Fortunate Son is a song by Creedence Clearwater Revival on their album Willy and the Poor Boys in 1969. It was released as a single, together with Down on the corner, in September 1969.
The song was inspired by David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower who married Julie Nixon, the daughter of President Richard Nixon in 1968. John Fogerty told Rolling Stone: "Julie Nixon was hanging around with David Eisenhower, and you just had the feeling that none of these people were going to be involved with the war. In 1969, the majority of the country thought morale was great among the troops, and like eighty percent of them were in favor of the war. But to some of us who were watching closely, we just knew we were headed for trouble."This song was popular during the Vietnam War and is included in several Vietnam films and video games. The song symbolizes the thoughts of a man who is being drafted. This spoke out against the war in Vietnam It is sung from the perspective of one of these men (who is not the son of a Senator, millionaire, or military leader, thus not a "fortunate son"), who ends up fighting in the Vietnam War.
Fogerty performed the song in front of President Bill Clinton and a national TV audience on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the "America's Millennium" show on December 31, 1999.Rolling Stone ranked the song #99 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."
On Fogerty's 2007 album Revival, the song "I Can't Take It No More", which speaks out against the Iraq War, implicitly links the Iraq and Vietnam wars by referring to George W. Bush as a fortunate son.
