Album: Bayou Country (1969)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is about how we crave what is forbidden. In Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music, John Fogerty asks, "Why is it that those things that are really bad for you - candy, ice cream, alcohol - taste so good? Why is it that the things that we can't have we want even more?"
  • A bootleg is an example of an item made more appealing because it is illicit. In the '60s, a bootleg was an illegal recording of a concert. These were often very low quality, but still coveted, as they were rare and unauthorized.
  • Tom Fogerty played the acoustic guitar on this track.

Comments: 1

  • Durwood Ball from Albuquerque, New Mexico"Bootleg howl" is incorrect. I'm pretty sure that the lyric "Bootleg holler," a place in the woods where the bootleggers conceal their still.
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