Brad Paisley came up with “Hot Rod Heart,” and it was his idea to turn it into a guitar thingy — he is Brad Paisley. He told me that he wanted to have a shootout. When I got to the studio, he said, “I want to go out on Main Street and have a guitar duel.” I thought, “He’s Brad Paisley … I’m already dead.”
– John Fogerty
Some guys are like what I like to call ‘the real deal’ John Fogerty is one of these guys…
I think that it may have been Bruce Springsteen who commented that Fogerty could fit more into three and half minutes than most. The very first record I ever bought was Cosmos Factory. And it wasn’t even a ‘record’ it was a cassette tape. I was only a kid at the time, but even I knew this was special. Even more so when I discovered the earlier Creedence stuff. Today however I hold in my hands Wrote a Song for Everyone. It’s sure been a long journey for John Fogerty. 1959 was a long time ago. Fifty four years of making music. Not just good music, but great music. And this album…?
Well it’s kinda interesting. John teams up with some big time stars to sing updated versions of many of his classics…
‘Fortunate Son’ with The Foo Fighters, ‘Who’ll Stop The Rain’ with Bob Seger, ‘Someday Never Comes’ with Dawes, ‘Hot Rod Heart’ with Brad Paisley, ‘Wrote a Song for Everyone’ with Miranda Lambert, ‘Born on the Bayou’ with Kid Rock, ‘Almost Saturday Night’ with Keith Urban, ‘Long as I Can See the Light’ with My Morning Jacket, ‘Have You Ever Seen the Rain’ with Alan Jackson, ‘Proud Mary’ with Jennifer Hudson, ‘Bad Moon Rising’ with The Zac Brown Band.
With so many good songs to pick from it’s hard to go wrong; but along the same lines you can’t record them all, so of some of my personal favourite deep tracks got missed. Like ‘Graveyard Train’, and ‘Bootleg’
It’s a really good album for sure, and I am enjoying the fresh spin on the songs, but gosh darn it, something is missing. That visceral, simple and raggedy swamp bottom sound from Creedence’s early days, was to me anyways something that added a whole other dimension to Fogerty’s excellent writing. A standard four piece rock outfit is the most you need for this music. Less is usually more. But that notwithstanding John Fogerty is still the Real Deal.