| Author | Message | ||
     Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1845 Registered: 03-2006 |
Forster's appreciation of CCR's great and epic song is really wonderful: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/t ol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1 484973.ece I completely agree, Robert. What a majestic and beautiful song. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1391 Registered: 05-2005 |
Robert once described Spring Rain to me as him trying to write a Creedence song. He also said of Spring Rain: "It's a Brisbane AM radio song". Thanks for the link LK. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1852 Registered: 03-2006 |
Hmm - interesting quote, Padraig. I think it's cool that he was so unabashed about doing something that was, in his eyes, commercial. Also cool that a lot of their influences - Creedence, the Monkees, etc. - are so completely unpretentious... | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 53 Registered: 01-2007 |
Never really listened to Creedance, though heard some of their songs are they worth discovering? apart form the obvious GoBees connection obviously | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 54 Registered: 01-2007 |
Never really listened to Creedance, though heard some of their songs are they worth discovering? apart form the obvious GoBees connection obviously | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1144 Registered: 03-2005 |
Frank, CCR were the ultimate "hit machine" from about 1968 to about 1971. A very short period, but they cranked out something like four solid singles each year. And, of course, the albums would include some gems too but because there were so many albums there was also a lot of filler. Their music was usually kind of a bubblegum ersatz swamp rock sound, quite amusing since they originated from the environs of the east San Francisco Bay as one of the best garage bands of the formidible San Francisco-San Jose-East Bay axis. I should make clear that the words "hit machine," "bubblegum" and "garage band" are NOT put-downs in my universe. They usually mean something good. And Fogerty is a genuinely good songwriter. I haven't kept up on what's been released for them but any music collection should have one or two decent collections of their hits. I have volumes 1 and 2 of "Chronicle" but there might be a better alternative now. I got a kick out of Robert's specific thumbs-up to CCR's drummer. I used to think he was appalling, from the trash can snare drum sound to the "one-size-fits-all" drum roll fills. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 566 Registered: 08-2006 |
They are worth discovering, Frank. My only problem with them is that many of their hits - and there were a lot of them - are played on the radio in the States with a regularity approach Beatles-level. So unless you really haven't heard them much, the studio albums are much more interesting (to me, at least) than the hits compilations. I can appreciate the genius of a song like "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" much more when it's not followed up by great-but-overplayed tunes like "Proud Mary" or "Run Through the Jungle." | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1860 Registered: 03-2006 |
Very definitely worth checking out, Frank. The voices above do not lie. It is the bestest, rootsiest, purest song-writing and playing there is...It's probably no secret that LK is into concise, melodic and powerful pop songs, and that's what they traded in. Their best stuff is like Neil Young, too, in that it's so deceptively simple, but completely indelible, once you've heard it. It is wild that Fogerty is actually from the Bay Area. I remember how shocked I was to discover that, but it makes no difference, and doesn't affect in the least the pure, felt quality the music has. I'm not sure where Randy is getting the 'bubblegum' tag from, though. It seems too rootsy and lacking in artifice or shallowness for that. Put another way, I'd play "Lodi" on the jukebox in any redneck bar in, say Bogalusa, La., or Fresno, Ca., but I might feel a little trepidation playing "Yummy Yummy Yummy"... There is a great one-stop solution for you, though, Frank. There's a great single disc compilation featuring the best of Creedence, as well as Fogerty's solo career, which has been largely good, called "The Long Road Home"... And, if you opt to just download some, here's my list of songs by him and CCR that would repay your effort in checking them out. I'm eschewing, for the most part, the ones that have been played to death on AM radio: 1) Centerfield - almost America's baseball national anthem - played at many sporting events. It always makes me really happy to hear, though that probably also has a lot to do with the association with baseball. 2) Fortunate Son - a topical song that pretty much rings true even today. 3) Born On the Bayou - I'm still shocked that a person who wasn't (born on the bayou) could write this song. 4) Lookin' Out My Back Door - almost certainly about smoking the herb. 5) Up Around the Bend 6) Almost Saturday Night - memorably covered by Dave Edmunds. 7) Bad Moon Rising - merry, apocalyptic fun. As far as I know, not covered by Sonic Youth. 8) Green River - see comment on #3. 9) Lodi - One of my absolute faves, and one I actually have played repeatedly on jukeboxes. When I first heard it, I had no idea it was a place in CA. Then years later, I visited it and discovered why the singer of the song was lamenting being stuck there. 10) Who'll Stop the Rain/Have You Ever Seen the Rain? - I'll co-bill these two since I confuse them. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1353 Registered: 04-2005 |
I went to the same high school as Fogerty and the other CCR guys: El Cerrito High in the city of the same name. I've seen pictures of them posing in front of spots at the school I recognize, which is kind of fun. I've always liked CCR a lot. People might not realize how radical (though viewed at the time as "counter-revolutionary") they were in the late '60s by being a rock band in the hippie era that played short, concise songs that were hits. Eventually they developed a complex about it, and started jamming more, as witnessed by the endless version of "Heard It Through the Grapevine," where Fogerty proved he was no threat to Clapton, Beck, Richard "Bring Me My Maids-a-Milkin' Groupies" Thompson, etc., as a lead guitarist. But I don't think Fogerty aspired to be "bubblegum" (though I think I understand how Randy's using it) or even a big hitmaker--it was just the music he loved, more of a throwback to the '50s stuff he grew up on--Little Richard, Screamin' Jay, etc.--than anything. Short, catchy, and raw...sounded great screaming out of a little transistor radio. And, as some famous scribe once wrote, none of Fogerty's hits were love songs. To me, their best song is "Fortunate Son." Tell me it's aged a day since he wrote it. One of the great protest songs ever, but it rocks way too much to seem a civics lesson. | ||
| Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 104 Registered: 05-2005 |
Fogerty is an American classic. As Springsteen has pointed out, he is much underated, mainly because CCR were never considered cool enough in their day - too many hits I guess. I love this review by Robert (isn't he a great writer!) - particularly because Have You Ever Seen the Rain is also my favourite CCR song. I remember REM used to do a great cover of this in concerts back in the early 80s. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 65 Registered: 01-2007 |
Thanks for the advice, I will seertainly get a compilation to start with and let you know, I ws a bit worried it might be too hippyish and self indulgent, but obviously not, sorry for delay in posting but have been busy at work etc | ||
| Ian Member Username: Fins Post Number: 11 Registered: 05-2005 |
John Fogerty played a great set at Glastonbury this weekend and the whole thing was on the BBC so may appear on dimeadozen or similar soon. |