Proud Mary is undoubtedly one of John Fogerty's finest accomplishments. Commercially, the Creedence Clearwater Revival track became a major hit in the States, peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Just two years later, Ike & Tina Turner released their own rendition, and it quickly became one of Tina Turner's signature songs, further cementing its legacy.
“I tried really, really hard to write a great song, and of course, if you're ever able to even do one, which I had finally done, writing Proud Mary, what I learned was, I'll keep trying this and keep doing this, but I'll throw away a lot of stuff in the process of creating for the public,” Fogerty tells Rick Beato, as he explains his songwriting process.
“You polish your work. You try to make it the best you can. Back in those days, I used to say, for every song you hear from me, I've written ten that I've thrown away. It didn't mean that I actually finished all ten. It meant that somewhere along the way, this isn't going to develop the way I want, so I better turn the page and start on something else.”
As for how his calling card came to fruition, it all stemmed from being honorably discharged from the National Guard.
“In the middle of the Vietnam War, that might have been the best news you could get!” he recalls. “I actually turned a real cartwheel on the little patch of grass, because I want[ed] to remember this, and that's what I did. I went head over heels, went in the house and grabbed my Rickenbacker and just started strumming acoustically, it wasn't plugged in.
“And then as I'm strumming along, you know that first thing, ‘Left a good job in the city, working for the man every night and day.’ Well, that obviously was because I just gotten out of the Army. And I'd start working on this thing. Eventually, I'm singing, ‘Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river.’ And that really pulled my heartstrings.
“I go on my songbook, I open the book, and I see ‘Proud Mary,’” he continues. “What I haven't known until about six months ago, at the very bottom of that first page, is the word ‘river boat.’ And even though I've been telling this story for years, I didn't even realize that 'til I looked at the book kind of recently. I had to have done some [sort] of, ‘Wow, Mary's the name of the boat.’”
Fogerty reminisces about how the song flowed out of him “within the hour,” and how he immediately realized that it was something special.
“I looked at the page and I went, ‘John, you've written a classic.’ I had never written what I considered a song like the greats, like Hoagy Carmichael or Lennon and McCartney or Bob Dylan. My whole life, I wanted to get there, be like them, but I also knew that none of my songs were good like that. And now I'm looking at one that is. It's just mysterious to me how that happened.
“I said to myself while I'm holding the piece of paper, ‘This is the classic, John, you've written the classic, and I'm the only one in the whole world that knows,’” he concludes.
The legendary singer-songwriter and guitarist is currently on the road promoting Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years, and recently revealed why he parted ways with his beloved Acme Rickenbacker, and how he managed to get it back.
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