Theme: Vietnam war: CCR 'Fortunate Son'

Ah, the Vietnam war. An obvious choice for a weekly theme, but an important one, nonetheless. Although the U.S. never officially declared war on Vietnam, the Vietnam war remains one of the most unpopular wars in American history (following behind the current Afghan/Iraq war). Nearly 60,000 (American) deaths and 350,000 casualties later, the U.S. finally decides to pull out of the Vietnam war in 1975.

Numerous artists wrote on Vietnam, though nearly all are protest/anti-war songs.


Creedence Clearwater Revival's 'Fortunate Son' (Fogerty, 1969) shows the hypocrisy of the war and, more specifically, of the draft. Fogerty sings of rich men (senator's sons) creating laws, ushering the country into war, and then buying their way out of the draft, ultimately putting someone else in their place:

Some folks are born, silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don't they help themselves, oh
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house look like a rummage sale, yes.

I believe CCR, like many others during this time, are angry at the hypocrisy of the government and it's failure to take responsibility in addition to cold, and even violent, responses towards protesters.

CCR ain't no fortunate sons.