When you think about who wrote and sang the songs for Creedence Clearwater Revival, you’ll most likely think of John Fogerty. Upon closer inspection, there’s more to Creedence than just John Fogerty. Tom Fogerty, John’s older brother, was also a singer and songwriter. How he ended up playing rhythm guitar behind his younger brother remains a bit of a mystery. He soon became frustrated with the situation and left the group after six highly successful albums. There were apparently unresolved issues between Tom and John that carried on right up to the time of the former’s death in 1990. John wrote in his autobiography that he tried to reconcile with his brother, if, for no other reason, than for the sake of their mother. It did not come to pass.
Bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford were also aspiring songwriters and singers. They finally got their chance on the final Creedence Clearwater Revival album, Mardi Gras. The two continued to work together as a rhythm section after Creedence disbanded, first with the Don Harrison Band, and then in the 90s with Creedence Clearwater Revisited. The drummer known as “Cosmo” recorded music of his own as well. There was Cosmo, his debut solo album from 1972. More recently, he discovered 10 master tapes he’d recorded, hidden away in his garage. Realizing they were “master-quality,” he had them restored and cleaned up. From that, he was able to put 10 songs together for an album entitled Magic Window. Most of the tracks were recorded at Cosmo’s home studio in Lake Tahoe in and around 1985. Now he is sharing them with the world.
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Speaking from his place in Scottsdale, Arizona, Doug Clifford says that despite a few ailments that come with age, he’s doing fine during the current COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd protests. “It’s a wacky time in which we live,” he remarks. He’s really more interested in telling me about Magic Window. In a nutshell, he paid for everything, players came and went, producer Richard Perry liked what he heard, then other issues came up. The musician recalls what he did next: “I think I’ll put this away for a while and get involved in other things, which I did, and then sort of forgot about it.”
Since finding the tapes and having them baked — “and we’re not talking brownies,” Cosmo jokes — to perfection, it was just a matter of deciding what to release. “I co-wrote eight of the songs, two of them I wrote by myself,” he recalls. “These are basically just the songs that I liked. I wanted to give the listener an idea of what I can do with different ideas. I’m not just a guy that will do Creedence songs.”
Funny enough, “Born On The South Side” is one song on the album that has a very distinctive Creedence vibe. Clifford admits it was intentional. As for the other songs, the man the fifth and most popular CCR album was named after (more on that later) states without hesitation: “Even though they were cut in the 80s, they don’t sound like they were cut in the 80s — though the Simmons drums were kind of at hand at that time. But it sounds contemporary for some reason, whatever that might be. Maybe a good producer.”
There’s no question about the high production on Magic Window. From the opening guitars on the title track, on through to the overall mix on “Just Another Girl” and the shake on “Don’t Let Go” — the album is loaded with punch, commercial appeal, and Clifford’s impressive lead vocals. His voice was something he wasn’t pleased with in the 70s when he sang three songs on Mardi Gras, and then took the captain’s chair for Cosmo, which features Stu Cook, Donald “Duck” Dunn, John McFee of the Doobie Brothers, members of Tower of Power, and other heavy hitters.
At the time, with Creedence having just broken up, Clifford thought he could make a go of it. As it turns out, his heart simply wasn’t into being a lead singer and a solo artist. He spent the next few years playing drums in other bands. Along the way, he began writing and recording his own stuff. Listening to Magic Window, you get a real sense that Clifford could hold his own as a singer, at least in the studio. “I practiced the hell out of the vocals before I did them on Magic Window,” he says. It was certainly a major leap from his first solo album to his second. Clifford makes an easy call on the difference between the two: “Cosmo was an experiment whereas Magic Window was a total artistic endeavor.”
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In 2019, Doug Clifford and Stu Cook announced that they were disbanding Creedence Clearwater Revisited, a band they established in 1995 to play Creedence Clearwater Revival music live. It was reported that the two simply wanted to retire from the road, which Clifford told me was true. “Enough is enough, my body says,” he laughs. “I have five grandchildren. I missed a lot of birthdays. I forgot a wife of 52 years. It’s fun to be back on the creative side and not beat yourself up with the travel. The travel is brutal. I have a bad back. Anybody who has played rock and roll drums for 60 years is going to have a bad back.”
Something else happened in 2019. Clifford and Cook made peace with with John Fogerty, who never liked the idea of Creedence Clearwater Revisited. He even went to court to try to stop it. Now, the three have agreed to jointly raise the legacy of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Clifford explains how it works: “We don’t talk. If you want to talk to him, you have to do it to his lawyer. So that makes the love letters pretty expensive. We were able to get it done and, that’s progress for sure.”
Though we don’t discuss the details of the agreement, it boils down to input and shares in archival releases and merchandise bearing the Creedence Clearwater Revival name. It’s hard to say how much interest there is in a CCR Bayou Country puzzle or a Suzie Q throw blanket, but when it comes to the music, there’s a few nuggets in the vault fans would love to own. As it so happens, 2019 was the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. A lot of people are unaware that CCR played the festival, partly due to the omission of their performance from the movie. Bits and pieces of both audio and video have shown up on Woodstock compilations, but it took the three surviving members of CCR, as a limited liability company, to bring the band’s complete performance — tidied up and released on CD, vinyl, and digitally as Live At Woodstock — to the masses.
Clifford has mixed memories about Woodstock. “It was the worst possible conditions, but the people decided they were going to enjoy the weekend. That’s what they signed up for. You can’t control the weather — we’re going to have fun and fun they had. That part of it got the hair on my arms to stand up. You could actually feel the love that was happening there. They were sharing whatever they had with complete strangers.
“The other side of it was a logical nightmare. Getting in and getting out was tough, but then you get onstage and it was dangerous up there. The stage was wet, there’s electronics everywhere. There were technical problems. And then going on at two in the morning when we were the headliner. I think if Creedence hadn’t sign up for that gig, I don’t think there would have been a Woodstock. All the big bands, all the biggies were sitting around waiting for somebody to make the first move. And at that point in our career, we were Number One in record sales that year. And we were the Number One concert draw in 69. So we were the Number One band in the land. As soon as we said, ‘Yes,’ they all jumped in.”
The reason the band did not appear in the film is, according to Cosmo, because John Fogerty was displeased with the band’s performance and said they didn’t need it. The rest of the band disagreed, but the footage and recording was shelved. “That was where that started,” Clifford says. “But he finally came around, so everybody wins on that one.”
Clifford also told me there’s another CCR release in the archives being dusted off for release: a video of their show at Royal Albert Hall. Not to be confused with the 1980 The Royal Albert Hall Concert album release (which was actually recorded in Oakland, California), the drummer says the concert film is notable because, “some of the Beatles were in the room at that time.”
A year after playing Woodstock, Creedence released Cosmo’s Factory, widely referred to as the peak of the group’s six albums. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, a special reissue of Cosmo’s Factory, mastered at half speed at Abbey Road Studios, pressed on 180-gram vinyl, and housed in a tip-on jacket, drops this summer (2020).
Naturally, Clifford has fond memories of this particular record. “I told them it’s bound to be a hit because it’s got my name on it,” he jokes. “We were pretty busy. We put out three albums in 1969. Nobody puts out three albums in one year. John was kind of an introvert and didn’t like the pressure that he was getting from the press and didn’t like that part of the job. On the other hand, I’m a storyteller. I’ve always been the guy in the assemblies at school. I mean, getting up and entertaining the class, I was the only guy that could get away with stuff like that. Anybody else who tried it usually ended up going to the Dean’s office and getting a swat.
“I love telling stories. So John said, ‘I’m going to name this after you, and the press is going to want to know why.’ Without having the Internet, it was great because I’d go to Chicago and tell them one story. Then I would go to New York and tell them a different story. So I had fun with it. And, you know, the album speaks for itself, musically.”
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Getting back to the tapes in the garage, Clifford assures me there’s plenty more where Magic Window came from. “I have an album with Bobby Whitlock singing. We were the writing team on that project,” he explains before adding, “I’ve got a project with Steve Wright from The Greg Kihn Band. He co-wrote ‘Jeopardy.’ That was called Clifford-Wright. We have a singer named Keith England who sounds like Rod Stewart. I’ve got Joe Satriani on some of the songs. I’m the writer and publisher on all this stuff, so I have a big interest in it.”
Off the road and moving on, Clifford, at 75, is doing everything he can while he’s still able. “I’m retired, and it kind of makes me feel old,” he says. “I’ve had cancer and Parkison’s is starting to come into the program. I want to get stuff done. I don’t want to think about the road. I’m fucking ready to go.”
For now, it’s all about Magic Window, which is currently available digitally on Amazon, Spotify and other related services. Clifford is more than aware it’s not easy to promote a record these days. “There’s no guarantee, as good a record as it is. It’s hard out there, and it’s different than it used to be. I used to be able to work radio because I knew it and understood it. But it’s a different game. I need a stroke of luck and luck comes not by sitting around, waiting for it. Luck comes by busting your ass and working for it. I’ve always believed in that.”
