Posted by Bob Josef on August 21, 2026 at 18:48:43:
There is indeed a big story behind these two songs. In order to get out of his CCR contract, he had to hand over his publishing rights for his CCR songs to Saul Zaentz, the head of the record company. When John put out "The Old Man Down the Road", Zaentz sued him for plaigirism, even though he wrote both songs! Zaentz lost, fortunately.
For his part, there's was another song on the "Centerfield" album called "Zanz Can't Dance", with the lyric "Zanz can't dance, but he'll steal your money". The video included an animated dancing pig. John had to change that one to "Vanz Can't Dance".