Creedence Clearwater Revival is one of those bands where it’s almost impossible to narrow down the list to only six, seven, or even eight songs. So, when curating this week’s list, I decided to keep it to the three years when I think they did some of their best and most famous work, 1968, 1969, and 1970.
I still had trouble keeping the list manageable. I managed to pare it down to eight.
Creedence Clearwater Revival, often known as CCR or just Creedence, formed up in 1959 – yes, really. The initial lineup was lead guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter John Fogerty, who later went on to have a pretty decent solo career. He was joined by his brother Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar, along with bass guitarist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford. When they started out, they took the name Blue Velvets, then changed to Golliwogs, before settling on the more famous appellation in 1967.
The band strangely didn’t last long. They disbanded in 1972, not on good terms. Tom Fogerty had already left in 1971, and problems with their record label and personal disagreements sank them to the point where, when the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, John Fogerty refused to play a set with the other surviving band members.
But while they lasted, they were great. Here are those eight tunes.
Suzie Q (1968): This one’s actually a cover, having been written in 1956 by rockabilly artist Dale Hawkins. This was the first single the band released under their final name, the only previous release being a song called Porterville, released when they were performing as the Golliwogs.
Down On The Corner (1969): This fun, upbeat tune is the ballad of a fictional sidewalk jug band of the kind you just don’t see anymore, Willy and the Poor Boys, who played “…for nickels, can’t be beat.” This was also the name of the band’s fourth studio album.Fortunate Son (1969): This one’s best known as a Vietnam protest song. None of the band served in Vietnam, but it was nevertheless about how many wars are, as the old saying goes, an old man’s war but a young man’s fight. There were many rumors about who the “senator’s son” was in the song, with names ranging from George W. Bush to Al Gore, but John Fogerty never named a name.Bad Moon Rising (1969): John Fogerty claimed this song was inspired by the movie The Devil and Daniel Webster, in which a town is wiped off the map by a hurricane; this reportedly inspired the lyric, “I feel the hurricane blowin’, I hope you’re quite prepared to die.” But the lyric “there’s a bad moon on the rise” was at times mistaken for “there’s a bathroom on the right,” and Fogerty used to lampoon that misunderstanding in concerts, when he would point to the bathrooms while delivering that line.Green River (1969): John Fogerty, who again wrote this song, later said about it:Who’ll Stop The Rain (1970): This was widely taken for another Vietnam protest song, but again, according to John Fogerty, it was inspired by his time at Woodstock, when the rain started, and the attendees were muddy, naked, cold, and wet, at least until Sullivan County declared a state of emergency and personnel from Stewart Air Force Base arrived to help with logistics, in one of history’s little ironies.Have You Ever Seen The Rain (1970): In 1971, John Fogerty’s brother Tom left the band, the first in what would become an exodus. John is said to have written this song about his imminent departure, but as time went on, the meaning of the song changed for him. Fogerty said, while performing in Arizona in 2012:Green River is really about this place where I used to go as a kid on Putah Creek, near Winters, California. I went there with my family every year until I was ten. Lot of happy memories there. I learned how to swim there. There was a rope hanging from the tree. Certainly dragonflies and bullfrogs. There was a little cabin we would stay in owned by a descendant of Buffalo Bill Cody. That's the reference in the song to Cody Jr. "Up at Cody's camp I spent my days.”
This song was originally written about a very sad thing that was going on in my life. But I refuse to be sad now. Because now this song reminds me of my little girl, Kelsy, and every time I sing it, I think about Kelsy and rainbows."
Run Through The Jungle (1970): John Fogerty had a lot of musical influences on this song, including bluesman Charlie Patton, about whom Fogerty said:
OK, over to you, readers. Concert stories? Encounters? Fond memories of this great, genre-defining group? The comments, as always, are all yours.There were so many more people I'd never heard of - like Charlie Patton . I'm ashamed to admit that, but he wasn't commercially accessible, I guess. I read about him, and about a month or two later, I realized there were recordings of his music. To me, that was like if Moses had left behind a DAT with the Dead Sea Scrolls or something! 'You mean you can hear him?! Oh my God!' And then when I did hear Patton, he sounded like Howlin' Wolf, who was a big influence on me. When I did 'Run Through the Jungle,' I was being Howlin' Wolf, and Howlin' Wolf knew Charlie Patton!
