“Fortunate Son” is a rock and roll song by Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded in 1969 in Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California for Fantasy Records as the B-side for “Down on the Corner”. The record was released as a single in September of 1969 and again as part of the Willy and the Poor Boys album two months later. The record has gone platinum in the United States and silver in the United Kingdom with over 1.5 million sales and peaked at third on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 20, 1969 behind Peter, Paul, and Mary’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and Diana Ross and the Supremes’ “Someday We’ll Be Together”. Willy and the Poor Boys also peaked at third on the Billboard 200 in January of 1970 behind the Beatles’ Abbey Road and Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin II. “Fortunate Son” as part of a record is a high-fidelity recording with the purpose of allowing fans who are unable to see it performed live to experience the song, as the recorded version is extremely similar to how Creedence Clearwater Revival performs it in live concert.
The song itself is generally classified in the hard rock genre of music as it features a driving drum beat, an electric guitar riff, and aggressive vocals. The composition does not have a dense texture and specific instruments including the drums, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and bass guitar are all relatively easy to pick out. John Fogerty’s distinctly unique voice serves as the most iconic component of “Fortunate Son”, however the opening guitar riff performed by John Fogerty is also highly identifiable to those familiar with the song. “Fortunate Son” maintains a consistently fast tempo throughout most of the two minute and nineteen second song with only a few four-bar links where it temporarily slows down.
“Fortunate Son” is written in simple verse-chorus form. Its lyrics lend it to be a protest song of Vietnam War draft practices, in which eligible draftees often received preferential treatment if they were of an important family. The song’s chorus is the most identifiable portion of lyrics as it contains lyrics that sound extremely similar to the song’s title and conveys the main idea that John Fogerty is not someone who can avoid being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War through his family’s place in society as could a “senator’s son”, “millionaire’s son”, or “military son”. John Fogerty, the song’s writer, producer, singer, and lead guitarist, has said he was specifically thinking of David Eisenhower, the then-president’s son-in-law and former president’s grandson, who served for three years in the United States Naval Reserve in the Mediterranean Sea during the Vietnam War when he wrote the song. Although Fogerty himself was drafted into the United States Army in 1966 and served on the homefront in the United States Army Reserves until he was discharged the next year, the song quickly gained popularity in the anti-war movement and hippie culture and soon came to index opposition to the Vietnam War and war in general.
Listeners of “Fortunate Son” often had the habits of favoring peaceful resolutions to issues and rebuking social classes in society and formed their identity of being anti-war through those beliefs. The song served as a conduit to unify individuals with this shared identity into a cultural cohort of Vietnam War protesters and disapprovers. “Fortunate Son” could often be heard as a rallying call during Vietnam War protests which occurred in over one hundred cities in the United States and around the world in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Since “Fortunate Son” was first released nearly half of a century ago, it has been covered by many prominent artists including Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, Dropkick Murphys, Pearl Jam, Santana, U2, and Wyclef Jean. The original song has also been featured in many blockbuster movies including Battleship (2012), Forrest Gump (1994), and Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Wyclef Jean’s cover of it was featured in The Manchurian Candidate (2004). Despite “Fortunate Son” being about the Vietnam War, the song has remained famous long after the conflict’s end. Rolling Stone ranked it as the ninety-ninth greatest song of all time and it is one of five hundred songs that the Library of Congress has added to its National Recording Registry. “Fortunate Son” is a rock and roll song by Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded in 1969 in Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California for Fantasy Records as the B-side for “Down on the Corner”. The record was released as a single in September of 1969 and again as part of the Willy and the Poor Boys album two months later. The record has gone platinum in the United States and silver in the United Kingdom with over 1.5 million sales and peaked at third on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 20, 1969 behind Peter, Paul, and Mary’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” and Diana Ross and the Supremes’ “Someday We’ll Be Together”. Willy and the Poor Boys also peaked at third on the Billboard 200 in January of 1970 behind the Beatles’ Abbey Road and Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin II. “Fortunate Son” as part of a record is a high-fidelity recording with the purpose of allowing fans who are unable to see it performed live to experience the song, as the recorded version is extremely similar to how Creedence Clearwater Revival performs it in live concert.
The song itself is generally classified in the hard rock genre of music as it features a driving drum beat, an electric guitar riff, and aggressive vocals. The composition does not have a dense texture and specific instruments including the drums, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and bass guitar are all relatively easy to pick out. John Fogerty’s distinctly unique voice serves as the most iconic component of “Fortunate Son”, however the opening guitar riff performed by John Fogerty is also highly identifiable to those familiar with the song. “Fortunate Son” maintains a consistently fast tempo throughout most of the two minute and nineteen second song with only a few four-bar links where it temporarily slows down.
“Fortunate Son” is written in simple verse-chorus form. Its lyrics lend it to be a protest song of Vietnam War draft practices, in which eligible draftees often received preferential treatment if they were of an important family. The song’s chorus is the most identifiable portion of lyrics as it contains lyrics that sound extremely similar to the song’s title and conveys the main idea that John Fogerty is not someone who can avoid being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War through his family’s place in society as could a “senator’s son”, “millionaire’s son”, or “military son”. John Fogerty, the song’s writer, producer, singer, and lead guitarist, has said he was specifically thinking of David Eisenhower, the then-president’s son-in-law and former president’s grandson, who served for three years in the United States Naval Reserve in the Mediterranean Sea during the Vietnam War when he wrote the song. Although Fogerty himself was drafted into the United States Army in 1966 and served on the homefront in the United States Army Reserves until he was discharged the next year, the song quickly gained popularity in the anti-war movement and hippie culture and soon came to index opposition to the Vietnam War and war in general.
Listeners of “Fortunate Son” often had the habits of favoring peaceful resolutions to issues and rebuking social classes in society and formed their identity of being anti-war through those beliefs. The song served as a conduit to unify individuals with this shared identity into a cultural cohort of Vietnam War protesters and disapprovers. “Fortunate Son” could often be heard as a rallying call during Vietnam War protests which occurred in over one hundred cities in the United States and around the world in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Since “Fortunate Son” was first released nearly half of a century ago, it has been covered by many prominent artists including Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, Dropkick Murphys, Pearl Jam, Santana, U2, and Wyclef Jean. The original song has also been featured in many blockbuster movies including Battleship (2012), Forrest Gump (1994), and Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Wyclef Jean’s cover of it was featured in The Manchurian Candidate (2004). Despite “Fortunate Son” being about the Vietnam War, the song has remained famous long after the conflict’s end. Rolling Stone ranked it as the ninety-ninth greatest song of all time and it is one of five hundred songs that the Library of Congress has added to its National Recording Registry.