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.

Forgot, he also dug up a couple of great tracks off Willy and the Poor Boys - "Effigy" and "It Came Out of the Sky," arguably the two best that weren't put out on a single. Neither had been played for almost 20 years before this tour.

Thanks for posting - that set list is impossibly great. Just noticed that he's playing Saturday night at the LA County Fair in Pomona in a week and tickets are relatively inexpensive.

Was there choogling?

dammit no PNW dates, this sounds great

huh the red rocks date is listed as "the string cheese incident with john fogerty." the fuck is that on string cheese can fill redrocks with boulder douches any day, why are they in this

Was there choogling?

Hah, YES! "Keep On Chooglin'" was where Fogerty was trading phrases with his son for a good bit of the song!

Also should mention a few more things:

1) This is the first time he's touring as the legal owner of his songs - I think that made him extra happy as it was mentioned several times.

2) Also, for a good selection of songs, he played with a guitar he used at Woodstock, including at least one classic that he wrote on it - after CCR broke up, some kid went up to him and asked if he could have one of guitars, and Fogerty in an admitted crazy move gave him that guitar gratis. Then like 45 years later, his wife asked him whatever happened to it, and he was too embarrassed to say. So without him knowing, she tracked it down and wrapped it for him as a surprise Christmas present.

3) He told the audience he had a special guest bassist for their final encore. Turns out, he didn't go far to get them, only one more block at Rockefeller Center - it was NBC news anchor Lester Holt.

This two CD mono ‘Singles Collection’ sounds so awesome. Wish I would have got it before. Just like with the Stones mono box, the original mono singles just thump.

Cosmo’s drumming definitely has the Phil Rudd and Charlie Watts beat the beat into the ground. Drums sound so much better on these old 60s mono mixes compared to the stereo ones.

I just treated myself to this set and absolutely agree.

My whole family sat around listening to the difference between the remastered Spotify version of Green River and the mono single. Consensus was that the remastered stereo version sounds “more polished” but the mono version’s “got that dog” in it

After that I treated them to a 2-hour discourse on vinyl mastering which they all listened to in rapt fascination, best night of their lives

ok sold

what is the DVD material from?

also lol tracer, that was an xp so I could not properly appreciate your tart self-deprecation

but it's all true, mono 45s rule

I love well made compilations like that. Will be on the lookout.

is there DVD material? i just have the 45s.

the booklet that comes with it is sadly pretty useless. written like a beginner's potted history. surely anyone enough of a lunatic to buy this is Heavily Into Creedence and wants session notes, oral histories etc

ohh ok there is I guess a bonus DVD with the 2xCD set? which is what I got b/c cheap

Lol Tracer. Fwiw I would legit listen if you recorded that as a podcast

FWIW, Russ Gary (the engineer) once posted on another forum that the Green River singles are true dedicated mixes. The mono single mix for the song "Green River" alone really is amazing. Everything else might be folds though.

what are folds?

Mono mixes that are electronically converted from the original stereo, rather than being mixed specifically to mono, or "dedicated" to mono.

There used to be a button on stereo systems that would do this.

It was right next to the Loudness button iirc

My Bluetooth headphones sometimes accidentally do those folds sometimes. Really a trip when listening to Olivia Rodrigo or something else clearly not mixed that way.

Bluetooth sometimes seems to have a mind of its own imho.

In my experience

there's a mono setting on android - works pretty neat

Gonna listen to "Rude Awakening #2" all day brb

This compilation is on Tidal, and yeah, it sounds great. Might have to pick up a physical copy for the living room.

just ordered the mono singles comp, excited to hear it #deathtostereo

My Bluetooth headphones sometimes accidentally do those folds sometimes. Really a trip when listening to Olivia Rodrigo or something else clearly not mixed that way.

bluefolded

Late last night
I WEN FO WAH

So is the Hollies “long cool woman in a black dress” the uk’s best attempt at ccr style

It's definitely the most blatant!

Yeah. Im trying to think of an American band that ripped off the UK in a similar way

Nick Lowe had an excellent one with "Stick It Where the Sun Don’t Shine," but the Hollies' track probably gets my vote for the best.

That one is so shameless

Hunk of Burning Love definitely owes a lot to CCR.

As far as rips go.

Im trying to think of an American band that ripped off the UK in a similar way

Well there was that pop-punk vocal style that was sometimes said to coopt 70s UK poonk, innit

Every Nuggets track imitating English accents.

I assumed that wasn't a serious comment.

Don’t go ‘round tonight
Well it’s bound to take yo life
There’s a bathroom on the right

I've heard Creedence four times on the radio today, once in what was possibly a block of three or four songs in a row, which threw me off, because everybody knows today is two-for- Tuesday. Had to Google Fogerty to make sure everything was okay.

So you're saying that your radio station... kept on chooglin'?

Two-for-choogsday

Electric Choogaloo

Choogs your own adventure

lol

Just finished John Lingan's A Song for Everyone. Pretty good--the right side of serviceable, I guess. He had the cooperation of Stu Cook and Doug Clifford but not, surprise, Fogerty. One good thing is that the book gives due diligence to "Ramble Tamble." And the page on The Big Lebowski is good--never cared for it that much, but I may revisit. Think I'll try to track down some solo work from the other three.

The ending is even sadder and messier than I knew. I didn't know that John never visited Tom in the hospital when he died in 1990.

i had an opportunity to talk to doug and stu a couple years ago but my editor wasn't interested unless i could get fogerty too, very bitter about that still smh

That's kind of lousy. Doug and Stu were still half of this monumental band...they were there, every step of the way.