Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty could certainly write hits:
Green River
Fortunate Son
Born on the Bayou
Proud Mary
Who’ll Stop the Rain
Bad Moon Rising
Lookin’ Out My Back door
Down on the Corner
Have You Ever Seen the Rain
Up Around the Bend
…and many many more. At a time when so-called underground FM radio station bands were making concept albums, CCR stuck with the older format churning out albums full of songs that typically stayed within AM radio’s strictures of under 4 minutes and more often under three minutes.
Unfortunately, John’s success overshadowed the artistic hopes of the other band members like his older brother, Tom.
Older Brother Tom Fogerty
Background
Tom Fogerty was born in Berkeley, California. He formed a band, Spider Webb and the Insects, that Del-Fi Records signed in 1959. Spider Webb only recorded one song for the label, “Lyda Jane,” but it was never released and the group broke up shortly thereafter.
Tom joined John’s band, the Blue Velvets, in 1960. The Blue Velvets had limited local success in the San Francisco Bay area.
The four signed with Fantasy Records in 1964. There they were briefly the Visions, the Golliwogs, and finally, in late 1967, Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Older Brother Tom Fogerty
Stardom
That elusive success suddenly exploded upon them: between July 1968 and December 1970, Creedence released six albums and top 10 hit after hit. The band was more a back up for John than a collaboration. Tom, the original front singer and whose own compositions were hardly included in the band’s albums, led to his leaving the band in 1971.
Post Creedence
Solo
He signed a solo deal with Fantasy in 1972 and released the first of his solo albums, Tom Fogerty, in 1972. His other albums were:
None had any of the commercial success that CCR had. CCR itself broken up by 1972, many say due to John’s continued insistence that all band-related issues be his to decide.
Health
Tom moved to Scottsdale, Arizona in the ‘80s. He underwent back surgery, but an unscreened blood transfusion infected him with the AIDS virus. It led to his death, officially of tuberculosis, on Sept. 6, 1990.
He was 48. The LA Times obituary had 116 words. The NY Times had 93. A search of the Rolling Stone Magazine site revealed no obituary.
Older Brother Tom Fogerty
Retrospective
In a July 18, 2014 interview in Uncut, band bassist Stu Cook said, “Tom had put up with a lot of shit from John. I think Tom was expecting John to say, ‘OK, now we’ve achieved our goals, why don’t you start singing a few of the songs?’ Tom had a great voice, kinda like Ritchie Valens. Tom would have done a damn good job on ‘La Bamba’. But John didn’t want him to sing it, in case we had a hit with it. He didn’t want Tom to succeed.”
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. One of the most infamous inductions of any band in the Hall’s history. According to The History of Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival from the Ultimate Classic Rock site: When Creedence Clearwater Revival was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…Tom Fogerty’s widow brought his ashes in an urn. John, however, refused to share the stage with his former bandmates.
The feud between the remaining three band mates (though obviously “mates” is not the word to use) continues.
Older Brother Tom Fogerty
Here Stands the Clown
Here stands the clown Spotlight currents all around We don’t see that that clown is me Here stands the clown
Here stands the fool Locomotion layin’ down the rules We don’t see that that fool is me Here stands the fool
Here stands the man Close the book he made with his own hands We don’t see that that man is me Here stands the man
On November 9, 1961 The Beatles performed at the Cavern Club at lunchtime. That night they appeared at Litherland Town Hall, Liverpool (their final performance at that venue).
This was a major day for The Beatles, although they are unaware of it at the time–in the audience at the Cavern Club show was Brian Epstein, dressed in his pin-stripe suit and seeing The Beatles for the first time.
Accompanying Epstein was his assistant Alistair Taylor. Epstein will recall his first impressions in a 1964 interview: “They were fresh and they were honest, and they had:star quality. Whatever that is, they had it, or I sensed that they had it.” Over the next few weeks, Epstein becomes more and more interested in possibly managing The Beatles and he does a lot of research into just exactly what that would entail. When he speaks with the group’s embittered ex-manager Allan Williams, he is told, “Brian, don’t touch ’em with a fucking bargepole.” Nonetheless, Epstein invited The Beatles to a meeting at his record store on December 3.
Five years later…
Yoko Ono poster for show at The Indica Gallery
November 9 Music Beatles James Brown
Yoko Ono @ The Indica Gallery
November 9, 1966: John Lennon visited the Indica Gallery in London where he met Yoko Ono who was displaying her art. The Indica Gallery was in the basement of the Indica Bookshop in Mason’s Yard, just off Duke Street in Mayfair, London and co-owned by John Dunbar, Peter Asher, and Barry Miles, and was supported in its early years by Paul McCartney.
November 9 Music Beatles James Brown
James Brown
Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud
James Brown
November 9, 1968: singer James Brown gave support to the civil rights movement with his song, “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud (Part 1),” which hit number one on the R & B charts for a record sixth straight week.
From schmoop.com: …the song was also – more of a rarity for the Godfather of Soul – deeply political. “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” was almost a revolutionary statement in 1968, and one laced with more than a little bit of irony. Brown said he recorded the tune as a kind of children’s song, hoping to instill pride in the younger generation. But many whites heard it only as militant and angry, costing Brown a good chunk of his interracial crossover audience. And those kids happily shouting out the chorus, “I’m black and I’m proud”? In another ironic twist, most of them were actually white or Asian schoolchildren.
Before 1845, states determined Election Day, but since then Election Day has officially been the first Tuesday after the first Monday. Thus November 8 is the latest that an election day can be.
By why Tuesday? In the 19th century most people still lived on farms and had to travel to vote. Traveling on Sunday was “forbidden” for many Christians and Wednesday was typically market day. Tuesday it was.
We have had six November 8 presidential elections since then:
1864
Abraham Lincoln defeated
George B. McClellan
1892
Grover Cleveland defeated
Benjamin Harrison
1904
Theodore Roosevelt defeated
Alton B. Parker
1932
Franklin D Roosevelt defeated
Herbert Hoover
1960
John F Kennedy defeated
Richard M Nixon
1988
George H W Bush defeated
Michael Dukakis
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Technological Milestone
November 8, 1895: physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen became the first person to observe X-rays, a significant scientific advancement that would ultimately benefit a variety of fields, most of all medicine, by making the invisible visible. Rontgen’s discovery occurred accidentally in his Wurzburg, Germany, lab, where he was testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass when he noticed a glow coming from a nearby chemically coated screen. He dubbed the rays that caused this glow X-rays because of their unknown nature. (see Dec 28)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Black History
Owen Anderson lynched
November 8, 1889: group of 40 white men took 18-year-old black Orion “Owen” Anderson from jail in Leesburg, Virginia and lynched him. Anderson was alleged to have worn a sack on his head and frightened the daughter of a prominent white man on her walk to school.
Though there were no witnesses to the “incident” and the girl could not identify her “attacker,” Anderson was arrested after a sack was found near him. He was jailed under accusation of attempted assault, and later reports claimed he confessed.
The vigilante group all wore wore. They took Anderson from his cell, carried him to the freight depot of the Richmond & Danville Railroad, hanged him, and shot his body full of bullets.
Leesburg’s newspaper, the Mirror, reported the lynching on November 14th, calling it “a terrible warning,” and stating, “The fate of the self-confessed author of the outrage should serve as a terrible admonition to the violators of the law for the protection of female virtue.” [EJI article] (next BH, see July 10, 1890; see 19th century for expanded lynching chronology)
Domestic terrorism
Report of Willmington race riot from The New York Herald
November 8, 1898: in two days of racial violence, a mob of whites, led by some of Wilmington NC’s most respected and influential citizens, destroyed the state’s only daily African American newspaper. Coroner reports confirmed nine blacks were killed; some estimate hundreds died. Scores of others were driven from their homes.
Originally described as a race riot, it is now observed as a coup d’etat with insurgents having overthrown the legitimately elected local government, the only such event in US history.
Two days after the election of a Fusionist white Mayor and biracial city council, Democratic Party white supremacists illegally seized power from the elected government. More than 1500 white men participated in an attack on the black newspaper, burning down the building. They ran officials and community leaders out of the city, and killed many blacks in widespread attacks, but especially destroyed the Brooklyn neighborhood. They took photographs of each other during the events. T
he Wilmington Light Infantry and federal Naval Reserves, told to quell the riot, used rapid-fire weapons and killed several black men in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Both black and white residents later appealed for help after the riot to President William McKinley, who did not respond. More than 2,000 blacks left the city permanently, turning it from a black-majority to a white-majority city. (next BH, see April 23, 1899; RR, see August 14, 1908)
Edward W. Brooke
November 8, 1965: Edward W. Brooke (R-Massachusetts) became the first African American elected to Senate. (see Nov 30)
Harold Washington
November 8, 1983: Harold Washington elected first African American mayor of Chicago. (see Nov 18)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Vietnam
General J Lawton “Lightning Joe” Collins
November 8, 1954: General J Lawton “Lightning Joe” Collins arrived in Saigon from Washington with the rank of ambassador. (se February 23, 1955)
South Vietnam
November 8, 1964: the US Government recognized the new South Vietnam government. (Vietnam, see Nov 15; South Vietnam leadership, see June 14, 1965)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
ADA
Franklin D. Roosevelt
November 8, 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president. After he helped found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now known as the March of Dimes). His leadership in this organization is one reason he is commemorated on the dime.
League for the Physically Handicapped
In 1935, to protest the fact that their requests for employment with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) have been stamped ‘PH’ (physically handicapped), 300 members of the League for the Physically Handicapped stage a nine-day sit in at the Home Relief Bureau of New York City. Eventually, they help secure several thousand jobs nationwide. The League of the Physically Handicapped is accepted as the first organization of people with disabilities by people with disabilities. (see August 14, 1935)
Mental Health, Americans with Disabilities
November 8, 2013: the Obama administration required insurers to cover care for mental health and addiction just like physical illnesses when it issued regulations defining parity in benefits and treatment. (NYT article) (see December 19, 2014)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
November 8 Music et al
Cynthia Lennon
November 8, 1968: Cynthia Lennon granted divorce from John. (see CL for more; next Beatles, see Nov 11)
Laura Nyro
November 8 – 28, 1969: “Wedding Bell Blues” by The Fifth Dimension #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Laura Nyro wrote and recorded the song in 1966. The harmonica in the beginning of hers sounds like somebody’s cell phone went off during the recording. Guess not, eh?
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Cultural Milestone
November 8, 1972: the premium cable TV network HBO (Home Box Office) made its debut. The first program and film broadcast on the channel, the 1971 movie Sometimes a Great Notion. It was transmitted that evening to 325 Service Electric subscribers in Wilkes-Barre (a plaque commemorating this event is located at Public Square in downtown Wilkes-Barre).
Home Box Office broadcast its first sports event immediately after the film: an NHL game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks from Madison Square Garden. (see February 9, 1973)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
LGBTQ
Harvey Milk
November 8, 1977, LGBT: Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was responsible for introducing a gay rights ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs. Milk also led a successful campaign against Proposition 6, an initiative forbidding homosexual teachers. (see November 18, 1977
November 8, 2007: the House of Representatives approved a bill ensuring equal rights in the workplace for gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. (NYT article) (see February 1, 2008)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Native Americans
November 8, 1978: The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA) enacted. It governed jurisdiction over the removal of Native American children from their families.
The ICWA was enacted because of the high removal rate of Indian children from their traditional homes and essentially from Indian culture as a whole. Before enactment, as many as 25 to 35 percent of all Indian children were being removed from their Indian homes and placed in non-Indian homes, with presumably the absence of Indian culture. In some cases, the Bureau of Indian Affairs paid the states to remove Indian children and to place them with non-Indian families and religious groups.
As Louis La Rose (Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska) testified: “I think the cruelest trick that the white man has ever done to Indian children is to take them into adoption court, erase all of their records and send them off to some nebulous family … residing in a white community and he goes back to the reservation and he has absolutely no idea who his relatives are, and they effectively make him a non-person and I think … they destroy him.” (click for more information >>> ICWA) (Native Americans, see July 2, 1979; Supreme Court decision re the ICWA, see June 25, 2013 or June 15, 2023)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Irish Troubles
November 8, 1987: a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded as crowds gathered in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, for a ceremony honoring Britain’s war dead, killing 11 people. (see Troubles for expanded story)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Assisted suicide, Oregon
November 8, 1994: Oregon became the first state to legalize assisted suicide when voters passed a Death with Dignity Act, but legal appeals kept the law from taking effect until 1997. (NYT article) (see Nov 26)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Iraq War II
November 8, 2006: Donald Rumsfeld announced he would resign as Secretary of Defense. (see Nov 9)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
The Cold War
November 8, 2017: the Trump administration tightened the economic embargo on Cuba, restricting Americans from access to hotels, stores and other businesses tied to the Cuban military.
A lengthy list of rules, which President Trump had promised in June to punish the communist government in Havana, came just as Mr. Trump was visiting leaders of the communist government in Beijing and pushing business deals there. The announcement was part of the administration’s gradual unwinding of parts of the Obama administration’s détente with the Cuban government.
Americans wishing to visit Cuba will once again have to go through authorized tour operators, and tour guides will have to accompany the groups — making such trips more expensive. [CNN article] (see January 17, 2018)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Sexual Abuse of Children
November 8, 2018: the Associated Press reported that Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri announced that thirty-three priests or religious were “credibly accused” and/or removed from the ministry over sexual abuse of minors.
McKnight released a complete list of the names that followed an internal investigation begun in February 2018. The list included 25 priests from the diocese, three priests from other areas who previously served in the Jefferson City diocese, and five members of a religious order. (see Nov 12)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
Cannabis
November 8, 2022: Election day: Maryland approved recreational use of cannabis, while voters in Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota defeated proposed legalization. [MM article] (next Cannabis, see Nov 23, or see CAC for larger chronology)
November 8 Peace Love Art Activism
What's so funny about peace, love, art, and activism?
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