NEW YORK – As he turned 80 this week, John Fogerty was in a mood to honor his past and to revise it.
We should all be so alive and so remembered at his age. Fogerty, in the midst of an international tour, played a rowdy 100-minute set Thursday night to an adoring, near-capacity audience at Manhattan’s Beacon Theatre. Crowd members spanned from those likely to remember “Proud Mary,” “Fortunate Son” and other Creedence Clearwater Revival hits when first released a half-century ago to those looking young enough to have heard about them through their grandparents.
At least from a distance, Fogerty didn’t look or sound much different from his prime with Creedence, which was rarely off the charts between 1969 and 1971. He wore his trademark flannel shirt; had the same shaggy haircut, although with his bangs brushed back; sang with a vintage roar that has mellowed only slightly; and even played the same guitar, a Rickenbacker, that he had acquired back in the late ’60s.
Fogerty presented himself as a proud rock ‘n’ roller, and a very proud family man. His band includes two of his sons on guitar, Shane and Tyler, with daughter Kelsy briefly joining them on a third guitar. Off to the side was his wife, Julie, whom he praised as the love and the hero of his life, if only because she gave one of the greatest gifts an old rock star could ask for: She helped win back rights to his song catalogue. Fogerty had battled over his copyrights for decades, and at one point found himself being sued for plagiarizing one of his Creedence hits, which at the time he didn’t own.
He has marked his victory with an upcoming album, “Legacy,” for which he recorded new versions of 20 songs. If you were in the house Thursday night, you couldn’t help hearing about it. A promotional film about “Legacy” opened the show and Fogerty mentioned it again before his encore set. Both the album, subtitled “The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years,” and his concert tell a story of how he wants to look back.
As Fogerty noted at one point Thursday night, Creedence Clearwater Revival soared to the highest heights before imploding bitterly in the early ‘70s and never again recording or touring together. Only Creedence diehards would have known the identity of the other band members — drummer Doug Clifford, bassist Stu Cook, and guitarist Tom Fogerty, John’s brother, who died in 1990. Their names were never mentioned, their faces near-invisible among the rush of images that appeared Thursday on a screen behind Fogerty and his band. The new tracks on “Legacy,” each labeled “John’s Version,” leave only John Fogerty from the original group.
The Beacon show was very much about where is he now, and how much he likes it. He dashed about the stage, rocked out on his Rickenbacker with the joy of a teenager on air guitar and even poured himself champagne. Fans clapped and danced, while being showered with confetti and dazzled with lasers and fog. The more informed sang along with “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and the baseball anthem “Centerfield,” Fogerty’s most famous post-Creedence song. Virtually all stood and cheered to serenade the night’s guest of honor, whose birthday was the day before.
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