The bitter relations between Fantasy Records and its star attraction, Creedence Clearwater Revival, or more directly John Fogerty, began to thaw when Fogerty rejoined the label (now owned by Concord Records) in 2005 and regained ownership of the royalty rights he lost over 30 years earlier. What does all this mean? Well, if you’re a Fogerty fan, it means more solo albums. And if you’re a Creedence fan, it means new reissues of the classic six from 1968-70 — Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bayou Country, Green River, Willy And The Poor Boys, Cosmo’s Factory and Pendulum — each rigidly remastered and loaded up with sweet rarities previous compilations, reissues and box sets failed to snag. That might have something to do with having Fogerty back on board.
Knowing these reissues have the full cooperation of its main singer and songwriter makes them that much more special. Their release also marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s debut, which was the beginning of a string of timeless albums and singles that still send shivers up and down the spine. The El Cerrito, California quartet of John Fogerty (chief songwriter, vocalist and guitarist), Tom Fogerty (guitar), Stu Cook (bass) and Doug Clifford (drums) adopted a 50s rockabilly sensibility, a country reverence and a rhythm n’ bluesy feel — all muddied up in a swampy cocoon and sung with a soulful bark accentuated with a high-end screech. How could you not love Creedence!
The first, self-titled album Creedence Clearwater Revival features the band’s first of many singles, a cover of Dale Hawkins’
“Suzie Q.” Another cover of Screaming Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” also attracted a lot of attention back in the day. Although it contained only three John Fogerty songs, and a fourth original penned by the Fogerty brothers, the covers seemed to more accurately capture the band’s sound. The reissue contains four bonus tracks: “Call It Pretending” (the B-side of the band’s first single), yet another cover, this one of Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me” (which was later revisited on Cosmo’s Factory), a live version of Wilson Pickett’s “Ninety-Nine And A Half” from the Fillmore in 1969, and a sizzling live version of “Suzie Q.” Former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres wrote the informative liner notes.
Bayou Country, the group’s second album, kicked CCR’s profile up a notch. The Southern twang of “Proud Mary” melted in
your mouth and mounted the Number 2 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 on its way to becoming one of the 20th century’s most beloved rock classics.
“Born On The Bayou,” the opener, sets the tone — a tone that would reverberate for the next two years. “Bootleg” sustains the theme, “Graveyard Train” takes a lazy eight-and-a-half-minute stroll through the swampland, and then the group goes all loosey goosey on Little Richard’s
“Good Golly Miss Molly.” After “Proud Mary” takes us for a roll on the river, “Keep On Chooglin’” drives the point home with an extended swamp rock jam. The reissue contains a longer alternate “Bootleg,” live versions of “Born On The Bayou” and “Proud Mary” from the 1971 European tour without Tom Fogerty in the lineup, and a psychedelic blues jam recorded live at the Fillmore West in 1969 called “Crazy Otto.” The liner notes were written by San Francisco Chronicle pop music editor Joel Selvin.
Green River stayed the course with plenty of the hits like “Green River,” “Bad Moon Rising” and “Commotion.” A cover of Ray Charles’ “Night Time Is The Right Time” is yet another nod to the group’s love of R&B. Deeper cuts like “Lodi,” “Wrote A Song For Everyone” and “Tombstone Shadow” were representative of Fogerty’s growth and maturity as a songwriter. Bonus material on the expanded Green River includes an unfinished instrumental called “Broken Spoke Shuffle,” a second unfinished track called “Glory Be,” along with three live tracks from the group’s 1971 European tour — “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River/Suzie Q” and “Lodi.” Dave Marsh wrote the liner notes.
Willy And The Poor Boys would so full of potential hits that the politically charged “Fortunate Son” was released with more approachable “Down On The Corner” as a double A-side single. Both landed inside the Top 20. A cover of the traditional folk song “The Midnight Special” fit rightly alongside other bedazzled tales like “It Came Out Of The Sky,” “Cotton Fields” and “Feelin’ Blue.” The finale “Effigy” kills any preconceptions that Creedence was only a singles band. That same spirit of intensity would extend itself to the next two albums.
Extras on the reissue include live versions of “Fortunate Son” and “It Came Out Of the Sky” from 1971 European tour and an unreleased take of “Down On The Corner” recorded with Booker T & the MG’s for a TV special. Noted music scribe Ed Ward composed the liner notes.
Number five for CCR was Cosmo’s Factory, considered by many to be their grandest statement of all. It dented the Number One spot on the album charts for nine consecutive weeks. Although it boasted a range of hits — “Travelin’ Band,” “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Up Around The Bend” — it was, as a whole, much more AOR than most CCR fans would want to believe. When you do a smokin’ 11-minute version of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” you’re not worrying about feeding the hit parade. The band pretty much glides through long-winded psychedelia (“Ramble Tamble”), the blues (“Before You Accuse Me”) and rockabilly (“Ooby Dooby” and “My Baby Left Me”) with all the grace and style of a world-class rock and roll unit which, by 1970, they most certainly were. The expanded Cosmo’s Factory includes a different take of “Travelin’ Band,” a live “Up Around the Bend” from the 1971 European tour, and an
unreleased version of “Born On The Bayou,” played with Booker T & the MG’s in 1970 at Cosmo’s Factory studio. Liner notes were whipped up by former Village Voice music critic, the incomparable Robert Christgau.
And then there was Pendulum, the final album by the four founding members of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Looking back, it is unquestionably the most introspective album of the entire CCR catalog. That translated into a shift in style and presentation with Fogerty in the driver’s seat. So he assumed the duty of molding the group’s sound around lots of Booker T inspired B3 hooks, with a little weirdness (see “Rude Awakening”) tossed in for good measure. Pendulum is often viewed as the beginning of the end of Creedence Clearwater Revival, but it’s smacking with scrumptious pop flavorings like “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” (Fogerty’s second hit about the rain) and “Hey Tonight.” A live “Hey Tonight” along with the ultra rare, ultra off-the-wall “45 Revolutions Per Minute (Parts 1 & 2)” montage fill out the
expanded reissue of Pendulum. Selvin wrote the liner notes.
~ Shawn Perry
