If you actively dislike Creedence Clearwater Revival, then I can never respect anything you have to say about anything.

Longtime Bay Area resident Greil Marcus posted this recently:

All you heard from San Francisco Sound musicians about Creedence was “Anybody can play that shit.” The question of why nobody else did didn’t come up. In some ways Sly and the Family Stone were treated the same—they started out playing bars in working class towns like Hayward and Oakland.
El Cerrito was a declassé town in a string of little towns south of Berkeley. I remember the first time I saw El Cerrito High School—an ugly block of a building with bars on the windows. Even without the bars it looked more like a jail than a school. Felt like it inside, too.
There was a Rolling Stone interview by I think Ralph Gleason that may have touched on these themes, but I’m not sure. But the rage in John Fogerty’s songs felt like the rage of people who were not on their way up, right from the start, and nobody I know missed it.

They grew up in El Cerrito. I've never been there, but my impression is it's kind of a crappy little town.

Whoop, a little slow to post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_bYvxhBlE

oh god damn it, please ignore that

jimbeaux, next you'll tell me that Levon Helm was not in the Civil War.

They grew up in El Cerrito. I've never been there, but my impression is it's kind of a crappy little town.

It's a tough town. All I know of El Cerrito is that it was originally a refugee camp of people displaced by the San Francisco earthquake and eventually the camp became a town. Also Metallica lived there when when they wrote Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets. Apparently Cliff lived there?

I am not now, nor have I ever been, averse to chooglin'.

but have you ever been a participant in a chooglin’ party? you can’t plan those, they just happen

el cerrito is north of Berkeley not south

which is funny because Marcus lives in the east bay area I think

LOL. I guess he doesn't venture out that way very often.

jimbeaux, next you'll tell me that Levon Helm was not in the Civil War.

No, but his ancestors credibly could have been, and at least his Southern accent wasn't fake.

next thing you’ll be telling us that sergeant pepper wasn’t an actual military officer

that paul mccartney wasn’t a walrus

I'm being at least partially tongue in cheek, but in all seriousness, Fogerty's schtick always came across as a little insincere. He wasn't a Southern boy, so why sing like one? Rather than a walrus, it's more like Macca pretending to be, I dunno, Irish.

berlin was from orange county iirc

buncha posers

i’m a southerner and i welcome all to our congregation

except tom hanks obv

berlin was from orange county iirc

Well, that explains a lot.

I get the point but I feel like that's very common in pop music, especially rock n' roll - to use Macca as an example, the Beatles and a lot of British Invasion bands sung more with American accents, especially early on.

(Early on also being when they were covering a lot of American R&B and emulating that sound)

LOL it would be far easier to list British rock bands in the 60s and 70s that didn't sing in American accents.

hi guys

remember "Rocky Raccoon"? "Long Tall Sally"?

No

Good.

Rocky Rococo I remember.

I remember someone making the point that Bowie's success (at least with Ziggy Stardust in the UK) was a really big deal because here was a British rock star who wasn't hiding or diluting his accent or emulating American singers.

Having said that, I kind of wish Springsteen toned down the Dust Bowl refugee accent he adopted after recording Tom Joad.

I'll be honest, as much as I love the song, I've never been a fan of the way John sings it as "I HOID it through the grapevine."

I remember someone making the point that Bowie's success (at least with Ziggy Stardust in the UK) was a really big deal because here was a British rock star who wasn't hiding or diluting his accent or emulating American singers.

― birdistheword,

yeah Ferry too.

xp I love CCR but I think it's just an okay cover. Fine to sit through despite its length, but not one of their great recordings.

I'll be honest, as much as I love the song, I've never been a fan of the way John sings it as "I HOID it through the grapevine."

OTM. Or "Proud Mary keep on BOININ'," which apparently he got from Howling Wolf.

TS: Gladys Knight vs CCR's "Grapevine."

Gladys by a wide margin.

Gladys
Marvin
Slits
CCR

Putting Marvin at #2 might be a slight, but man. It was not easy growing up with The Big Chill generation.

I'm not a Lawrence Kasdan fan so I've never seen the Big Chill in its entirety. I revisited a few scenes when William Hurt died and people posted them, and they seemed to confirm what I don't like about his movies.

Having said that, Marvin's a firm #1 for me.

It was not easy growing up with The Big Chill generation

feeling this

The power of choogle compels you

Gladys
Marvin
Slits
CCR

Putting Marvin at #2 might be a slight, but man. It was not easy growing up with The Big Chill generation.

― pplains

My ranking too, but I love all four covers.

Bowie sang in an American accent plenty of times. Marc Bolan on the other hand invented his own accent to sing in.

I get the point but I feel like that's very common in pop music, especially rock n' roll - to use Macca as an example, the Beatles and a lot of British Invasion bands sung more with American accents, especially early on.

― birdistheword, Friday, September 2, 2022 1:53 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

When Lennon was asked by US journalists why they sang in American accents, he replied that they only sang in Liverpool accents. Americans were never great at distinguishing between, or identifying, different UK accents, and were much worse at it in the '60s -- if a British singer didn't sound like Eliza Doolittle, then they weren't singing in a British accent, as far as US audiences were concerned.

(Jagger, Daltrey, Eric Burdon, and Paul Jones definitely tried to sing in American accents, though.)

Americans not great at picking up on Scouse sarcasm either.

In the U.S., we do not have irony.

or ironing

UKers trying to understand CCR lol

https://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2010/03/creedence-clearwater-revival-cosmos.html

Hey, they had a No. 1 single in the UK, something they never managed in the US.

I assumed that this revive was because of the new book by John Lingan:
https://bookshop.org/books/a-song-for-everyone-the-story-of-creedence-clearwater-revival/9780306846717

I picked it up last time I was at the book store but haven't had time to read it yet. I did enjoy Lingan's previous book about the town that gave us Patsy Cline:
https://www.bookforum.com/culture/homeplace-by-john-lingan-19961

I kind of passively dislike Creedence Clearwater Revival.

― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux)

If you passively dislike Creedence Clearwater Revival, then I can never respect anything you have to say about anything.

these are the ways

It is known