(Credits: Far Out)
Thu 12 March 2026 22:00, UK
Locations seem to go through waves of cultural popularity, where at any given moment, its streets make way for a brewing artistic storm that will eventually sweep the globe.
In the 1980s, it centred around America’s favourite son, New York, while the ‘90s saw that magic spark in the gritty streets of Manchester. But in 1969, there is simply no denying that California was the place to be.
The hippie movement centred around the Golden State, with the endless sunlit skies and rolling green hills becoming the perfect place for a community to reconnect with nature.
But this brought with it a cohort of iconic musicians, who, as champions of this counterculture movement, decided to similarly move to California, where they could make their natural homes, while also being in touching distance with the state’s glitz and glamour.
From San Francisco to Laurel Canyon, California became awash with forward-thinking creatives who helped define the state’s role in a counterculture era. Naturally, it became something of a songwriting muse for several musicians – whether it was Joni Mitchell’s ‘Ladies Of The Canyon’ or The Mamas and The Papas’ ‘California Dreamin”, tales were regularly told about this idyllic landscape.
But while many of the musicians who eulogised this state had come from faraway lands, in pursuit of a successful artist career, only a handful of them understood it quite like California native John Fogerty. The Creedence Clearwater Revival songwriter grew up in the Bay Area, and used ‘Green River’ to finally pay homage to the state he was born in, the state he loved and the state that had become so wildly popular in music.
He explained, “It’s actually about the ‘Green River’, as I named it – it was actually called Putah Creek by Winters, California. It wasn’t called ‘Green River’, but in my mind I always sort of called it ‘Green River’. All those little anecdotes are part of my childhood; those are things that happened to me, actually. I just wrote about them, and the audience shifted at the time and place.”
The specificities of the song continue throughout the later verses. As Fogerty experienced growing fame in the late 1960s, and with that saw the world through a somewhat cynical lens, he used the innocence of his own memories to continue describing ‘Green River’ and exactly what it meant to him, as the song’s protagonist.
He continued, “Although the song seems to be mostly about idyllic memories, in the last verse a character named Old Cody Junior warns the singer that he’s going to find the world smoldering but can always come back to Green River. The name Old Cody Junior was a reference to the fact that Buffalo Bill Cody had owned the cabin by the creek that inspired the song.”
While most Californian songs celebrate the paths well trodden – be it the rolling hills of Laurel Canyon or the shining lights of Hollywood Boulevard, Fogerty’s song showcases him as a true native of that state. Someone who knows the gems that are tucked away from public view, that have nothing for the general public, but plenty for those who truly know California.