More on John Fogerty

So, thanks to Jennifer, I caught John Fogerty on NPR this afternoon. Though it was an interview from 1998, I still very much enjoyed it. He talked about the early days of the band and the origins of some of his big hits like Who'll Stop the Rain. Turns out he was in the National Guard and after his haircut he felt so violated and used(he described it as "like being sexually assaulted) that depression set in. The "Rain" is the "gobledygook" (sp?) that falls from on high throughout history. I can sympathize with this. In fact, when I was a sophmore in high school, I used this song in one of my papers. I was taking a Science Fiction class, (hey, it was the '70's man) and writing a year-end thesis-style paper. At the end of the year, the teacher read some of the papers out loud to the class, but did not read mine. I was feeling dejected when finally she said that there was one paper here that she wouldn't be reading because "no one would understand it." I guess my use of the word "metaphor" threw her off. Anyway, I described the song Who'll Stop the Rain as a Science Fiction song; saying that it told of a world where it was always raining. Thinking back on it I'd say that I accurately reflected the meaning intended. My point is that I felt like this in 10th grade. Fogerty talked of feeling "like a piece of meat" in the Gaurd. So, one can imagine a young man feeling like this but as a mature man, one would certainly have to understand the reasoning behind young military personel being stripped of their identities. When I listen to songs of John Fogerty, I get very emotional. Just reading those words from Wrote a Song for Everyone last night made me well up. They're songs of youth and innocence. They're songs of what should be. But they're not songs of what is.