Creedence Clearwater Revival: C or D?

I'd say the first 5 albums are great, 'Cosmo's Factory' is no dud. Long 'Grapevine' guitar solo and all.

They are the bollocks. Rocked as hard as the Stones at their best. 'Green River' and 'Willie and the poor boys' can stand happily alongside the likes of 'Let it bleed' or 'Beggar's Banquet'.

And you're right about the great singles. I came across them through 'Chronicle' which is as good an introduction as any.

Wouldn't that be great? Part of me suspects that something about CCR doesn't translate well for the British ILMers tho... someone prove me wrong!

Along with half of Canada.

Still CCR are klassik, rockist or not.

I'm still dreaming of some to-be-discovered bootleg recording of like a 20 minute live freakout jam on "Keep On Chooglin'"....

On principle of what, disliking good music?

Take Willy and the Poor Boys--Poorboy Shuffle and Side O' the Road are throwaways.

Green River--same goes for Cross Tie Walker, Sinister Purpose, Night Time is the Right Time.

I just remember really really loving the greatest hits when I was a kid. And then buying all the albums, and liking them, but being slightly disappointed that there weren't any real amazing finds beyond the singles.

No way, I think all those songs are great, just as strong as the singles. The harmonies on "Night Time" are this really strong, deep thing. "Sinister Purpose" is totally creepy, it's like a prelude to a murder down by the river or something.

you could say the same of "Factory Girl" and "Dear Doctor," too, though I agree that CCR's albums aren't as good as the Stones'. oh, and the answer is TOTAL CLASSIC.

And I was going to make the point about the Stones, but Matos made it for me. Except that I would have mentioned "Country Honk", and that he is TOTALLY wrong about "Factory Girl". That is one of the high points of that lp! It was great when they dug it up for the Steel Wheels tour...

(Also, the thing that makes songs like Dear Doctor et al more interesting to me is that they are not done straight--Jagger always has a distance from the material, and the lyrics themselves are somewhat ambiguous/parodistic, which makes the songs a bit more interesting since you don't know how seriously to take them)

As to yr main point -- I agree that the influx of country and mountain music is more important and successful with CCR than it is the Stones (although the Stones' double country whammy of "Dead Flowers" and "Sweet Virginia" kicks all of CCR's ass halfway to Modesto), but CCR's blues infusion feels kinda weak to me. I'm thinking of the middle bits of Willy & the Poor Boys here, and while Johnny can do a fair sharecropper impression with that yelp of his, it falls flat. It just seems that the Stones wanted to get the Negro strut down more than anything (which Mick still works at but Keith was born with), to get the style and the feel, while CCR went for the sound, but not the emotion. Maybe this is why CCR is so commonly identified as a very "white" band? (I'm thinking of the Big Lebowski and White Men Can't Jump (Snipes hassles Woody for them, doesn't he?) in particular)

On principle of not relating to rootsy Americana trad-rock boredom, which then gets shoved in your face as real authentic 'good' music. The whole rough-and-ready meat-and-potatoes-ness of it all. Of hating country music like any well-adjusted person. Like I said, though, they don't actually sound that bad. It's all pettiness.

Clarke just butted in but I know what he means about the aura.

Tracer roxor as always, even if I do think the Stones were ultimately a...not "better" but greater band, if you see what I mean--wider ranging (counts for a lot w/me, Prince was my formative listening) and more chance-taking. CCR's more perfect but the Stones had greater outreach. love 'em both about equally in that way

You can't say something like "I dislike them on principle", on this board of all places, and not expect to be called out on the meaninglessness of the statement unless you define your terms.

Of hating country music like any well-adjusted person

Color me ill-adjusted.

great record! maybe their most fun. almost every tune is one of the best rock songs of the sixties

midnight special is prob my favorite

Put a candle in the window

Just saw Lorraine, she says hi

Probably synced after the fact, but I've never seen this:

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

What happy fellows. Born on the bayou with leather trousers on.

Love this band. "Willy the Poor Boys" is still my favorite, but it especially gets a lot of play around election time thanks to "It Came Out of the Sky," "Don't Look Now," "Fortunate Son" and "Effigy." Fogerty wrote some the sharpest political commentary in rock, maybe the best before the punk era.

Someone in the official Tom Fogerty FB group shared this photo of the band from October 1980, at Tom’s wedding. They played a few songs that night, first CCR performance since 1972. First quartet performance since 1970, and the last ever. pic.twitter.com/bPRCKWn6Q2

— John Lingan (@johnlingan) May 24, 2020

You stare at this photo and ask yourself, “Could John Fogerty possibly improve upon this look? Could he more effectively convey that it’s 1980?” And the clouds part and a beam of heavenly light delivers you this. pic.twitter.com/Py944VxSrz

— John Lingan (@johnlingan) May 24, 2020

OMG. Feel like I am related to several people in that picture.

i want to live inside that photo

I am flashing back to when I did live in it.

I can smell the Salems on that leather jacket.

lol. I remember that moment when being a kid when I was old enough to borrow books from the adult section of the library and noticed that some of the more popular blockbusters in the 7-Days Only section had a strong smell to them which it took me quite a long time to identify as cigarette odor.

Forgerty playing an Explorer!

Afterwards he had it cut down into a baseball bat.

lol

revive delivers

Other guitar player in the amber-tinted glasses totally looks like my uncle who was smoking up his branch's copies of those Martin Caidin el al protectively-covered hardbacks whose daughter became a librarian.

insane to me that i didn't have this thread bookmarked.

Too cool for a suit eh
And yeah I can totally smell that jacket. And hear it.

Get out the good ashtrays, guests are coming!

JF looks like he can't wait to bail in both pics

he looks like a character from a cop show of the era

Evokes the decade about as well as this tune does the previous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO9ekL9lohk

cool shit!

There’s an official Tom Fogerty FB page...

Er, group. I mean, I’m just trying to process that one exists. Great pics, obv.

WTF? Tom Fogerty made FIVE solo albums between '72 & '81!

"shipped gold, returned platinum"

I just had a brief flick through some Tom solo tracks, 'harmless' is what I take away from his post-Creedence career.

i like-a way you woak
i like-a way you toak

John Fogerty, 75 years young yesterday!

keep returning to the woodstock set, its so so SO GOOD

it really is

Lodi is their best song

Nope. Green River

ramble tamble or pagan baby

Someday never fucking comes

Nope not that one

Old man down the road vs centerfield

Run through the Jungle!!!

But yeah Lodi is definitely up there.

Pretty remarkable the vibe they work up on Bayou with just a tremolo effect on the guitar and a single 7th chord. Guess that’s a testament to the rhythm section

classic

A lot of it comes directly from Pop Staples, no? Which I believe may be discussed upthread.

Not this thread but a Fogerty sibling thread

Around the Bend
midnight special
someday never comes
run through the jungle

Apparently there’s a 2016 thriller film called midnight special starring Michael Shannon and Kirsten dunst???. “Shannon plays a father who escapes with his son from both the government and a cult after they discover that his son has special powers.l”

indeed

I've seen it, but that's all I can really say about it.

Have you seen Lorraine?