From the Sky” and “Don’t Look Now (It Ain’t You or Me).”

Richard Nixon was president of the US when group leader John Fogerty wrote this song. Fogerty was not a fan of Nixon and felt that people close to the president were receiving preferential treatment.

This song spoke out against the war in Vietnam, but was supportive of the soldiers fighting there. Like many CCR fans, most of the soldiers came from the working class, and were there because they didn’t have connections who could get them out. The song is sung from the perspective of one of these men, who ends up fighting because he is not a “Senator’s son.”

Creedence performed this on The Ed Sullivan Show, probably because the show’s producers didn’t realize it was a protest song. The show tried hard not to offend anyone and usually had bands perform their least controversial songs or alter the lyrics for the show (see “Let’s Spend The Night Together” and “Light My Fire”).

Fogerty recorded a bunch of vocal takes for “Down On The Corner” before singing this. As a result, his voice was strained, which he thinks is apparent on the song.

This is one of those songs that came together very quickly. Fogerty recalled to American Songwriter magazine in January 2013: “When I felt it was about ready to hatch, I went into my bedroom and just sat down to write. The whole thing happened in about 20 minutes. That just poured out.”

Like Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.,” this is often misinterpreted as a patriotic anthem when it is the opposite.

Wrangler jeans used this in commercials in 2000, taking only the first two lines: “Some folks are born, made to wave the flag, Ooh, that red, white and blue,” implying the patriotic misinterpretation. The next lines are: “And when the band plays “Hail to the Chief” Ooh, they’re pointin’ the cannon at you,” but those lyrics would not sell jeans very well.

John Fogerty was furious, but there was nothing he could do about it, since he didn’t own the rights to the song. Wrangler’s director of advertising responded by saying the brand heard the song as “more an ode to the common man. The common man is who we have been directing Wrangler toward.”

The ads ran through 2002, when Fogerty voiced his displeasure in a Los Angeles Times article and the company pulled the spots. Fogerty later explained that it touched a nerve because the ad distorted the meaning of the song. “If there’s some other song that was probably just a simple rock ‘n’ roll song, maybe I wouldn’t feel so strongly, but ‘Fortunate Son’ has a real point to it,” he said.

In 2016, Wrangler again turned to CCR to soundtrack a spot, this time using “Up Around the Bend.”

Fogerty does not own the publishing rights to this song. He lost them, along with all the other songs he wrote for CCR, in his contract with Fantasy Records, which the band signed when they were struggling. Fantasy’s boss at the time, Saul Zaentz, controls the rights and can use the songs any way he wants, as long as it isn’t performed by any member of CCR. Fogerty hates that his song is constantly misused, but has no choice. He expressed this frustration on his solo track “Vanz Kant Danz.”

This has been covered by U2, Bruce Springsteen, Kid Rock, Dropkick Murphys, Sleater-Kinney, Corrosion Of Conformity, Minutemen, Uncle Tupelo, Bob Seger, Circle Jerks, Joe Lynn Turner, Bunny Foot Charm, Death Cab For Cutie, Undead, Raccoon, and 38 Special.

When interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine, John Fogerty was asked: “What inspired ‘Fortunate Son’?” His response: “Julie Nixon was hanging around with David Eisenhower, and you just had the feeling that none of these people were going to be involved with the war. In 1969, the majority of the country thought morale was great among the troops, and like eighty percent of them were in favor of the war. But to some of us who were watching closely, we just knew we were headed for trouble.”

Wyclef Jean’s slow, passionate cover of this was the theme song for the 2004 political thriller The Manchurian Candidate. Another popular political film from the summer of ’04 was the controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, of which John Fogerty remarked: “With the Michael Moore movie, certain conservative talk show hosts call him un-American. Him and anybody else who says anything about the war… To question your country’s policy, especially in a war that kills people, is definitely not un-American. It’s probably the most patriotic thing you can do.” >>

This is one of the first protest songs that makes the point that it’s the poor who are most likely to fight the wars. During the Iraq war, System Of A Down covered this topic with their song “B.Y.O.B..”

Former United States president George W. Bush is often considered a “Fortunate Son,” as he reaped the benefits that came with growing up in a powerful political family, which may have helped him avoid combat. This is covered in a book called Fortunate Son.

On November 6, 2014, Fogerty performed this at the White House as part of the A Salute to the Troops concert that was broadcast the next day on PBS ahead of Veteran’s Day. Fogerty wasn’t sure how the song would be received at an event honoring military personnel, but it got a great reaction from the crowd, including many of the veterans and President Obama.

This was featured in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump as the title character, played by Tom Hanks, is en route to serve in Vietnam.

Fortunate Son

Some folks are born
Made to wave the flag
Oh, they’re red, white and blue
And when the band plays “Hail to the chief”
They point the cannon right at you

It ain’t me
It ain’t me.
I ain’t no senator’s son
It ain’t me
It ain’t me
I ain’t no fortunate one

Some folks are born
Silver spoon in hand
Lord don’t they help themselves
But when the tax man comes to the door
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale

It ain’t me
It ain’t me
I ain’t no millionaire’s son
It ain’t me
It ain’t me
I ain’t no fortunate one

Some folks inherit
Star spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war
And when you ask them
“How much should we give?”
They only answer “More! More! More!”

It ain’t me
It ain’t me
I ain’t no military son
It ain’t me
It ain’t me
I ain’t no fortunate one

It ain’t me
It ain’t me
I ain’t no Fortunate Son

Hall and Oates – Sara Smile

I liked Hall and Oates until the early 80s when they started to use more of a formula.

Daryl Hall wrote this for his collaborator/girlfriend Sara Allen. She contributed to many of the duo’s hit singles, including “You Make My Dreams”, “Private Eyes”, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”, and “Maneater”.

They never got married, but Daryl and Sara were together for about 28 years before they broke up in 2001. In Entertainment Weekly October 16, 2009, Hall listed this as one of their favorite songs and explained: “That was a postcard to Sara Allen, who was my partner for many, many years, a ‘having a great time, wish you were here,’ kind of thing. I cannot tell you how many girls have told me they were named for it!”

Sara’s sister, Janna Allen, co-wrote their hit “Kiss On My List.” Janna died of leukemia in 1993 at age 36.

Sara Smile peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 in 1976.

From Songfacts

The album’s cover photo by Mick Jagger’s makeup designer Pierre LaRoche is a glitzy shot of Hall and Oates in heavy makeup. John Oates talked about the eye-catching image in Nick Tosches’ biography Dangerous Dances: “We decided that if we were going to put our faces on an album cover for the first time we wanted to do it in a big way. Pierre said, in that French accent of his, ‘I will immortalize you!’ And he just did. To this day it’s the only album cover that people ask us about.”

David Bowie said that LaRoche was the best makeup artist he ever worked with.

According to Barry Rudolph, who was an engineer on the session, Hall sang his vocal live with the band. The only edit they made was to punch in over the word “Sara” in the beginning of the second chorus. With the backing vocals, Hall was trying to get them to sound like the doo-wop group The Dells.

In 2009, the country singer Jimmy Wayne recorded an updated version of this song with Hall & Oates. Wayne got his first record deal because of this tune after the Dreamworks executive Scott Borchetta heard him sing it, and it has been part of his concert repertoire ever since. Wayne said in publicity materials: “Over 13 years ago, I picked a Hall & Oates Greatest Hits CD out of a bargain box that sat outside the department store in the old Gaston Mall in Gastonia, North Carolina. I listened to the CD on my way home and I heard ‘Sara Smile’ for the first time. I began singing this song long before I knew how to play it on guitar, and I just felt like it was as if the song was written for me.”

The Jimmy Wayne updated version was Hall & Oates’ debut on the Hot Country Songs chart.

This song was performed on the episode “Tom, Sarah and Usher” of the Adult Swim show The Boondocks. In the episode, Tom DuBois starts to sing the song to his wife, when Usher comes in and sings the song a lot better.

Tommy Mottola, who would later become chairman of Sony Music and marry Mariah Carey, was Hall & Oates’ manager at the time. He had some experience as a musician (recording as “T.D. Valentine”) and is credited for playing keyboards on the Daryl Hall And John Oates album.

Chris Bond produced this track with Hall & Oates. According to Scott Edwards, who played bass on this song, much of its success is attributable to Bond. Says Edwards: “Chris Bond was the real impetus behind ‘Sara Smile,’ ‘Rich Girl,’ ‘She’s Gone’ for Hall & Oates. But he was never given the accolades he deserved. He’s the one in my mind that was really responsible for their success. They may have written the lyrics and the chords and all that, but Chris was the one who figured out the production and the projection of it. He was a really good arranger and he wrote out note for note. He knew exactly how long he wanted you to let a note ring, how to hit it, how to release it. He was a good guitar player, but he played all the instruments. So he was one person who really could write out everything and it would be great.” (Here’s our full Scott Edwards interview.)

As you can imagine, this is a tough song for Sara Allen to hear, and since it still shows up on many playlists she can’t always avoid it. Daryl Hall explained to American Songwriter: “When that song comes on, the reality hits that we’re not together anymore, so it’s a very poignant and hard thing for her to deal with. I can still sing that song today and feel real about it – and always will – because emotions don’t change even though circumstances change.”

This song has been performed a number of times on Daryl Hall’s show Live From Daryl’s House. Jimmy Wayne, Rumor, Monte Montgomery and Smokey Robinson have all done the song with Hall on the program. One artist who did not was Train, whose lead singer Pat Monahan asked Hall how he hit the high notes. “That surprised me,” Hall said in our 2015 interview. “Because Pat has a higher voice than me. Pat Monahan could sing that song in his sleep.”

Sara Smile

Baby hair with a woman’s eyes
I can feel you watching in the night
All alone with me and we’re waiting for the sunlight
When I feel cold, you warm me
And when I feel I can’t go on, you come and hold me
It’s you and me forever

Sara smile
Won’t you smile a while for me, Sara

If you feel like leaving, you know you can go
But why don’t you stay until tomorrow?
If you want to be free, you know, all you got to do is say so
And when you feel cold, I’ll warm you
And when you feel you can’t go on, I’ll come and hold you
It’s you and me forever

Sara smile
Won’t you smile a while for me, Sara
Sara smile
Won’t you smile a while for me, Sara

Smile
Won’t you smile a while for me, Sara
Oh smile a while, won’t you laugh Sara
Make me feel like a man not keeping me crazy crazy
Smile a while

Prince – I Wanna Be Your Lover

This song is sometimes forgotten in the shadows of his Prince’s hits but this was his first hit single. Prince was only 21 when this song peaked in January of 1980.

I Wanna Be Your Lover was the first single from Prince’s second self-titled album Prince. It was his breakout hit, going to #1 on the R&B chart, #11 on the Billboard 100, #2 in New Zealand, #62 in Canada, and #42 in the UK. The song became a live favorite and a staple of his early setlists.

“I Wanna Be Your Lover” was written after Warner Bros. requested a follow-up to Prince’s debut album For You, which had underperformed commercially. In response, Prince recorded “I Wanna Be Your Lover.”

From Songfacts

According to the liner notes in the Prince compilation album The Hits / The B-Sides, this song was inspired by Patrice Rushen, an R&B singer/songwriter (“Forget Me Nots”) who did some work programming synthesizers on Prince’s debut album For You. Apparently, Prince was smitten, but nothing came of it.

He offered both “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and “I Feel For You” to Rushen, but she turned them down.

Prince is rather humble in this song, explaining off the top that he’s not a rich man, but he’s the guy who won’t let her down. Unlike his first single, “Soft and Wet,” this one is far more innocent and radio-friendly. This being Prince, there is still some sexual double meaning, as he sings, “I wanna be the only one you come for.”

This was the first Prince song to get a video. It’s a fairly basic clip showing Prince performing the song with a variety of different instruments.

I Wanna Be Your Lover

I ain’t got no money
I ain’t like those other guys you hang around
It’s kinda funny
But they always seem to let you down
And I get discouraged
‘Cause I never see you anymore
And I need your love, babe
That’s all I’m living for, yeah

I didn’t want to pressure you, baby
But all I ever wanted to do

I want to be your lover
I want to be the only one that makes you come, running
I want to be your lover
I want to turn you on, turn you out
All night long, make you shout
Oh, lover, yeah!
I want to be the only one you come for

I want to be your brother
I want to be your mother and your sister, too
There ain’t no other
That can do the things that I’ll do to you

And I get discouraged
‘Cause you treat me just like a child
And they say I’m so shy, yeah
But with you I just go wild, ooo ooo ooo

I didn’t want to pressure you, baby, no
But all I ever wanted to do

I want to be your lover
I want to be the only one that makes you come, running
I want to be your lover
I want to turn you on, turn you out
All night long make you shout
Oh, lover, yeah!
I want to be the only one you come for, yeah

Tales From The Darkside TV Series

In the eighties, I would watch this as much as possible. It was a good Twilight Zone type show that had some hits and misses but even when it missed it could be creepy. The show combined horror, science fiction, and comedy. The series was made in the 1980s and boy can you tell! The music, the sets, and the hair.

Each episode of this TV series depicts a short, strange tale…with a twist! With eerie stories that were most of the time smartly written. The usual plot formula is comprised of an initial normal, mundane situation that gradually begins to get off-kilter, with suspense building up to the final, chilling, surprise conclusion.

Some episodes are gruesome, a few are of a lighter comedic style. Like many such shows, they were adapted from the work of famous genre authors of the period such as Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, and Clive Barker. Many episodes also featured veteran actors of the 40’s and 50’s.

The show ran from 1983 to 1988 and had a total of 90 episodes.

So…listen very carefully… get some popcorn, put some 80’s acid-washed jeans on, and binge watch this show at night time to make the atmosphere a little creepier.

Thanks to Lisa for recommending this show!

Batman 1966 – 1968

Cool hideout, Cool theme, Cool uniforms, Hot Batgirl and the Coolest car. The Batman TV series ran from 1966-1968 with 120 episodes. This was a fun campy show…not a dark drama searching for the reasons why Batman is a vigilante.

I was in the generation after this aired but I loved watching the reruns. Back in the mid-seventies, I was 8 and under the impression that Batman, Gilligans Island, and The Monkees were still making these fun shows. Batman was so colorful and expressive with it’s POW, BOOM, ZAP comic book play. The campiness played great in this show.

Adam West played the campy Batman perfectly and his ward…Burt Ward was just as good with his part. One of the great things about Batman was the villains. Cesar Romero did a great Joker. He may be my favorite Joker. Burgess Meredith as the Penguin and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler was also perfectly cast. I always liked Catwoman played by Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt. Last but certainly not least Bat Girl played by Yvonne Craig.

Lee Meriwether acted as Catwoman in the movie. Yes, there was a movie that they made in 1966! Like the series, it’s just as fun! It has the infamous bat-shark repellent in the movie.

The Batmobile! I loved that car. It started life as a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. George Barris did his magic and turned it into what we now know as the Batmobile. My personal favorite of all the Batman cars.

The cool theme song was composed by Neal Hefti.

I want to thank blainerestaurantreport for suggesting Batman to write about… He also told me that Burt Ward got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame…naturally beside Adam West. Congrats Burt!

T. Rex – Bang A Gong

This song was written by Marc Bolan and recorded when T. Rex was touring America in 1971. The group had made inroads in their native UK with their 1970 self-titled album but were little-known in the US. Marc Bolan wanted to change that by coming up with something that would strike to the heart in America. They were not able to break in America as well as they did in the UK…they had a “mania” in the UK for a while.

Some trivia… Marc Bolan took his name from Bob Dylan… BO from Bob and LAN from Dylan. It seems like any musician from that time has a link to Bob.

This song peaked at #10 in the Billboard 100 and #22 in the UK in 1972.

T. Rex was huge in the UK starting around 1970 but then started to decline in 1974. They did have a documentary made about them produced and directed by Ringo Starr called Born to Boogie. Bolan has been credited with starting Glam Rock.

Bolan went on to host a musical TV show called Marc in which he hosted a mix of new and established bands and performed his own songs. Marc’s final show was recorded on September 7, 1977, with special guest David Bowie…who was a friend of Bolan. I have a video of this appearance at the bottom of the post.

Marc Bolan would die in a car wreck 9 days later on September 16, 1977.

From Songfacts

Written by T. Rex lead singer Marc Bolan, this song is all about sex, but with imagery so comically vague it would be hard for even the most prudish listeners to take offense. Bolan’s delivery is feral, and he does keep calling the girl “dirty and sweet,” but you really have to stretch to find sexual connotations in a “hubcap diamond star halo” or a “cloak full of eagles.” The biggest suggestion is in the title.

According to T. Rex drummer Bill Legend, he and Bolan worked out the rhythm one day in Bolan’s hotel room, and when the tour got to Los Angeles, the group reconvened with members of the team that worked on their first album: producer Tony Visconti and backup singers Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, who were members of The Turtles and recorded as Flo & Eddie. At Kaylan’s home in Laurel Canyon, they spent all night working up the song, and the next day, they recorded it at Wally Heider Studios in LA. When they got to the studio, they had the chorus, the rhythm, and the “you’re dirty and sweet” line, but Bolan had to come up with the other lyrics on the spot, indicating he wasn’t thinking too hard about them. Everyone agrees that cocaine was involved throughout the process.

This is a great example of “glam rock,” which was characterized by outrageous, often effeminate costumes, nonsensical lyrics, driving beats and very theatrical stage shows.

In the UK, this hit #1 on July 24, 1971, giving T. Rex their second chart-topper there, following “Hot Love.” The band’s American record company, Reprise, dragged their feet on the song and didn’t release it until January 1972. It went to #10 in March, but ended up being the group’s only significant hit Stateside. In the UK, they had two more #1s – “Telegram Sam” and “Metal Guru” – and a total of 11 Top 10s.

This song is titled “Get It On” in the UK, but in America, there was a minor hit with that title by a group called Chase in 1971, so the title was changed to the less suggestive “Bang A Gong (Get It On).”

The last line, “Meanwhile, I’m still thinking…” is a nod to a 1959 Chuck Berry song called “Little Queenie,” where he sings, “Meanwhile, I’m thinking” with the same inflection.

The band released this a year after they shortened their name. They had been Tyrannosaurus Rex.

After falling from fame a few years after this came out, lead singer Marc Bolan developed a debilitating cocaine and alcohol habit, but that’s not what killed him: He died on September 16, 1977 when a Mini driven by his girlfriend, the singer Gloria Jones, crashed into a tree.

In 1985, the “supergroup” The Power Station, which included Robert Palmer and members of Duran Duran, released this as a single under the title “Get It On.” Their version went to #9 US and #22 UK.

The Power Station performed the song on the “Whatever Works” episode of Miami Vice, which aired October 4, 1985, just two months after it peaked in America.

Blondie recorded a live version for their 1978 Parallel Lines album. The Damned and Frankie Goes to Hollywood are some of the other artists to cover the song.

David Bowie as a guest on Marc’s show.

Bang A Gong

Well you’re dirty and sweet, clad in black
Don’t look back and I love you
You’re dirty and sweet, oh yeah
Well you’re slim and you’re weak
You’ve got the teeth of a hydra upon you
You’re dirty sweet and you’re my girl