She's Got Baggage

Background

"She's Got Baggage" is the third track of Deja Vu All Over Again, the seventh solo album of John Fogerty. The collection of songs was released in September 2004. It reached #23 in the USA and #1 in Sweden. 

A fast and eneryful song, "She's Got Baggage", is often labeled as a tribute to the Ramones. Fogerty didn't buy it and mentioned the piece about crazy women was intended as the garage rock of the 60's (Larry Katz, Interview with John Fogerty, The Boston Herald, September 21st, 2004). 

Personnel

Guitars, lead vocals, "skateboard dudes": John Fogerty

Drums: Kenny Aronoff

Bass: Paul Bushnell

Additional parts, sound mixing: Eric Valentine

Live versions

Fogerty played "She's Got Baggage" in almost each concert on the Deja Vu All Over Again Tour in North America and Europe in 2004-2005.  The world premiere took place at Beau Rivage Theatre in Biloxi, Mississippi, USA, on November 6th. 

Despite wild reception particularly in the Swedish concerts, Fogerty dropped the song from the set list after the tour in spring 2005. However, it made the last short return to the programming at Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, in September 2005 when the Long Road Home DVD was shot. 

Critical reception

"Elsewhere, Fogerty likes to dip his fingers into an assortment of styles, though not all of them work. The pop-punk of "She's Got Baggage" sounds forced, especially Fogerty's multiple-tracked shout-along bridge that he attributes to "Skateboard dudes" in the liner notes." -Jim Abbott, The Orlando Sentinel, September 17th, 2004.  

"Take the blazing "She's Got Baggage", for instance. Driven by a guitar and Fogerty's now legendary storytelling abilities, here is a real American rock song, straight to the point, fast and with plenty of energy. It goes to prove that Fogerty may have aged put out a lot of records during the years, but he still has the flame burning inside of him, and hasn't lost any steam." -Alex Steininger, In Music We Trust, November-December 2004. 

"Only two of the tracks offer an element of surprise. One is 'She's Got Baggage', Fogerty's tribute to the Ramones, only too fitting seeing as how they have been saying hello to St Peter in such a quick succession over the past few years, but a little startling nevertheless because who would have known John was a fan?.. Well, then again, why not? He gets the essence of their music fairly well, copying the patented chuggin' from 'Beat On The Brat', rapping 'hey Joe say it ain't so' a la "hey ho let's go" and even quoting 'We're a happy family!' at the end. Funny." -George Starostin. 

"---empty hard rocker ---." -Thomas Erlewine, Allmusic

Fans' views

"John doing a punk rocker like this one blows me away. He had a ball doing it live although the yells sounded much better on the CD than live. HEY!! YO!!"

"Good words, it's rockin' but not very surprising."

"Clever song, very very current -- expresses what we single people discover about the people we date. Everyone has baggage; it's just a matter of how much we can tolerate each other's baggage."

"Among other qualities John's music has two sides - fun and serious. This is a great example of the best of his fun songs and was a knockout at Gothenburg!"

"Rocks like hell."

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