The singer John Fogerty thought could end a war

(Credits: Far Out / Press)

Stripping back the LSD haze and poor hygiene of the hippie era, the core of that counterculture movement lied in the idea that music could truly change the world, in a political as well as cultural sense. Whether that is true or not, the dream of that musical revolution has never really died for people like John Fogerty.

From his vantage point, performing one of the stand-out sets of Woodstock back in 1969, Fogerty had a perfect view of the hippie era, and he had the foresight to stay away from the drugs and alcohol that derailed many of his fellow musicians – so he remembers the era far better than most. Although they weren’t as tripped out as Jefferson Airplane or as ardently political as Country Joe and the Fish, Creedence Clearwater Revival were still firmly a part of that cultural revolution.

Namely, the group’s stand-out single ‘Fortunate Son’ quickly became an anthem for the anti-war movement upon its release in 1969, decrying the American class divide and offering a stunning indictment both on the draft system and the war in Vietnam more generally. At that time in rock, Fogerty was far from being the only songwriter devoting himself to the anti-war movement, and he readily admits that his efforts were dwarfed by one other songwriter, who became the definitive voice of the 1960s.

At the beginning of the decade, Bob Dylan was an unknown folk devotee immersing himself in old Woody Guthrie records, but by the time that Creedence Clearwater Revival took to the stage at Woodstock, he was one of America’s defining songwriters. “Bob Dylan, you will never be able to overstate his importance, his cultural impact at that time,” Fogerty declared decades later, during a 2013 interview with American Songwriter. 

Dylan certainly changed the landscape of songwriting, breaking free from the restrictions of his folk roots to pen a litany of classic songs that perfectly encapsulated the feeling of that tumultuous era in American history. According to Fogerty, though, the impact of Dylan’s output stretched far beyond the cultural realm.

“No matter how much exaggeration and hyperbole you use about Bob Dylan, you still haven’t said it enough,” the songwriter gushed. “If any one guy was responsible for ending the war in Vietnam, then it’s Bob Dylan.” A bold claim, not least because the war in Vietnam didn’t actually end until 1975, by which time Dylan’s output had changed radically.

Nevertheless, Fogerty claimed, “Millions upon millions of young people hearing his music, dissecting his words, becoming children of his poetry and having a cultural point of view, it’s all kind of in Bob’s image, in his shadow.”

Fogerty seemingly suggested that Dylan was the mechanism by which millions of young people in America were alerted to the anti-war movement, which is a valid enough claim. However, the idea that Dylan was more responsible than anybody else for ending the Vietnam War might just be the well-meaning naivety of the hippie generation shining through once again.

Dylan’s anti-war stance certainly had an impact on turning public opinion against the war, but then so did the war crimes committed by the US Army. It was only after extensive negotiations, an economic crisis in 1973, and the unending efforts of North Vietnamese forces, that the war was finally ended; it’s not clear how much credit Bob Dylan can take for the Paris Peace Accords, regardless of what John Fogerty might claim. 

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