Fortunate Son

Review by J. Fogerty
A very, very personal song, a confrontation between me and Richard Nixon. The song, after all, was written in 1970. "Fortunate Son" was one of the fastest songs I'd ever written. I had it in my book of titles, "Fortunate Son." Hmmm, now what could that mean? "Fortunate Son," the "haves", the people who have it all not a positive image the people who live up on the hill, with their big cars. People I don't respect. During the Vietnam war, these were the people who didn't have to go to war. I was thinking about David Eisenhower, the grandson of Dwight, who married Julie Nixon. I always confused her with Tricia. I guess it's easy to pick on somebody named Tricia. It sounds so silver-spoon. Anyway, I was showing the band the song. I didn't have much. I knew the chord changes and could feel the energy. I had a title, "Fortunate Son," but no song. Yet I was showing the band the structure, my normal gig as the musical director of the band, the arranger, if you will. It was a Monday or Tuesday night and I was well-disciplined enough about staying ahead, always ready with my parts. So I went into the bedroom, sat at the edge of my bed with a yellow legal tablet and my felt-tipped pen. Out came the song. "It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son." I was screaming inside, very intense, but not saying a word. Out it came, onto three sheets of yellow legal paper. "Some folks are born/made to wave the flag/oooh they're red, white, and blue." I always used that phrase, "look at him, he's red, white, and blue." It wasn't a nice image, like you'd picture Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman or Abe Lincoln. I was thinking more about if you were to use modern examples of peopleguys like Bob Doran or Newt Gingrich, people who wave the flag with pomposity and pretension, as if they're hiding behind it. I wasn't one of their children! I wasn't David Eisenhower! When I played the song at Shea Stadium at an anti-war protest, I dedicated the song to David Eisenhower and Tricia Nixon, that's how messed up my venom was. As I was walking in the hallway after our set, someone came up to me and told me what an awesome version we had played. I remember telling them, "Richard Nixon is a great inspiration."