Analysis of Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival by Inès Manach

Hello bloggers!

Here is your devoted writer, the one who tells you the truth and only the truth! 

Today I am going to explain you the mean of the very famous song created by the band Cleerence Clearwater Revival : Fortunate son 

But first, let me tell you who this band is.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

is a 70's group from California composed by John Forgety, the singer of the band, Tom Fogerty (his brother), the guitarist, Doug Clifford, the drummer and Stu Cook, the bass player.

John Forgety created the band in 1958 and they stopped their shows in 1972.

 John Fogerty

 Their song "Fortunate son", written by the singer, has been released in America while the Vietnam war was going on, in 1969. This song was a part of the album "Willy and the Poor boys".

 

The context : the Vietnam War

It opposed the North and the South Vietnam during almost 20 years from 1955 to 1975.

The North part was a Democratic Republic headed by Hô Chi Minh. It was a communist regime supported by the Soviet Union, China and the Viet-cong (communist people who lived in the South Vietnam).

The South part was also a Republic but it was anti-communist and its government was supported by the United States.

In 1961, the President of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, sent soldiers to Vietnam in order to help the South part. This was not really approuved by Americans so in 1970, the President Nixon decided to take off the soldiers from Vietnam.

Fortunate Son

Here are the lyrics of this really famous song.

Some folks are born, made to wave the flag
Ooo, their red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief"
Ooo, they point the cannon at you, Lord

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no

Some folks are born, silver spoon in hand
Lord, don't they help themselves, y'all
But when the taxman comes to the door
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yeah

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no

Yeah, yeah
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask 'em, "How much should we give?"
Ooh, they only answer "More! More! More!", y'all

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, one
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no, no, no

The song is not explicit in its criticism of that particular Vietnam war, but the clear attacks on the elite classes (the families that give birth to "fortunate sons") of America and their withdrawal from the costs of nationalistic imperialism are easy to contextualize to that conflict.

Thanks to the lyrics, we can see that Fogerty critics many sorts of fortunate sons:

- the senator's sons

- the millionaire's sons

- the military's sons

So that we understand that some men can be fortunate thanks to their father because these are powerful or very rich.

Moreover, Fogerty said. "It's the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them."

He was not a fan of Nixon (the president of the US when he wrote this song) and though that people who were close to the president had some privileges.

He supports the soldiers figthing in the war because they were from a working class so thet did not have any contacts to get them out. The song has a perspective of one of these men.

INFORMATIONS ABOUT THE SONG

It is the soundtrack of the movie Forrest Gump and it has been covered by U2, Bob Seger, Cat Power and so much more..

Protest song

So, we can cleary say that "Fortunate son" is a protest song because it is anti-war, even if it is not explicit about that, BUT, it is really explicit about its attacks on the elite classes.

Forgerty critizes those people who support the use of military force whitout to pay the costs : financially or because they don't go to the war.

Thanks for reading this post bloggers, hope you enjoyed!

See you next time

Inès