Songoftheday 1/13/14 - He take the thunder from the mountain he take the lightning from the sky, He bring the strong man to his begging knee he make the young girl's mama cry...

John Fogerty - "The Old Man Down The Road"
from the album Centerfield (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak; #10 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day is by singer/songwriter/guitarist John Fogerty, who was the leader of the iconic roots-rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival, who racked up nine top-10 pop hits in the late 60's/early 70's. After the group disbanded in 1972, Fogerty recorded a "solo" album under the name the Blue Ridge Rangers, and scored a top-20 hit in 1973 with a remake of the Hank Williams classic "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)". But chained to a bad contract with Fantasy Records, run by Saul Zaentz, kept him from leaving until Asylum bought out his contract (though with the stipulation that the publishing rights for the CCR material go to Zaentz). He put out one album there and had a third top-40 hit with "Rockin' All Over The World", but he soon soured there as well.

With Warner Brothers taking over his work, John recorded the much more focused Centerfield, and the first single from the set, "The Old Man Down The Road", brought him back to his roots. So much back that Zaentz sued Fogerty for plagiarizing his own song "Run Through The Jungle". It took a protracted court fight and an appeal to the Supreme Court for Fogerty to prevail and also get his lawyers' fees back...

"The Old Man Down The Road" became John's biggest pop hit in March of 1985, while also topping the Mainstream Rock Radio chart.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


...and here's John in concert in London in 2009..

Up tomorrow: a metal-head goes to the Beach.