Subject: The Wranglers Ad - Fortunate Son
Hi Man!
Thanks for the ANGER! I love your site,
am a subscriber, and hope to give
more as my circumstances improve...We really
need Bartcop radio!
You may have seen the Wranglers ad where they
use "Fortunate Son" by John Fogerty.
They cut out all of the meaning from the song,
and basically make it into a PRO America song...
I don't think I've been this angry at a Corporate
use of a song since Michael Jackson sold "Revolution" to Nike...
John Fogerty no longer owns the rights to ANY
of the Creedence stuff...Saul Zaentz from Fantasy Records
basically stole all the songs fromFogerty...Zaentz
is the pig ultimately responsible for selling this POWERFUL
song so that a corporation could sell fucking
jeans.
For years, Fogerty didn't perform Creedence songs
because of the situation, but has started again,
because he feels that the songs are 'of the people'
at this point. My personal highlight of the 2000 Millenium
celebration was Fogerty singing this on the steps
of the Capital, and pissing off a lot of Senators royally!!!
Well this commercial pissed me off...I wrote a
letter to Wrangler pointing out what whores they were to not
only use one of the greatest protest songs ever,
but to CHANGE the lyrics so that it fit in to this whole GW
Pro-America bullshit. This is what they
sent in response:
Dear Matt,
Thank you for writing to us about your concerns
regarding the use of John
Fogerty's "Fortunate Son" in Wrangler's current
advertising. While it is
true "Fortunate Son" was written during the
Vietnam War, over the years
John Fogerty has explained that the point
of the song is not anti-American
or anti-war but simply an anti-privilege anthem
to the common men and women
who fought for our country in Vietnam.
The song was actually written as a
tribute to and a commiseration with those
not born into wealth and privilege.
As you may know, Mr. Fogerty and Creedance
Clearwater Revival recorded "Fortunate Son"
in 1969 during a tumultuous time in American
history. Their songs and music helped define the era.
He described the song as being about "privileged
people making policy that commits poor people
to war". Yet the sons of the well-to-do
and powerful don't have to worry about those things.
They were fortunate." (Minneapolis Star
Tribune September 1997).
In a Los Angeles Times article, "Rockers Rally
Round the Flag" Fogerty states,
"This really is our country, and we've got
to stand up for it". No matter how demoralizing it gets
sometimes, there is something in our spirit
that keeps insisting there is a real light at the end of the
tunnel." It is his concern for America
and for its average citizen that led us to select his music
over a year and a half ago for our commercials.
Incidentally, the Vietnam Veterans Association
has great admiration for John Fogerty.
He is a regular fixture at Vietnam Veterans events.
Today more that ever, Wrangler and all the
employees who work for Wrangler, share a
compassion and concern for the country and
it's citizens. We have purchased both the
publishing rights owned by Mr. Fogerty and
the original recording owned by Fantasy Records
because we love the music and believe it sincerely
espouses that very compassion and concern
for everyday Americans people very much like
our own customers.
We apologize for any confusion caused by the
song selection.
Thank you again for taking the time to communicate
your concerns with us.
Regards,
Wrangler
Needless to say, these whores did not address
the reasons that they edited the song so that the lyrics
were PRO-AMERICAN. This letter had
some to the most obvious spin since Ari pulled his head out
of the toilet...also, John Fogerty was obviously
not too happy as the following quote shows:
"When you use a song for a TV commercial, it trivializes
the meaning of the song. It almost turns it into nothing."
-- veteran rocker JOHN FOGERTY, former lead singer
of CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL,
in an interview with the Los Angeles Times about
use of the group's protest anthem "Fortunate Son" in
a TV ad for blue jeans
I somehow doubt that Fogerty himself had anything
to do with selling the publishing rights,
no matter what Wrangler says (and if he did,
another of my heroes is gone).
Anyways, thought I'd send this off to you...sometimes
it's nice to 'share the anger'.
Thank you SO MUCH for your great site!
Matt Grace