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

The Nelson article is one of my favorite pieces of essay writing this year.

The only weird thing about it was that she picked "Born on the Bayou" and "Keep On Chooglin'" as the two classics from "Bayou Country." The former, sure, but the latter? I mean, the album is a classic, but surely "Proud Mary" deserves the other slot.

all three of those songs are all-timers

proud mary has gotta be in there, but 'born on the bayou' is undeniable and chooglin...i mean

I just returned from a trip to Disney World, during which I blasted "Chameleon" and "Sailor's Lament" on the car ride back.

still reading the Nelson piece, thanks for linking to it!

i realize this is a matter of taste, but i 100% agree with fogerty's take on this:

At a time when it had become common for popular acts to extend their shows to epic lengths—Led Zeppelin concerts of the era had begun to run to three hours—Fogerty decided that Creedence should go the other way. For the 45 minutes the band was onstage, the music was tense and thrilling. But after 45 minutes the band was done. With very few exceptions, no matter the audience desire, there were no encores.

It’s a small point but an important one. Why would this most populist of popular bands dare court the critique that they were stingy with their rabid audience? The decision even caused some rancor within the group. Some members of the band believed, reasonably enough, that encores were a way of thanking the fans. Fogerty regarded them as phony under any circumstances. Neither was wrong, but Fogerty’s intractable stance said something crucial about the way CCR was always both old and new. By limiting show lengths to single concentrated outbursts of intensity, Creedence both honored the shock-and-awe, blink-and-you-miss-it character of early rock and the don’t-care-at-all-if-you-miss-it brevity of punk. Indeed, in 1969 only CCR’s Detroit-based counterparts the Stooges were so directly anticipating a less-is-more future. Fogerty’s draconian set times were never intended to cheat the consumer, and in fact the opposite held true: any second you weren’t fully present was a moment wasted.

Wow, looking forward to reading the whole thing, thanks, everybody.

Can’t wait to read this; thanks for linking it, JiC.

Re: encores, Fogerty is otm. And the Moon-era Who hated them, too (Daltrey in 1975: “I think that it's of the utmost importance to leave an audience wanting more rather than exhausted and moaning, 'Thank Christ that's all over.' That's why we don't do no encores. They're a bloody con. You shouldn't do 'em, cos they're the biggest con ever and Led Zeppelin were one of the worst groups for starting that whole encore thing off.")

Big Thief are currently getting coverage for not playing encores: https://www.stereogum.com/2064276/big-thief-adrianne-lenker-encores/video/

weddoes too

i just want to confirm: no one has matched CCR's incredible achievement of releasing three remarkable albums in the same year, right? Bayou Country (1/5/69), Green River (8/3/69), and Willy and the Poor Boys (11/2/69).

Not only did Fairport Convention do it, they did it the same year: What We Did On Our Holidays (January), Unhalfbricking (July), and Liege & Leaf (December).

if it's a show, i can leave at any time - and i do, because i'm old, shows start late, even if the show's great i'm not going to stick around for the encore. mostly i'm impressed with their brevity in terms of albums - certain types of music should go on for a while, certain types of music are more powerful the shorter it is. hardcore is definitely an ep format. ten minutes is enough, because i can always play it again!

i just want to confirm: no one has matched CCR's incredible achievement of releasing three remarkable albums in the same year, right? Bayou Country (1/5/69), Green River (8/3/69), and Willy and the Poor Boys (11/2/69).

it's a good article - my only quibble would be describing the paranoid style as a "garage punk" band. don't front, you're in an indie band, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

i just want to confirm: no one has matched CCR's incredible achievement of releasing three remarkable albums in the same year, right? Bayou Country (1/5/69), Green River (8/3/69), and Willy and the Poor Boys (11/2/69).

― Peaceful Warrior I Poser (Karl Malone)

1961: my favorite things, africa/brass, ole! coltrane

(ascension, meditations, and live at the village vanguard again! were all 1966 as well, so it's not like it's the only time trane did the trifecta...)

For Your Pleaure / These Foolish Things / Stranded / Here Come the Warm Jets - all within 12 months I think. Not strictly the output of a single group, I know, but...

It's hard to get specific dates but Fela Kuti must have nailed this at some point. Noise for Vendor Mouth / Confusion / Everything Scatter / He Miss Road /Expensive Shit were all 1975.

But after 45 minutes the band was done. With very few exceptions, no matter the audience desire, there were no encores.

So let me get this straight. The moral of the story is... DON'T keep on chooglin'?

In fact, STOP chooglin'?

I need some time to process this.

Good call on Fairport.

Choogle (Not Choogle)

Frugal chooglin’—-> frooglin’

Between July 1984 and January 1987 Hüsker Dü released five albums, including two doubles.

So effectively 7 albums in 2.5 years.

In 1971, Rod Stewart put out both Long Player and A Nod Is... w/the Faces, and on his own released Every Picture Tells A Story.

I'd also argue for Merle Haggard in 1969 with Pride In What I Am, A Portrait of Merle Haggard and Same Train, A Different Time.

so, i guess what we're saying is between ccr, fairport, and merle is 1969...nice

for those of you didnt catch that, 69 is at the end of 1969

and that...that is the sex number, friends

has there ever been a single year with three artists releasing three different all in the same year and where the albums have been so nice, other than 1969?

seems impossible

Great Nelson piece thx for posting

wow that article really is great, lol @ "the botched aesthetics of stardom"

Re-reading the piece,

the band essentially acted as a rearguard protectorate to the genre’s multiethnic traditions

Love CCR, would rather have my fingernails pulled out than listen to Springsteen tbh.

Interesting.

"Centerfield" "Glory Days" and "Walk of Life" form a boomerball mini-genre

There's an article about Frank Stefanko, the photographer, where he talks about driving around with Springsteen listening to Creedence on the tape deck, and it sounds wonderful.

"We were playing “Lodi,” driving through the New Jersey Pine Barrens with the window down on a hot Memorial Day weekend, and we were both singing, and I can’t sing to save my life, but somehow singing with Bruce Springsteen was easy... it was one of the best days of my life...”

"Walk of Life", you mean Dire Straits? I assume "Glory Days" is Springsteen? Don't know it.

You're lucky. I love Springsteen, but I'd be happy if I never heard Glory Days again.

Love CCR, would rather have my fingernails pulled out than listen to Springsteen tbh.

same here

didn't know so many of you had this fetish

messages keep gettin' clearer

By the late ’60s market forces had already begun the unfortunate project of Balkanizing rock ’n’ roll into separate genres: “Rock” music was intended to appeal to largely white audiences, while African American artists were typically relegated to the R&B charts. For John Fogerty and CCR, this development violated everything they represented. The band essentially acted as a rearguard protectorate to the genre’s multiethnic traditions, loaning out “Proud Mary” to Ike & Tina Turner while borrowing Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour” and Norman Whitfield’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” all to spectacular effect.

sorry but this is just beyond stupid

"loaning out" ?

i wish i could think of another example of an african-american act covering a popular song by a white artist after 1969

They did "99 and 1/2 (Won't Do)", not "ITMH".

listen, we'll come to the factual errors after we get to the bottom of this "rearguard protectorate" nonsense

i find very little to like about that article, sort of surprised to find it was so well received by others

i defy anyone to name a single integrated band from that era that was committed to crossing the boundaries between rock and soul

lol exactly

trying to paint CCR as simultaneously the sole protectors of the great "multiethnic traditions" of rock music, as uber-insightful socially perceptive class warriors, and as visionaries who portended the fierce, nihilistic brevity of punk rock is just a bizarre and pointless critical exercise.

they are an irreconcilable contradiction of boneheadedness and sharp insight, sluggishness and fierce brevity, comical down-home-southern-man posturing and frank honesty. they were cool and they were uncool. it's actually fine that they weren't the stooges or the velvet underground. and it's also okay to admit that their relationship to black american music was complicated and, at times, problematic.

fierce brevity, i like fierce brevity