Fortunate Son (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Fortunate Son" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Song by Creedence Clearwater Revival | ||
| from the album Willy and the Poor Boys | ||
| Released | November 2, 1969 | |
| Recorded | fall 1969 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 2:21 | |
| Label | Fantasy | |
| Writer(s) | John Fogerty | |
| Producer(s) | John Fogerty | |
| Willy and the Poor Boys track listing | ||
| "Feelin' Blue (5) |
"Fortunate Son" (6) |
"Don't Look Now" (7) |
"Fortunate Son" is a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival on their album Willy and the Poor Boys in 1969. It was released as a single, together with "Down On The Corner", in September 1969. [1]. This song reached #14 on the United States charts.
John Fogerty says that the song was indirectly inspired by David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight David Eisenhower who married Julie Nixon, the daughter of President Richard Nixon in 1968. (Eisenhower later enlisted in the Navy Reserve.)[2]
This song was popular during the Vietnam War and is included in the computer game Battlefield Vietnam and in the film Forrest Gump. The song symbolizes the thoughts of a man who is being drafted. This 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 their parents didn't have connections who could get them preferential treatment.[citation needed] It is sung from the perspective of one of these men, who ends up fighting because he is not a "Senator's son" or a "Fortunate one."
The song has since been recorded or notably performed by Bob Seger (receiving substantial album-oriented rock airplay in 1986), Pearl Jam, U2, The Dropkick Murphys, .38 Special, and Bruce Springsteen (in concert, both on his own over the years and in collaboration with Fogerty during the 2004 Vote for Change shows) among others. Australian band The Screaming Jets recorded a cover of Fortunate Son and released it as a B-side to their 1996 single, 'Sacrifice'. Wyclef Jean's cover of the song was played over the beginnning and ending credits of The Manchurian Candidate (2004).
Fogerty performed the song in front of President Bill Clinton and a national TV audience on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the "America's Millennium" show on December 31, 1999.
