Finding Fogerty

Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival

Edited by Thomas M. Kitts

Finding Fogerty: Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, edited by Thomas M. Kitts, begins to correct the scholarly neglect of John Fogerty, one of America’s great songwriters, one of the rock era’s great vocalists, and one of its underrated guitarists and producers. This essential collection pulls together scholars from a wide range of disciplines and approaches to assess Fogerty’s fifty-year career and to argue for his musical and cultural significance. The composer of American classics like “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son,” “Green River,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” and “Centerfield,” Fogerty first achieved commercial success with the release of Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968. As the band’s songwriter, lead singer, lead guitarist, and producer, Fogerty led CCR in a blistering output of 10 top-ten singles and seven gold albums before disbanding CCR in 1972. Divided into four sections (“Born on the Bayou,” “Run Through the Jungle,” “Centerfield, ”and “Keep on Chooglin’”), Finding Fogerty investigates Fogerty’s songs, life, and legacy, and stands as a tribute to one of America’s most treasured musical legends.

Lexington Books

Pages: 262 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-7483-8 • Hardback • December 2012 • $115.00 • (£88.00)

978-0-7391-7485-2 • Paperback • December 2012 • $51.99 • (£40.00)

978-0-7391-7484-5 • eBook • December 2012 • $49.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Music / Individual Composer & Musician, Music / General, Music / Genres & Styles / Rock, Music / History & Criticism

Finding Fogerty

Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Finding Fogerty: Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, edited by Thomas M. Kitts, begins to correct the scholarly neglect of John Fogerty, one of America’s great songwriters, one of the rock era’s great vocalists, and one of its underrated guitarists and producers. This essential collection pulls together scholars from a wide range of disciplines and approaches to assess Fogerty’s fifty-year career and to argue for his musical and cultural significance. The composer of American classics like “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son,” “Green River,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” and “Centerfield,” Fogerty first achieved commercial success with the release of Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968. As the band’s songwriter, lead singer, lead guitarist, and producer, Fogerty led CCR in a blistering output of 10 top-ten singles and seven gold albums before disbanding CCR in 1972. Divided into four sections (“Born on the Bayou,” “Run Through the Jungle,” “Centerfield, ”and “Keep on Chooglin’”), Finding Fogerty investigates Fogerty’s songs, life, and legacy, and stands as a tribute to one of America’s most treasured musical legends.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 262 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7391-7483-8 • Hardback • December 2012 • $115.00 • (£88.00)

978-0-7391-7485-2 • Paperback • December 2012 • $51.99 • (£40.00)

978-0-7391-7484-5 • eBook • December 2012 • $49.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: Music / Individual Composer & Musician, Music / General, Music / Genres & Styles / Rock, Music / History & Criticism

Author

Thomas M. Kitts is professor of English and Chair of the Division of English and Speech at St. John’s University, New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction
by Thomas M. Kitts
Part One. "Born on the Bayou"
Chapter One. "Born on the Bayou": CCR and the Evocation of Place
by Jeff Sellars
Chapter Two. Reviving the Pre-Sixties: Creedence on a Sixties/Seventies Cusp
by Stephen Paul Miller
Chapter Three. John Fogerty: Middle-Class Hero
by Jake Sudderth
Chapter Four. Down to the River: Narrative, Blues, and the Common Man in John Fogerty's Imagined Southern Gothic
by Robert McParland
Part Two. "Run Through the Jungle"
Chapter Five. "Devil's on the Loose": Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Religious Imagination
by Theodore Louis Trost
Chapter Six. Flying the Flannel: An Americana Salute to Creedence Clearwater Revival
by Timothy Gray
Chapter Seven. The 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival Recording Contract and How it Shaped the Future of the Group and its Members
by Hank Bordowitz
Part Three. "Centerfield"
Chapter Eight. America as Patron and Muse: The Creation of the Blue Ridge Rangers
by Lawrence Pitilli
Chapter Nine. The 1980s Comeback of John Fogerty
by Thomas M. Kitts
Chapter Ten. Multimodal Fogerty: Scoring and Scaffolding the Music of CCR to a Vietnam War Literature Unit
by Christian Z. Goering and Wiliam C. Sewell
Part Four. "Keep on Chooglin"
Chapter Eleven. John Fogerty and America's Three Rock Generations
by B. Lee Cooper, with research assistance from William L. Schurk
Chapter Twelve. The Political Legacy of Fogerty: Forty Years of Parallel Messages
by William J. Miller and Jeremy D. Walling
Chapter Thirteen. "Rockin' All Over the World": John Fogerty's Place in American Popular Music
by Nick Baxter-Moore

Reviews

A lively gathering of essays on John Fogerty's Creedence Clearwater Revival, the funky (but clean-cut) Americana rock band that scored a fistful of Top Ten hits in the 60s, without finding a firm place in the decade's rock hierarchy. Here a baker's dozen of perceptive music writers tell how good the band was and why it ended up an inch away from super-stardom.
— Michael Lydon, author of Rock Folk and Ray Charles: Man and Music

Editor Thomas M. Kitts has recognized that John Fogerty deserves. . . attention too, and this volume, Finding Fogerty: Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival, works to place the artist in the context of his creative work, commercial predicaments, and cultural impact. ... Kitts’ Finding Fogerty offers a strong reminder of how important a songwriter’s influence can be and contains a thorough analysis of Fogerty’s career as a band member and as a soloist, does not flinch from the critical and commercial difficulties he has faced, and avoids overselling his achievements. It describes what can happen when business associations can become so convoluted that a creator can be sued for plagiarizing himself and the emotional battering a performer can suffer while reconciling himself with his works from the past. Finding Fogerty should convince its readers that Fogerty’s influence on American culture deserves even fuller consideration; this volume offers a welcome start.
— Journal of American Culture