THE OLD MAN DOWN THE ROAD
“The Old Man Down the Road” is a song by American rock artist John Fogerty. It was released in December 1984 as the lead single from Fogerty’s comeback album, Centerfield. It became a top 10 hit single, peaking at number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and spending three weeks at the number-one spot on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks chart. (More from Wikipedia)
John Fogerty couldn’t resist tweaking his old nemesis Saul Zaentz at Fantasy with two other tracks on his 1985 hit album Centerfield, “Mr. Greed” and “Zanz Kant Danz” (about a pig who can’t dance but would “steal your money”); after a while, he was forced to change the name of the latter song to “Vanz Kant Danz”.
Saul Zaentz perhaps sought revenge by suing John Fogerty for $1,000,000 over another hit single from the same album, “The Old Man Down the Road”, alleging that the song basically had the same chorus as the 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival song “Run through the Jungle” – essentially, Fogerty was being sued for plagiarizing himself! After John Fogerty was able to establish in court that the two were separate songs, he then counter-sued Saul Zaentz for his legal expenses – a case that went all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court.
(January 2013)
