Credence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son

I absolutely LOVE CCRl. I have one of their albums Chronicle, Vol. 1. I enjoy their music so much I know 90% of the lyrics on that album from heart.

One of the songs on Chronicle, Vol. 1 is Fortunate Son, written by John Fogerty. Which unbeknownst to me until recently, is a song about a war– the Vietnam War. Being the first highly publicized war, Vietnam was unpopular. This song was just one of the many expressions of this consensus.

In the lyrics, Fogerty suggests that the war is a war fought by the poor, the unfortunate; ran by the powerful, the wealthy. He mocks that being the son of a senator could get one out of serving in the war. Fogerty is also highly critical of the hypocrisy of the wealthy. They live lavishly but use tricks to get out of paying the proper amount of taxes.

I am the type of music enthusiast that loves music not for its words or who wrote the piece, but for how the song speaks to my soul. I enjoyed the energy of the song long before I knew what its origins were. Also, I just now realized how apt this song is considering our most recent reading in class.

Some folks are born, made to wave the flag

Ooo, they’re 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 fortuante one, no

Some folks are born, silver spoon in had

Lord, don’t they help themselves, ya’ll

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!”, ya’ll

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 fortuante one, no, no, no

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortuante son, no, no, no

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