'Proud' moment with Dylan inspired Fogerty

By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 28, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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Photo by Joe Gill © The Express-Times

John Fogerty performs at a concert in Bethlehem, Pa., on Aug. 10. Fogerty comes to Colorado this weekend as part of the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Labor Day Festival.

It's somewhat ancient history now, but for years John Fogerty wouldn't play the huge hits he wrote in Creedence Clearwater Revival after a bitter legal dispute with his old band mates and the record label. In 1987 he relented and started playing select songs again at a one-off July 4 benefit concert for Vietnam veterans.

But it was five months earlier that the cracks appeared in the dam. Fogerty went to a Taj Mahal show at the Palomino, a tiny Los Angeles club. In the audience were two other rockers - Bob Dylan and George Harrison. Veteran music journalist Todd Everett recalls seeing Fogerty and gently nudging him toward the other two. Within minutes, all three were onstage, and at Dylan's insistence, the legend went, Fogerty gave in and played Proud Mary.

Fans also credit that night with the genesis of the Traveling Wilburys, with Dylan and Harrison playing in a supergroup. The Wilburys' first album would be recorded in May of 1988. While a 1990 trip to Robert Johnson's grave got Fogerty, 63, fully on board with his old material, Dylan got the ball rolling. After that July 4 gig, Fogerty didn't start playing those songs regularly for another decade.

It comes full circle this weekend, when Dylan headlines Jazz Aspen Snowmass on Saturday night and Fogerty headlines on Sunday night. We asked Fogerty if the myths around that Palomino date with Dylan were true.

How did it all come together?

After I was there a while I kinda heard a rumor that Bob Dylan was there though I didn't really see him. Somebody just kinda whispered it to me. Another guy got up and started doing this poetry, stream-of-consciousness stuff. Suddenly there's Bob Dylan by my side and he says, 'I love this guy! He's the greatest poet in rock 'n' roll!' My jaw kinda drops. I'm cracking up that he'd say something about whoever the fellow was - Bob Dylan, rock's greatest poet, was using those same words to describe this guy. A little later I heard George Harrison was there. About halfway into the set there's a call for Bob Dylan to get onstage with Taj. Then just as suddenly George is up there. Then the next thing you know I'm up there. We were just playing stuff, bar songs. The crowd kinda coaxes Bob Dylan into playing one of his songs. I can't remember which one . . . I look at George because I'm really wondering, 'Wow, this is cool, what will he do?' I'm kinda with the audience Â? 'Yeah, come on George, play one!' And he whips into Honey Don't. And it was awesome.

What happened next?

Two of these people on stage have now done one of their own and then there's this sort of murmur. Dylan's on the left side of me and turns toward me as if to say 'Well?' I sorta looked at him and said, 'Oh no, I don't do my old stuff. I don't do those things.' That's when he looked at me and said, 'John, if you don't start singing Proud Mary, everybody's gonna think it's a Tina Turner song.' And so I did do it that night, although I hadn't made up my mind I was going to as a habit going forward with it. But when Bob Dylan asks you to play Proud Mary, you're not going to disappoint. You're gonna step up to the mike and sing it.

You and Dylan are at Aspen this weekend. Was that '87 show the first time you played together?

That was probably the first time as far as I remember. I was also at the Grammys one year, standing right next to him when he won Album of the Year. I actually got to hand him that thing they open when they say 'And the winner is' Â? the secret ballot or whatever. It wasn't performing, but I was with him at a significant moment in his career.

What was your relationship like with Harrison?

It was one of the higher compliments from such a special place. . . . I'd seen him when he was doing some interviews over at Warner Bros. Records. He'd borrowed a guitar from me. He turned to me at one point and said, 'You know, the band really liked Creedence.' I said, 'What?' He said, 'The band really loved Creedence. We thought your records were great.' It was dawning on me slowly who 'the band' was. Such a remarkable statement. Here's a Beatle, an immortal soul, really, telling me the Beatles loved Creedence. It really touched my heart. He said it in such an offhand, innocent way . . . just one musician talking to another. It was kinda like childhood memories almost.

John Fogerty, Bob Dylan and more at the Jazz Aspen Labor Day Festival

* The lineup

Today: Widespread Panic, Xavier Rudd.

Saturday: Bob Dylan, Ziggy Marley, Nikka Costa.

Sunday: John Fogerty, Dwight Yoakam, Tift Merritt.

Monday: Yonder Mountain String Band, Jerry Douglas, Otis Taylor.

* Tickets: Today, Sunday: $48. Saturday: $55. Monday: $40. VIP packages available.

* Information: jazzaspen .org or 1-866-527-8499

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