Wrote A Song For Everyone

Background

"Wrote a Song for Everyone" is the closing track of side A of the original Green River album. 

John Fogerty recalled in 1997 that the roots of the song are in a minor misunderstanding between John Fogerty and his wife. As she walked out of the door, Fogerty said to himself, "I wrote song for everyone and I couldn't even talk to you." (John Fogerty, Fortunate Son, 2015). 

More than a decade later, Fogerty put this countryish ballad in a broader social context: "The late sixties was, of course, a time of great turmoil in America and around the world. Politically and socially this new energy seemed to be affecting everything. As some of this conflict played out in our media you could watch famous people from the older generation having trouble communicating with the younger generation. I had in mind a so-called leader of millions who couldn’t even lead his own son." (John Fogerty on his Twitter page, November 2011). 

Trivia

An earlier version of "Wrote a Song for Everyone" existed but Fogerty destroyed it. Neither is he completely happy with the second version; the D-tuned guitar made the strings floppy (John Fogerty, Fortunate Son, 2015). 

Live versions

John Fogerty played "Wrote a Song for Everyone" regularly on his Premonition Tour in 1998. The song was heard for the first time live on the opening leg of the tour in Indianapolis on June 13th, 1998.  

After the hiatus of 12 years, the song returned to his set list on American and European tours in 2010. Next year the Green River album track was only played a couple of times: in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. 

Fogerty also delivered the song in the premiere Green River album concert at Beacon Theatre in New York on November 18th, 2011. The show was broadcast live by Sirius XM radio. Concert goers heard "Wrote a Song for Everyone" also on the Australian tour in the following spring.

In TV series

"Wrote a Song for Everyone" was used in TV series Men in Trees, episode History Lessons (2007).

Critical reception

"---good country music, with a bringing-it-all-back-home chorus." -Susan Gordon Lydon, The New York Times, September 21st, 1969. 

""Wrote a Song for Everyone," the only cut on the album in a slow tempo, creates a haunting mood somewhat akin to that of "The Weight." It features a graceful, tantalizing brief country guitar solo by Fogerty. The lyrics are really weird; as far as I can tell, their central message is the failure of message songs." -Bruce Miroff, The Rolling Stone, October 18th, 1969.

"Strangely enough, though, it's two of the ballads that I enjoy the most of anything on this album. I really don't think that "Wrote a Song for Everyone" gets as much credit from people as it deserves. Ok, it could be argued that it's a little too long, and I guess I can see the off-handed comparisons to Lynyrd Skynyrd, but it still digs really deep into me. I just sense so much sadness in John's voice when he sings about being able to communicate easily to the masses but still not being able to effectively express himself to just one person ---" -John McFerrin's Music Reviews. 

"--- the first side fizzles out with 'Wrote A Song For Everyone' - a great, although a bit overlong, ballad. I mean, it's a wee bit too slow for me, but even the slowness has a virtue - it gives you full possibility to appreciate the beauty and power of Cosmo's mammoth drumming. It's also moving - a bit of a confessional tune, with Fogerty almost addressing the entire audience, and you can feel scorn and irony as he chants out 'Wrote a song for everyone, and I couldn't even talk to you'." -George Starostin.

Fans' views

"Just says what John did best ... the lyrics are great and soft, alluring tune is quite magestic."

"WASFE was another of those magical cuts off the Green River album, which to this day is my favorite Creedence album. I loved the guitar, the dreaminess of it, the overarching philosophy it espoused. It established John as a deep thinker, at least to me. He certainly wasn't writing love songs, which is what everyone else did."

"It has everything, the greatest guitar solo, fantastic voice, excellent lyrics (message is ambiguous, if you will (forget official interpretation!). It sounds sentimental if volume is low, it rocks if volume is high, it’s just great."

"Always makes me feel good when I'm down."

The 2013 remake

John Fogerty recorded a new version of the song alongside country singer Miranda Lambert for his collaboration album Wrote a Song for Everyone that was released in May 2013. Recording sessions with Lambert began in October 2011. The guitar solo was delivered by Tom Morello. 

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