A FOURTH TO REMEMBER

John Fogerty has a new studio album due in late September, and according to the June 28 issue of Rolling Stone, it features some of his "most charged-up and swampy music" since his days leading Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The disc is called Revival, and it includes a track called "Creedence Song." So, at the very least, he's tipping his hat to his CCR days.

It's hard to imagine Fogerty doing something so innocuous 20 years ago. Back then, he pretty much kept his distance from all things Creedence due to a legal dispute with CCR label Fantasy Records over royalties and copyright ownership.

It didn't help matters when Fantasy sued Fogerty for plagiarizing himself, claiming that "The Old Man Down the Road," a song from Fogerty's solo album Centerfield, sounded too much like the CCR tune "Run Through the Jungle."

On July 4, 1987, in the nation's capital, Fogerty took his first step at embracing his past catalog, which he now performs regularly.

"I gave a special concert for veterans," he recalled two years ago for CMT.com, "and I started the show with the riff from 'The Old Man Down the Road' . . . and then I went into 'Born on the Bayou.' It was kind of mind-blowing. Everyone knew I wasn't playing my old songs. But this was kind of a gift to the veterans and kind of symbolic to me."

Ever since then, the line "I can remember the Fourth of July" in "Born on the Bayou" has had a deeper meaning.