Creedence Clearwater Revival’s presence at Woodstock was largely forgotten because their performance was not included on the soundtrack or movie. In some ways, their slot at the festival was an anomaly. Here, in the midst of psychedelic acts like Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Country Joe McDonald, was an already highly successful band with a working man ethos playing to a half-million hippies on a farm in upstate New York. They didn’t need Woodstock to elevate their popularity; six months prior, Bayou Country, CCR’s second album, zoomed to the Top 10, while its first single “Proud Mary” claimed the second spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Just weeks before Woodstock, a third album, Green River, dropped and went straight to Number One. No wonder, Creedence was the third highest paid act on the Woodstock bill, just behind Blood, Sweat & Tears and Jimi Hendrix.
Despite John Fogerty’s comments about the group’s Woodstock set — “We weren’t that good…people weren’t reacting to us. The Grateful Dead put everybody to sleep” — Craft Recordings’ Live At Woodstock presents the entire 11-song Creedence Clearwater Revival 1:00 AM performance in a far more positive light, revealing a solid showing from a band at the peak of their powers. Available on CD, digitally, and as a double LP vinyl set in a gatefold jacket, Live At Woodstock finds the quartet (Fogerty on guitar and vocals, his brother Tom on second guitar, Doug Clifford on drums, and Stu Cook on bass) effortlessly blasting through their biggest hits — “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” and “Green River.” Covers of Wilson Pickett’s “Ninety-Nine and a Half” and the 1930s blues standard “The Night Time Is The Right Time” proffers the group’s roots, while extended versions of “Keep On Chooglin’” and “Suzie Q” ratify their credibility as a tight-knit ensemble that could hold its own amongst the more improvisational tendencies of fellow Bay Area units like Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead.
Bits and pieces of Creedence’s Woodstock appearance have come out on previous anniversary collections — both on audio and video. It’s taken 50 years to bring the whole set together and Live At Woodstock is now the definitive statement. Stacked next to other live CCR releases, it could very well rank as the definitive live release from Creedence Clearwater Revival, based on how much better it turned out than what John Fogerty thought. Its historical significance only adds to its allure. Five decades later, Clifford and Cook, who were satisfied with what they did at Woodstock, close the door on their Creedence Clearwater Revisited band, and Fogerty returns to the scene of the crime on August 18, perhaps to figure out what went wrong the first time around. More than likely, on sacred ground where a three-day nation rose up and showed the world a peaceful gathering of 500,000 like-minded youths could actually happen, he’ll realize Woodstock was a lot better than he remembered.
~ Shawn Perry
