← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Walter Yannis
Thread ID: 20831 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2005-11-01
2005-11-01 09:08 | User Profile
[URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/arts/music/01foge.html?th&emc=th"]New York Times[/URL] November 1, 2005 John Fogerty Is Closer to Peace With a Label By ANTHONY DeCURTIS
Battles between artists and record labels are as old as the history of recorded music, but rarely has the tension between art and commerce grown as personal as in John Fogerty's epic struggle with Fantasy Records and its longtime owner, Saul Zaentz, over the lucrative catalog of songs that Mr. Fogerty wrote for Creedence Clearwater Revival in the late 60's. That cache of roots-rock gems, including "Proud Mary," "Who'll Stop the Rain" and "Fortunate Son," was the focus of decades of vindictive lawsuits, artistic paralysis, bitter denunciations and even desperate fraternal warfare.
So Mr. Fogerty's return to the label in the wake of its sale last year to the Concord Music Group represents a powerful personal deliverance for him. This week, Fantasy is releasing "The Long Road Home: The Ultimate John Fogerty - Creedence Collection," a 25-track CD encompassing, for the first time, both original studio versions of Mr. Fogerty's classic Creedence songs and later solo work, like "Centerfield" and "The Old Man Down the Road." Next year, Fantasy will release a live DVD, recorded during a show Mr. Fogerty and his band performed at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles in September. And plans for a new studio album are also in the works.
The 60-year-old songwriter finds his homecoming immensely satisfying. "This is just wonderful," he said by telephone. "We're working very closely together and it feels great." Norman Lear, the television producer and one of Concord's owners, returns the love. "We're hoping John enjoys a re-emergence on the international scene," he said. "He's writing a lot, so we hope to record a lot of new material. It will be great to cheerlead his voice. He has a lot to say."
Mr. Fogerty's warm feelings, however, do not extend retroactively to Mr. Zaentz, who would not be interviewed for this article, or other former Fantasy executives. "The way I view Saul Zaentz and his henchmen, shall I say - well, that probably gives it away," Mr. Fogerty said. "I still view them in the same light. If I was walking down the street and those rattlesnakes were walking towards me, I would give them a wide berth."
Creedence Clearwater Revival - which placed 20 songs in the Top 20 and, in 1969, outsold the Beatles - made a fortune for Mr. Zaentz, who owned the copyrights to the band's songs, the vast majority of which Mr. Fogerty wrote, sang and produced. After Creedence split up, in 1972, Mr. Fogerty found his deal with Fantasy intolerable, and finally had to cede an even greater portion of his royalties to Mr. Zaentz to extricate himself from it so he could record elsewhere. To top things off, much of the money Mr. Fogerty and Creedence had made was lost in an offshore tax-shelter deal arranged by Fantasy.
Lawsuits flew around all these issues - the members of Creedence won a significant judgment in the tax-shelter case, for example. But none of those actions match the Dickensian flair of Mr. Zaentz's allegation that Mr. Fogerty's song "The Old Man Down the Road," from his 1985 album "Centerfield," was an illegal remake of Creedence's "Run Through the Jungle," one of the songs to which Mr. Zaentz owned the copyright. Essentially, Mr. Zaentz sued Mr. Fogerty for plagiarizing himself - to the tune of $140 million. Of course, Mr. Fogerty had provoked Mr. Zaentz with two thinly disguised attacks on the album: "Mr. Greed" and "Zanz Kant Dance" (eventually changed in the face of still more legal threats to "Vanz Kant Dance"), which Mr. Fogerty coyly described as "a song about a pig." Mr. Fogerty won the plagiarism case, with one aspect of it - whether Mr. Fogerty could sue Mr. Zaentz for reimbursement of his legal fees - eventually reaching the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Fogerty found it nearly impossible to work while all this was going on, twice going for nearly a decade without recording. He also refused for many years to perform his Creedence songs. "I'm too honest," Mr. Fogerty said. "I couldn't sing 'Proud Mary' in front of people and try to feel as happy as that song is." Even today, with Mr. Fogerty's connection to his Creedence material freshly renewed, a reunion with the band's other two surviving members looks extremely unlikely. Stu Cook, the band's bassist, and Doug Clifford, its drummer, who currently perform as Creedence Clearwater Revisited, and Mr. Fogerty's older brother Tom, who played guitar in Creedence and who died in 1990, all continued their business relationships with Fantasy long after Mr. Fogerty severed his, a fact that poisoned their connection to him. The breakdown was so severe that the brothers failed to reconcile even at the point of Tom Fogerty's death.
"I dearly loved my brother Tom," Mr. Fogerty said. "As time went on, though, Tom insisted that Saul was his best friend, which he said many times to me and, of course, in the press. So Tom basically took sides with my worst mortal enemy. That was hurtful." When Creedence was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, Mr. Fogerty refused to perform with Mr. Cook and Mr. Clifford.
Mr. Fogerty's new deal with Fantasy does not restore the ownership of his songs to him. "John would like to own his songs, and unfortunately we can't do that, because we just paid a lot of money for them," says Concord's president, Glenn Barros. Mr. Fogerty is philosophical. "You know, maybe it happens in 'Cinderella,' but it doesn't in real life, where those people buy a company and then turn around and give it away," he said, "even though I am the main inventor of the property that generates all that wealth. I'm the guy that wrote and sang all those songs, and arranged and produced the records. So sometimes there's a lot of irony within my being. It's like, 'Gee, everybody's all excited about something that basically came out of one guy - me!' "
However, the new arrangement does restore the portion of Mr. Fogerty's royalties that he had given up to get out of his recording contract with Fantasy. "They were very generous in that regard," Mr. Fogerty said of Concord's management. "That was a wonderful first step."
2005-11-01 17:47 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Walter Yannis][URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/arts/music/01foge.html?th&emc=th"]New York Times[/URL] November 1, 2005 John Fogerty Is Closer to Peace With a Label By ANTHONY DeCURTIS
Mr. Fogerty's warm feelings, however, do not extend retroactively to Mr. Zaentz, who would not be interviewed for this article, or other former Fantasy executives. "The way I view [B][I][COLOR="Red"]Saul Zaentz [/COLOR][/I][/B]and his henchmen, shall I say - well, that probably gives it away," Mr. Fogerty said. "I still view them in the same light. If I was walking down the street and those rattlesnakes were walking towards me, I would give them a wide berth."
Creedence Clearwater Revival - which placed 20 songs in the Top 20 and, in 1969, outsold the Beatles - made a fortune for Mr. Zaentz, who owned the copyrights to the band's songs, the vast majority of which Mr. Fogerty wrote, sang and produced. After Creedence split up, in 1972, Mr. Fogerty found his deal with Fantasy intolerable, and finally had to cede an even greater portion of his royalties to Mr. Zaentz to extricate himself from it so he could record elsewhere. To top things off, much of the money Mr. Fogerty and Creedence had made was lost in an offshore tax-shelter deal arranged by Fantasy. [/QUOTE]To me Fogerty and Creedence have been the greatest of all rock and roll groups. To learn that a greedy Jew ripped him of saddens me.
I look forward to hearing more from him, even at the advanced age of 60.
2005-11-01 19:22 | User Profile
John Fogerty composed this song in "honor" of monsieur Saul Zaentz:
[FONT="Arial"][SIZE="4"][B] Vanz Kant Danz[/B][/SIZE] [B] (was originally ";Zanz Kant Danz";)[/B]
CHORUS: Vanz can't dance, but he'll steal your money, Watch him or he'll rob you blind. (X 4)
CHORUS
Out in the street a crowd is gatherin', Pushed down by the heat of the building, they're wantin' to dance. Makin' their way up the street, a boy with a pig and a radio; Little Billy can work on the crowd, put 'em into a trance, For the little pig Vanz.
CHORUS
You're watchin' 'em dance, not a care in the world; So Billy and Vanz get busy, they're makin' their move; [U]The little pig knows what to do, he's silent and quick, just like Oliver Twist[/U]; Before it's over, your pocket is clean, A four-legged thief paid a visit on you.
CHORUS CHORUS CHORUS[/FONT]
To allusion to Oliver Twist was probably also an allusion to Jew Fagin...
Petr
2005-11-01 19:51 | User Profile
[I]Fogerty's newest song here below about the ugly war in Iraq......certainly won't endear him to any neokhans! [/I]
[B]DéjàVu All Over Again[/B] by John Fogerty
Did you hear 'em talking bout it on the radio? Did you try to read the writing on the wall? Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before It's like déjàvu all over again.
Day by day, I hear the voices risin' Starting with a whisper like it did before Day by day, we count the dead and dying Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score
Did you hear 'em talking 'bout it on the radio Could your eyes believe the writing on the wall Did that voice inside you say, I've heard it all before It's like déjàvu all over again.
One by one I see the old ghosts rising stumbling 'cross big muddy where the light gets dim Day after day, another momma's crying, she's lost her precious child to a war that has no end.
Did you hear 'em talking 'bout it on the radio? Did you stop to read the writing at the wall? Did that voice inside you say I've seen this all before It's like déjàvu all over again It's like déjàvu all over again
2005-11-02 08:48 | User Profile
I'm glad Mr. Fogerty is pleased with the new arrangements; he's a very fine artist, and deserves to enjoy the fruits of his brilliance. Having said that, it galls me that his creations will still enrich [I]another[/I] notorious kike, the loathsome Norman Lear.
2005-11-02 15:22 | User Profile
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.
There's also a negative side."
Hunter S. Thompson
2005-11-02 15:55 | User Profile
[QUOTE=edward gibbon]To me Fogerty and Creedence have been the greatest of all rock and roll groups...I look forward to hearing more from him, even at the advanced age of 60.[/QUOTE]
Fogerty didn't serve in Vietnam, right?
I'm having trouble squaring that fact with Ed actually liking the guy.
2005-11-02 17:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident][B][I]Fogerty didn't serve in Vietnam, right?[/I][/B] I'm having trouble squaring that fact with Ed actually liking the guy.[/QUOTE]His brother Tom did, or so I think.
The way somebody conducts himself when others are being asked to risk their life means much to me. I distinguish between war and music, most especially rock and roll.
I know it means little to such stalwarts as Okie, who has quoted Fade the Butcher to substantiate a slur, Angler and many others, but I had hoped you may be different. If meaningful change is to come, courage, most especially physical, will be required.