May Day 2010: The 20 Greatest Protest Songs

10. Creedence Clearwater Revival: 'Fortunate Son' – John Fogerty wrote the song in 1969 in protest at the Vietnam war and took inspiration from the partnership of David Eisenhower (the grandson of President Eisenhower) and Julie Nixon (the daughter of President Nixon). The premise is that, unlike the impoverished narrator of the song who is being conscripted, “fortunate son” David Eisenhower gets to miss Vietnam. Four decades later on his 2007 album 'Revival', Fogerty penned the song I Can't Take It No More' about the Iraq War in which he labels then President George W Bush as “a fortunate son.”

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