Since John Fogerty grew up in California, and never had set foot in Louisiana or the Bayou country, what gave him the inspiration to write the songs he wrote?
While growing up, John listened to a lot of music written about the South and sung by southerners, among them bluesmen such as Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, etc. His mother introduced him to Stephen Foster’s songs about the South (e.g., “Swanee River”) when he was very young, and he liked those. He said, downtown El Cerrito was a pretty boring place to him, so he made up this mystical Southern imagery in his head. The old Sun Records recordings were big influences, too. Basically, all of John Fogerty’s musical influences – blues, rockabilly (Elvis, Carl Perkins), country (Hank Williams) – were Southern.
