Rock 'n' Roll News
Our nominee for all-time patron of the rock arts has to be Saul Zaentz, the main force behind Fantasy Records, the former label of Creedence Clearwater Revival. After being in litigation for some nine years with John Fogerty, Fantasy emerged with a substantial chunk of Fogerty’s songwriting royalties for the 5,000 or so hit songs he penned while with CCR.
Rock 'n' Roll News
DEPARTMENTS
Our nominee for all-time patron of the rock arts has to be Saul Zaentz, the main force behind Fantasy Records, the former label of Creedence Clearwater Revival. After being in litigation for some nine years with John Fogerty, Fantasy emerged with a substantial chunk of Fogerty’s songwriting royalties for the 5,000 or so hit songs he penned while with CCR. Seemingly unsatisfied—what the heck, we’re only talking about free millions here—
Zaentz has brought suit against Fogerty and Warner Bros, for the song “Zanz Kant Danz” from Fogerty’s Centerfield album. Lawyers for Zaentz said the action was taken because the song—which describes the scurrilous adventures of badguy “Billy” and his porker pal “Zanz”—defamed Zaentz by holding him up to “scorn and ridicule.” Our sources tell us that Fogerty has already returned to the studio and recut the tune as “Vanz Kant Danz” and that future pressings of the album’s label and jackets have been changed by Warner Bros., although more than 700,000 copies have been sold as of this writing. We figure Fogerty pretty much summed up the whole thing himself with this comment: “All I did was write a song about a pig.”