Tynan's Anger

SONGS OF THE DECADE #96

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]
John Fogerty - Don't You Wish It Were True (2007)


This decade, most remaining Woodstock vets either turned to abject politics or "I was here first" bitter musings. In vintage style, Fogerty had it both ways. More "Won’t Get Fooled Again" than "Things Have Changed," the frontman of the most working class band of the Woodstock era was able to retain the Spirit of '69 while still acknowledging the mania that has entered the American political landscape. The result is a track that is the resigned, but not detached, outcome of Fogerty's generation and its effect on the later ones. It's a campfire song that's got enough going for it—a slightly off-kilter tempo, and the voice Fogerty has rather incredibly managed to maintain for 40+ years—to become a great recorded song. If it sounds slightly bitter to a younger generation, it's important to consider how much bitterness behind the song is not here.

Labels: 2000s, don't you wish it were true, john fogerty, pop music, songs of the decade