At the first night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concerts, on a night that was basically all highlights, one of the best was the team-up between Bruce Springsteen and one of his great songwriting influences.
By way of introduction, Bruce called John Fogerty “the Hank Williams of our generation,” but everyone would have known who he was regardless, just as soon as Fogerty launched into that riff.
If it seems like John and the E Street Band were a natural pairing on “Fortunate Son,” that might be because they had lots of practice: on Bruce’s short-lived Vote for Change Tour in 2004, a Fogerty-fronted “Fortunate Son” was a nightly set list centerpiece.
But that tour wasn’t the first time Bruce and the E Street Band played “Fortunate Son” together. They actually played it together twice before, but to much smaller crowds. Their debut performance came at The Stone Pony, a rare gig during the summer of 1987:
Just a couple of months later, Bruce and the E Street Band reprised their performance at McLoone’s Rum Runner in Seat Bright on Halloween night:
(and in between, Bruce even played it with the Stone Pony house band, Cats on a Smooth Surface)
The original Creedence Clearwater Revival recording was already a classic anti-war anthem, and its stature has only grown since. Peaking at #3 upon its original 1969 release, Rolling Stone eventually inducted it into their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list at #99.
With three Springsteen performances in the summer of 1987, one might have expected to see “Fortunate Son” make the set list in the politically charged opening of the second set during the Tunnel of Love Express Tour. But of course it didn’t happen, and instead we had to wait 17 years before Bruce and the E Street Band performed it again.
But while almost every post-Reunion era Springsteen performance of “Fortunate Son” has featured Fogerty’s vocals, Bruce did treat us to one very special one-off team-up. At the free Concert for Valor in Washington DC on Veteran’s Day 2014, Bruce joined Dave Grohl and the Zac Brown Band for a ferociously pointed rendition.
Fortunate Son
First performed: August 9, 1987 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: November 11, 2014 (Washington, DC)
