FTV: John Fogerty’s 56th Anniversary Tour

 

     On Saturday, August 17th, 2024, I got to attend my second show at the Cuthbert Outdoor Amphitheater.  Unlike the first show (Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band in June of 2023), this 2024 show involved dodging a few raindrops.  The day of the show, a rare thunderstorm rolled through Eugene, Oregon in the afternoon but watching the weather radar confirmed that the storm would blow over by showtime.  With the start of the concert delayed by thirty minutes, it was clear sailing by the time the opening band hit the stage.   We made plans to park in the shadow of Oregon University’s Autzen Stadium, just as we had last summer.  With a fair distance to hike to the venue, we knew we were not going to get there early enough to find a spot to sit on the lawn in the upper part of the bowl.  My West Coast Bureau concert partner Todd and I decided to miss part of the first opening band.  Oddly enough, we ended up standing with our backs to the surrounding hedge directly across from the stage (the exact spot we had occupied for Ringo’s show last year and where Todd and Elizabeth stood for the band Cake a few weeks earlier).   

     The opening band, Hearty Har, were just finishing their set when we got situated.  We will come back to them in a few minutes.  The second opener, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, took very little time to get set up.  They had three large rolling platforms holding two large banks of speakers with lights arrayed along the tops and sides.  The third platform held a sizable double bass drum kit.  Once the crew cleared Hearty Har’s equipment from the stage, the pre-assembled backline for the Destroyers was rolled into place.  George Thorogood’s band took flight in 1973 so they are now celebrating their fiftieth year on the road.  At some point they dropped the ‘Delaware Destroyers’ handle and became just ‘the Destroyers’.  Besides playing killer rock & blues, they had a reputation in their earlier days for taking on any and all softball teams fielded by bands they toured with.  I joked with Todd that maybe the band got on so many tours by challenging other acts:  “If we beat you, then we get to go on the road with you.”

     Thorogood is one of those artists who does one thing and he does it well.  The Destroyers play a racious blend of hard driving blues/rock.  George is equally adept on the guitar as he is putting on a show.  They make no apologies:  “We are here to have a good time so buckle up.”  This will sound snobbish and I do not mean to offend any die-hard Destroyer fans, but about 45 minutes into their hour-long set, I told Todd, “It is kind of like listening to the same song over and over again, just with different words.”  Again, part of this comes from Thorogood playing to the crowd and putting on a show.  For example, in one solo slot, he criss-crossed the stage while strumming the open bottom three strings without fretting any notes.  With his picking hand. So engaged, Thorogood pointed to various sections of the crowd with his fretting hand.  Of course, the crowd in the area which he pointed would erupt in hoots, hollers, and applause.  To me, the ‘showmanship’ part of his playing takes away from his obvious guitar playing talent.  

     As he stalked the stage, George  repeated the same tuneless strum for way too long.  When he took his guitar solo to centerstage (with the rest of the band off stage), I lost count of how many times he moved his slide up and down the fretboard without actually picking any notes (making a series of ‘WAAA – wooo – WAAA – wooo’ sounds.)  With these observations aside, The Destroyers put on a great show and their fans loved it. George’s stage banter was well worn, but a showman of this caliber knows the rules:  “If it works in Des Moine, use it in Eugene.”  I did hear some locals comment on his pronunciation of the locale – here it is ‘Or-e-gin’ not ‘Or-e-GONE’.  The band left the stage to a standing ovation as the last strains of his signature song Bad to the Bone, were still echoing around the amphitheater.

     Once the three large rolling backline pieces were out of the way, the crew busied themselves setting up the staging for John Fogerty.  With a bank of keyboards at the far left and the drum riser on the far right of their backline, there was a small raised platform left occupying the back center of the stage.  All the while they were getting things set, there was a huge, colorful logo being projected on the blackmesh screen hanging behind the band announcing the tour’s theme.  The Destroyer’s had a different projection behind them for each song in their set, most featuring the iconic Bulldog they have used for years on their albums and posters.  When Fogerty and his band hit the stage, the back projections took on an even bigger role in the show.

     The main event began with a five minute video that had Fogerty explaining why he was doing a ‘56th Anniversary Tour’.  In a rap that would be repeated many times over the next ninety minutes, he told the interviewer in this clip that after 56 years, “I have finally got my songs back.”  As the film ended with a wide shot of John playing music with his children, he appeared on the central raised platform silhouetted against a large rising full Moon.  It won’t surprise anyone that the open number was Bad Moon Rising.  As the song ended, Fogerty came to the stage front and again reminded everyone that he had (at last) gotten all his songs back and that he planned to play every one of them.  

     John told a little of the CCR backstory as things went along.  At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, his band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, were a constant presence on the radio and the Billboard Charts.  In a previous interview I had watched, he said that it took him a long time to figure out that jealousy played a big part in tearing CCR apart:  “If we were going through the airport and some kid asked me for an autograph, the other guys behind me would grumble about it.  At the time, I didn’t realize they resented me being recognized as the face of the band.”  He was more than just the front man.  Fogerty wrote the music, did the arrangements, produced many of their recording sessions and was responsible for the airplay they were getting.  In the early days, he even taught bass player Stu Cook (who was actually a keyboard player) how to play the bass.  By 1972, John’s brother Tom had quit the band and the green-eyed monster did the rest of the dismantling as they tried to carry on as a trio.  CCR went from the top of the heap to the bottom in very short order and it hit John hard.

     In his biography ( Fortunate Son, 2015 ), Fogerty takes full responsibility for the things he didn’t get right with CCR.  For example, he was dissatisfied with their performance at Woodstock and refused to let any of the footage be used in the Movie or soundtrack.  The rest of the band thought it was a typical CCR performance, but John was the immovable peg on certain business matters.  To say this decision cost the whole band a lot of royalty revenue is a vast understatement.  Tension had also been brewing between Fogerty and the head of the Fantasy Records label they were signed to.  When the label refused to give them a better royalty deal, John vowed to never play those songs again lest they make more money from them.  Fantasy continued to sell CCR’s albums so it is uncertain how well this tactic worked.  In 1987, Bob Dylan convinced him otherwise, saying, “If you don’t do Proud Mary, everybody’s gonna think it’s a Tina Turner song.”  Thus Fogerty began playing his greatest hits again while he and his manager/wife Julie began the long process of trying to re-acquire the rights to his own creations.  When Concord Records bought up the Fantasy label, they did offer Fogerty a better deal but they were still reluctant to part with the rights to his music until 2023.

     After this brief lull in the Eugene concert to remind everyone why they were there, the band knocked off six more of CCR’s big hits spanning the next half hour.  The crowd finally retook their seats when John kicked off one of his deeper cuts Effigy.  The ninety minute set was essentially a 5000 voice singalong when the biggest hits were played.  I will not list all the songs because that information is easily found online.  Each song included elaborate back projections and while they were very well done, it leads me to my one complaint about the show.  

     The projections were very bright and featured a lot of movement.  A lot of the time, the band were dark outlines in front of this backdrop.  There were two or three very large footlights at stage level facing the audience from the back of the stage.  When they were turned up to full, it was actually very hard to see what was going on.  No matter;  part of this ‘problem’ may have come from our position high in the bowl of the amphitheater.   I can not speak for what the people ‘down front’ witnessed but there were other times when the projections were very effective, especially when the follow spotlights illuminated the band members better.

     Back to the opening band, Hearty Har.  Yes, they were on the bill but not just because two of Fogerty’s children front the band.  Formed in Los Angeles in 2012 by guitarist/vocalists Shane and Tyler Fogerty, the band includes Jesse Wilson (bass), Nick Straton (guitar), Richard Milsap (drums) and Douglas Lamothe (keys).  Shane and Tyler have performed with John on previous tours but for this celebration, all the members of Hearty Har serve as his backing band.

I can not say enough about drummer Milsap because the foundation he held down was perfect.

There were a few times the bass drum beats were a little boomy and overpowering, but the brief solo Milsap played was great.  I have seen videos of s live performances Fogerty has done with drummer Kenny Arornoff behind the kit.  His drumming always seems to overwhelm the music both with power and speed.  Maybe it was John’s excitement (to be playing his songs again after 1987) that picked up the pace when he again began performing CCR tunes, but all too many of the songs were played way too fast with Aronoff keeping time. 

     At one point, Fogerty recounted how the 1972 breakup of CCR affected him:  “I lost my band, my girlfriend left, and my dog bit me.  A 12 year old kid came up and asked me if he could have my Rickenbacher guitar and I just gave it to him.”  Fortunately, many years later, his wife tracked it down and got it back for him as a birthday present.  Not only did John get his songs back, he has also been reunited with the iconic guitar that he used on many of their hits.  The one piece of his iconic stage rig missing on this tour were the red, padded and tucked Kustom amps and speakers he made so popular back in the day.  Today, his band seems to favor using Fender and Orange amplifiers on stage.   

     Fogerty did talk about their gig at Woodstock but without going into the particulars of them not being in the film.  He did, however, mention the rain.  Right after the festival, he wrote the song Who’ll Stop the Rain which (right on cue) became another instant hit.  Naturally he ended this story by launching into the tune with another lusty singalong from the crowd.

     Another interesting tale revolved around a track recorded by the pre-CCR band The Golliwogs.  According to Fogerty, “The record label guys were in love with all the ‘Mod’ sounds coming from England.  They said, ‘Write something Mod.’’ We were 19, they were, like 90, so we wrote a Mod song.”  Tyler Fogerty took the mic as they performed The Golliwogs’ Fight Fire with digital flames dancing on the screen behind them.  The only other deep track I did not remember was It Came Out of the Sky.  Though I distinctly remember borrowing the Willie and the Poor Boys (1969) album from my buddy Mitch, I don’t remember this track making an impression on me.  The lyrics touch on some familiar CCR topics (Whoa, it came out of the sky / Landed just a little south of Moline / Jody fell out of his tractor / Couldn’t b’lieve what he seen) He even name drops VP Spiro Agnew and TV news commentators Eric Severide and Walter Cronkite in the lyrics.  The video replete with flying saucers and Close Encounters of the Third Kind aliens got the point across, but the song still did not ring any bells for me.

     John mentioned his wife of 36 years many times.  The background film accompanying Joy of My Life (from the Blue Moon Swamp album) was a veritable family album of photos from their wedding on through the present.  This was the only song that featured two sax solos.  I am sorry to say I did not hear the player’s name and finding a reference to him online has proven to be difficult.  The songs featuring sax (some of which John himself played on CCR albums) and some tasty keyboard work from Lamothe added much to the classic arrangements.  The Fogerty ‘boys’ (all three of them) had a grand old time jamming out on Keep on Chooglin’ while Tyler got to show some chops of his own on cowbell for Down on the Corner.

     Fortunate Son closed the show and by that time the adrenalin was pumping.  It was a little fast but a) not nearly as speedy as when Aronoff was behind the kit and b) not so fast that John had to spit out the words.  I can state that I have never seen Fogerty play this song at the same pace as it was recorded.  After a brief standing ovation, he was back on the stage saying, “What, did you think we were done?”  The encore started with Travelin’ Band and ended with (what do you think?) Proud Mary.  The exit music came on loud enough to indicate there wasn’t going to be another encore.  Looking at the string of dates that Fogerty’s band has already played and will continue to play, I imagine he has to draw the line somewhere.  His voice is still strong, he hits the high notes, and only on occasion did the vocal sound a little thin.  This is no knock on his talent (he is after all in his late 70s) and the youthful enthusiasm he and his band radiated throughout the show should be a lesson to all of us of any age.

     After the Destroyers left the stage, I was standing there minding my own business when a woman stopped, poked me in the chest, and said, “Did you buy that here?” (meaning the 56th Anniversary shirt my wife had found for me before the trip).  I told her where it came from and she looked so disappointed.  I half wondered if she was going to ask me if I would sell it.  Sorry lady, you will have to look online, I am keeping mine!  And John, you keep right on Chooglin’.

Top Piece Video:  Who’ll stop the Rain? From Belgium in 2010