Fogarty's Fantasy or Fantasy's Fogarty?
CBS Sunday Morning did a small piece on John Fogarty this morning. Their stories usually have a light, happy ending bent, including this one. After creating 10 Gold Records and 6 Platinum Albums for Fantasy Records in the late 60's/early 70's, and making millions and millions of dollars.... for that label, he left. He left with nothing. After contributing one of the greatest liberal legacies to music the world has ever seen, what Bruce Springsteen described as Hank Williams level contribution of socially conscious, simply crafted songs which go right into our cultural legacy... the man was left with nothing but bitterness and defeat and contributed nothing to music for 18 years.
But, Fogarty is a musical genius, and can't just lay dormant forever, despite being, in his own words, "in jail". So, in 1985 he released Centerfold, which was a hit. Fantasy sued him for infringing their copyright, ostensibly for sounding too much like himself. They owned him. He did not own himself... can you imagine what that feels like to an artist? The CBS story goes on to say, yes, yes, his wife, his kids, he's playing music, he's happy... and that was all they wrote.
Well, CBS, there's a lot more to the story. Instead of shining your light on this little family happy ending, why don't you talk about what's really happening here. Fogarty's story is the story of what happens to 99% of our artists, the only difference is that Fogarty has such an incredible magnitude of genius, he overcame what the others couldn't. CBS also does not mention that Fogarty not only won the lawsuit but got attorney's fees, the first to do so. Thus, he did much to chill some of these frivolous lawsuits. It shows you the gaul of these labels, with reluctant courts only willing to step in when things get this egregious.
I literally cried at this story just thinking about shutting down an artist like that for 18 years. It is an absolute crime against humanity and those in their little Fantasy world will have a lot of karma to deal with. To think that those rapists will own that CCR catalogue, virtually forever, makes me sick to my stomach, ripping off an 18 year old boy who turned out to be one of our greatest songwriter/poets. They want to take credit for him? They murdered him.
But, Fogarty is a musical genius, and can't just lay dormant forever, despite being, in his own words, "in jail". So, in 1985 he released Centerfold, which was a hit. Fantasy sued him for infringing their copyright, ostensibly for sounding too much like himself. They owned him. He did not own himself... can you imagine what that feels like to an artist? The CBS story goes on to say, yes, yes, his wife, his kids, he's playing music, he's happy... and that was all they wrote.
Well, CBS, there's a lot more to the story. Instead of shining your light on this little family happy ending, why don't you talk about what's really happening here. Fogarty's story is the story of what happens to 99% of our artists, the only difference is that Fogarty has such an incredible magnitude of genius, he overcame what the others couldn't. CBS also does not mention that Fogarty not only won the lawsuit but got attorney's fees, the first to do so. Thus, he did much to chill some of these frivolous lawsuits. It shows you the gaul of these labels, with reluctant courts only willing to step in when things get this egregious.
I literally cried at this story just thinking about shutting down an artist like that for 18 years. It is an absolute crime against humanity and those in their little Fantasy world will have a lot of karma to deal with. To think that those rapists will own that CCR catalogue, virtually forever, makes me sick to my stomach, ripping off an 18 year old boy who turned out to be one of our greatest songwriter/poets. They want to take credit for him? They murdered him.
posted by Intervision at 9:17 PM
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