As I was driving to the Rio on July 4th, whatever radio station I was listening to at the time wished me a “Happy Fourth from the All-American Radio Station” and then started playing the song, “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. You may recall there was a Wrangler jeans commercial a while ago that did the same thing, playing the opening bars of the song over an image of a waving flag.
And the song starts off appropriately enough: “Some folks are born made to wave the flag; Ohh they’re red white and blue.” I can see how someone who only listened to the first few lines might think it was a patriotic song.
But if you listen a few seconds longer, we come to, “It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son.”
Fortunate Son is a great protest song, and it’s both funny and sad to hear it misappropriated as a star-spangled anthem.
Anywho, I’m off to play in the main event. Hopefully you won’t hear from me until tomorrow.
I don’t know which is sadder, misappropriation of Fortunate Son or the fact that Carnival cruises uses Lust for Life as a jingle.
Good luck, Andrew!!!