Here's why Fogerty's hopping mad.:
- Fogerty, the guiding force behind Creedence Clearwater Revival's hits of the late '60s and early '70s and now a solo performer, has fretted for more than two years as one of his most meaningful songs, the Vietnam War-era protest anthem "Fortunate Son," has been used by Wrangler as a patriotic endorsement of its jeans.
"It makes me angry," he said by phone from his home in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and four children and is writing songs for a new album, his first since 1997. "When you use a song for a TV commercial, it trivializes the meaning of the song. It almost turns it into nothing."
Wrangler was able to have its way with Fogerty's 1969 hit because he long ago signed away legal control of his old recordings to Creedence's record label, Berkeley-based Fantasy Records. Without consulting Fogerty, Fantasy sold Wrangler permission to use the lyrics and master recording of "Fortunate Son," a stark, hard-rocking song about privilege and hypocrisy.
Wrangler estimates the commercial has so far received 3 billion "impressions," or individual viewings. The company boosted its TV buys 25% this year to promote its Five-Star Premium Denim line, which means a significantly higher number of people are noticing the use of the song.
"People walk up to me, people I've met through my kids, at school, people who rarely talk to me about the old days, and they say, 'Oh, John, I saw your commercial,' and the first thing out of my mouth is: 'It stinks,' " said Fogerty, who first saw the spot in the summer of 2000. "They usually get a surprised look on their face — they're just making conversation — and then I have to explain."
Haven't heard the song in original context? There's no way to improve on this observation by Steven Stolder:
"While most topical material from the Vietnam era hasn't dated very well, "Fortunate Son" still pulses like an open wound, perhaps because it wasn't inspired by noble convictions so much as by blunt resentment."
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Article comments
1 - Mike
The first time I heard that commercial I wondered if the suits had listened to the whole thing.
"Oh... I remember that tune..."
I remember all the words (many late night drives across the Florida Everglades with that as my only eight track) and I took the spot as just another example of the bizarro world I have gotten old in.
2 - Rodney Welch
Tom Waits said it best:
Corporations are hoping to hijack a culture's memories for their product. They want an artist's audience, credibility, good will and all the energy the songs have gathered as well as given over the years. They suck the life and meaning from the songs and impregnate them with promises of a better life with their product.
3 - Eric S
What I find particularly irritating about the commericial is that it cut off right before he sings "it aint me." As far as I can tell, that's intentional, and it completely kills the context and the meaning