Chords for John Fogerty Shares Inspiration Behind "Fortunate Son"
Tempo:
73.175 bpm
Chords used:
G
C
F
D
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
I was the same age as the soldiers serving in Vietnam and from the same lower middle class as them.
I was one of five boys in our family, the perfect age for the draft and the perfect age to fight a war.
I was drafted in 1965 when I was 20 years old, just a young man who was working in a gas station and had dreams of being a working musician.
I was able to get into the Army Reserve and during those times the reservists were less likely to go to Vietnam, but some were called.
I had six months active duty in 1967 when the war was getting full blown.
Right in the heart of the war, anyone that age was very concerned they would be sent to Vietnam.
I did not support the policy or the war.
I came home from active duty in 1967, just in time for the Summer of Love.
Later that year I renamed our band Credence Clearwater Revival.
Just a few weeks after that in February of 1968 we recorded Suzy Q and it became a hit that summer, the summer of the Democratic Convention in Chicago.
At the convention Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago, would not put up with any protest from young people.
It went from a protest to a police riot very quickly, but what that did is energized the young people to rebel against something they did not believe in.
In other words, they were not going to let the establishment get away with it.
Richard Nixon was elected president.
The Democrats had split their allegiance so Nixon won.
He lied a lot to the American people and invaded Cambodia, among other things.
Nixon immediately lost the younger generation.
He was an elitist.
If you asked anyone in the army at that time why you were going to Vietnam to fight, no one could answer.
The most common answer at the time was stopping the domino effect of countries falling to communism.
Probably the real answer was keeping the war machine going and business.
To sacrifice a young man's life with no real purpose, taking these young men from their mothers and families, was wrong.
I was the guy who was living this life.
Protests started happening in a big way in 1967.
You were young and you couldn't even vote for or against these issues.
Yet they were going to strap a gun to your back and you had no vision or belief in the duty that was being asked of you.
Well, I had very strong feelings about all of this.
Nixon seemed so dismissive of young people, even saying to the press, them bums.
1970, the killing of students at Kent State.
What the government was able to do back then was color the protesters as un-American.
Love it or leave it was the slogan they created.
Many folks took it out on the guys serving.
To me those soldiers were my brothers.
I understood them because I was also drafted into the army just like them.
The protest was against the policy, not the soldiers.
I never understood protesters spitting on our GIs.
I had been thinking about all of this turmoil.
I was a kid from El Cerrito.
It had been on my mind for some time how sons of certain Senators escaped the draft.
It was very upsetting to me as a young man of draft age.
In political conventions, many times states will use the phrase favorite son as they recognize their leader to make a nomination.
The songwriter in me thought about this and I changed the phrase to fortunate son.
A phrase to describe what we have all witnessed in our time.
As things progressed I got very angry at what Nixon was saying and doing.
He was very sarcastic about the younger generation.
50,000 people camped out on the White House lawn.
Nixon came out on a Saturday morning, looked at the crowd and said,
nothing you do here today will have any effect on me.
I'm going back inside to watch a football game.
And when the troops came home, Nixon turned his back on the soldiers.
As my feelings about all of this got stronger and stronger, I knew I wanted to write about it.
I wrote the music for a song that I was calling fortunate son without actually knowing what the lyrics were.
I rehearsed the band for a few weeks and at some point realized I was ready to write the words.
I went into my bedroom with pen and paper and wrote the whole song in 20 minutes.
I was writing what this young man felt was happening and I needed to express it.
It was very personal to me.
[G]
[F] [C]
[G] [F] [C]
[G] [D] [C]
I was one of five boys in our family, the perfect age for the draft and the perfect age to fight a war.
I was drafted in 1965 when I was 20 years old, just a young man who was working in a gas station and had dreams of being a working musician.
I was able to get into the Army Reserve and during those times the reservists were less likely to go to Vietnam, but some were called.
I had six months active duty in 1967 when the war was getting full blown.
Right in the heart of the war, anyone that age was very concerned they would be sent to Vietnam.
I did not support the policy or the war.
I came home from active duty in 1967, just in time for the Summer of Love.
Later that year I renamed our band Credence Clearwater Revival.
Just a few weeks after that in February of 1968 we recorded Suzy Q and it became a hit that summer, the summer of the Democratic Convention in Chicago.
At the convention Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago, would not put up with any protest from young people.
It went from a protest to a police riot very quickly, but what that did is energized the young people to rebel against something they did not believe in.
In other words, they were not going to let the establishment get away with it.
Richard Nixon was elected president.
The Democrats had split their allegiance so Nixon won.
He lied a lot to the American people and invaded Cambodia, among other things.
Nixon immediately lost the younger generation.
He was an elitist.
If you asked anyone in the army at that time why you were going to Vietnam to fight, no one could answer.
The most common answer at the time was stopping the domino effect of countries falling to communism.
Probably the real answer was keeping the war machine going and business.
To sacrifice a young man's life with no real purpose, taking these young men from their mothers and families, was wrong.
I was the guy who was living this life.
Protests started happening in a big way in 1967.
You were young and you couldn't even vote for or against these issues.
Yet they were going to strap a gun to your back and you had no vision or belief in the duty that was being asked of you.
Well, I had very strong feelings about all of this.
Nixon seemed so dismissive of young people, even saying to the press, them bums.
1970, the killing of students at Kent State.
What the government was able to do back then was color the protesters as un-American.
Love it or leave it was the slogan they created.
Many folks took it out on the guys serving.
To me those soldiers were my brothers.
I understood them because I was also drafted into the army just like them.
The protest was against the policy, not the soldiers.
I never understood protesters spitting on our GIs.
I had been thinking about all of this turmoil.
I was a kid from El Cerrito.
It had been on my mind for some time how sons of certain Senators escaped the draft.
It was very upsetting to me as a young man of draft age.
In political conventions, many times states will use the phrase favorite son as they recognize their leader to make a nomination.
The songwriter in me thought about this and I changed the phrase to fortunate son.
A phrase to describe what we have all witnessed in our time.
As things progressed I got very angry at what Nixon was saying and doing.
He was very sarcastic about the younger generation.
50,000 people camped out on the White House lawn.
Nixon came out on a Saturday morning, looked at the crowd and said,
nothing you do here today will have any effect on me.
I'm going back inside to watch a football game.
And when the troops came home, Nixon turned his back on the soldiers.
As my feelings about all of this got stronger and stronger, I knew I wanted to write about it.
I wrote the music for a song that I was calling fortunate son without actually knowing what the lyrics were.
I rehearsed the band for a few weeks and at some point realized I was ready to write the words.
I went into my bedroom with pen and paper and wrote the whole song in 20 minutes.
I was writing what this young man felt was happening and I needed to express it.
It was very personal to me.
[G]
[F] [C]
[G] [F] [C]
[G] [D] [C]
Key:
G
C
F
D
G
C
F
D
I was the same age as the soldiers serving in Vietnam and from the same lower middle class as them.
I was one of five boys in our family, the perfect age for the draft and the perfect age to fight a war.
I was drafted in 1965 when I was 20 years old, just a young man who was working in a gas station and had dreams of being a working musician.
I was able to get into the Army Reserve and during those times the reservists were less likely to go to Vietnam, but some were called.
I had six months active duty in 1967 when the war was getting full blown.
Right in the heart of the war, anyone that age was very concerned they would be sent to Vietnam.
I did not support the policy or the war.
I came home from active duty in 1967, just in time for the Summer of Love.
Later that year I renamed our band Credence Clearwater Revival.
Just a few weeks after that in February of 1968 we recorded Suzy Q and it became a hit that summer, the summer of the Democratic Convention in Chicago.
At the convention Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago, would not put up with any protest from young people.
It went from a protest to a police riot very quickly, but what that did is energized the young people to rebel against something they did not believe in.
In other words, they were not going to let the establishment get away with it.
Richard Nixon was elected president.
The Democrats had split their allegiance so Nixon won.
He lied a lot to the American people and invaded Cambodia, among other things.
Nixon immediately lost the younger generation.
He was an elitist.
If you asked anyone in the army at that time why you were going to Vietnam to fight, no one could answer.
The most common answer at the time was stopping the domino effect of countries falling to communism.
Probably the real answer was keeping the war machine going and business.
To sacrifice a young man's life with no real purpose, taking these young men from their mothers and families, was wrong.
I was the guy who was living this life.
Protests started happening in a big way in 1967.
You were young and you couldn't even vote for or against these issues.
Yet they were going to strap a gun to your back and you had no vision or belief in the duty that was being asked of you.
Well, I had very strong feelings about all of this.
Nixon seemed so dismissive of young people, even saying to the press, them bums.
1970, the killing of students at Kent State.
What the government was able to do back then was color the protesters as un-American.
Love it or leave it was the slogan they created.
Many folks took it out on the guys serving.
To me those soldiers were my brothers.
I understood them because I was also drafted into the army just like them.
The protest was against the policy, not the soldiers.
I never understood protesters spitting on our GIs.
I had been thinking about all of this turmoil.
I was a kid from El Cerrito.
It had been on my mind for some time how sons of certain Senators escaped the draft.
It was very upsetting to me as a young man of draft age.
In political conventions, many times states will use the phrase favorite son as they recognize their leader to make a nomination.
The songwriter in me thought about this and I changed the phrase to fortunate son.
A phrase to describe what we have all witnessed in our time.
As things progressed I got very angry at what Nixon was saying and doing.
He was very sarcastic about the younger generation.
50,000 people camped out on the White House lawn.
Nixon came out on a Saturday morning, looked at the crowd and said,
nothing you do here today will have any effect on me.
I'm going back inside to watch a football game.
And when the troops came home, Nixon turned his back on the soldiers.
As my feelings about all of this got stronger and stronger, I knew I wanted to write about it.
I wrote the music for a song that I was calling fortunate son without actually knowing what the lyrics were.
I rehearsed the band for a few weeks and at some point realized I was ready to write the words.
I went into my bedroom with pen and paper and wrote the whole song in 20 minutes.
I was writing what this young man felt was happening and I needed to express it.
It was very personal to me. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [C] _
I was one of five boys in our family, the perfect age for the draft and the perfect age to fight a war.
I was drafted in 1965 when I was 20 years old, just a young man who was working in a gas station and had dreams of being a working musician.
I was able to get into the Army Reserve and during those times the reservists were less likely to go to Vietnam, but some were called.
I had six months active duty in 1967 when the war was getting full blown.
Right in the heart of the war, anyone that age was very concerned they would be sent to Vietnam.
I did not support the policy or the war.
I came home from active duty in 1967, just in time for the Summer of Love.
Later that year I renamed our band Credence Clearwater Revival.
Just a few weeks after that in February of 1968 we recorded Suzy Q and it became a hit that summer, the summer of the Democratic Convention in Chicago.
At the convention Richard Daley, the mayor of Chicago, would not put up with any protest from young people.
It went from a protest to a police riot very quickly, but what that did is energized the young people to rebel against something they did not believe in.
In other words, they were not going to let the establishment get away with it.
Richard Nixon was elected president.
The Democrats had split their allegiance so Nixon won.
He lied a lot to the American people and invaded Cambodia, among other things.
Nixon immediately lost the younger generation.
He was an elitist.
If you asked anyone in the army at that time why you were going to Vietnam to fight, no one could answer.
The most common answer at the time was stopping the domino effect of countries falling to communism.
Probably the real answer was keeping the war machine going and business.
To sacrifice a young man's life with no real purpose, taking these young men from their mothers and families, was wrong.
I was the guy who was living this life.
Protests started happening in a big way in 1967.
You were young and you couldn't even vote for or against these issues.
Yet they were going to strap a gun to your back and you had no vision or belief in the duty that was being asked of you.
Well, I had very strong feelings about all of this.
Nixon seemed so dismissive of young people, even saying to the press, them bums.
1970, the killing of students at Kent State.
What the government was able to do back then was color the protesters as un-American.
Love it or leave it was the slogan they created.
Many folks took it out on the guys serving.
To me those soldiers were my brothers.
I understood them because I was also drafted into the army just like them.
The protest was against the policy, not the soldiers.
I never understood protesters spitting on our GIs.
I had been thinking about all of this turmoil.
I was a kid from El Cerrito.
It had been on my mind for some time how sons of certain Senators escaped the draft.
It was very upsetting to me as a young man of draft age.
In political conventions, many times states will use the phrase favorite son as they recognize their leader to make a nomination.
The songwriter in me thought about this and I changed the phrase to fortunate son.
A phrase to describe what we have all witnessed in our time.
As things progressed I got very angry at what Nixon was saying and doing.
He was very sarcastic about the younger generation.
50,000 people camped out on the White House lawn.
Nixon came out on a Saturday morning, looked at the crowd and said,
nothing you do here today will have any effect on me.
I'm going back inside to watch a football game.
And when the troops came home, Nixon turned his back on the soldiers.
As my feelings about all of this got stronger and stronger, I knew I wanted to write about it.
I wrote the music for a song that I was calling fortunate son without actually knowing what the lyrics were.
I rehearsed the band for a few weeks and at some point realized I was ready to write the words.
I went into my bedroom with pen and paper and wrote the whole song in 20 minutes.
I was writing what this young man felt was happening and I needed to express it.
It was very personal to me. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [C] _