Willy & The Poor Boys
1969 | Rock
“Some folks inherit star spangled eyes, ooh, they send you down to war, Lord. -- And when you ask them, "How much should we give?" Ooh, they only answer "More! More! More!"
Trivia
- The song hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
- The song is in the National Registry at the Library Of Congresss.
- According to his 2015 memoir, Fogerty was thinking about David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who married Julie Nixon, the daughter of then-President-elect Richard Nixon in 1968, when he wrote "Fortunate Son."
THE HOT TAKES
Luke Tatum
The state never shows restraint. It can only have restraints forced upon it by public will, and even this is rare. "How much should we give?" The correct answer is "None. None at all." The state is a concept. It's nothing. It's just people ruling other people, and there's a thinly veiled version of the Divine Right of Kings called "Democracy" that they use for cover so they can enforce their will on us. So if "it ain't me," and it ain't you, then let's exit this crummy system already.
Sherry Voluntary
Unlike Nick, I love this song. The only thing I don't like about it is the class warfare of the second verse. You can see how the indoctrination of "paying your fair share" is so prevalent. Like, if a person is wealthy, that automatically means they should be happy to pay taxes. Bollox!
Nicky P
Distinctly the worst song by CCR. Could it possibly be any more overplayed? This song might as well just be a big sign that says vietnam war this way in any movie about the era. I think the song itself is a trope at this point. I take it back you could substitute Paint It Black in for this one too. Truthfully I wrote the beginning of this thinking i was writing about paint it black and then thought...that doesn't seem right. I then had a moment where oh boy do I have to re-write anything? The truth is I think anything I have to say about them is pretty interchangeable. The song is an example of how social stratification affects who gets sent to war. "I ain't no senators son. I ain't no fortunate one. It doesn't matter if as a member of the lower social classes you have no dog in the fight, you're going to go and die to back up the birthright of the priviledged who get to use your body as collateral in their bet on National superiority. Well what do ya know, that's not something id say about paint it black. Maybe this one gets to be number 2 in the vietnam trope song list.