Creedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater Revival (Fantasy FCD-8382-2)Bayou Country (FCD-8387-2)
Green River ( FCD-8393-2)
Willy and the Poor Boys (FCD-8397-2)
Cosmo's Factory (FCD-8402-2)
Pendulum (FCD-8410-2)
Mardi Gras (FCD-9404-2)
The Concert (FCD-9686-2)
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON A MAJOR MUSICAL GROUP OF THE 1960s by W. Royal Stokes
The circumstance of white teen-age middle-class fledgling musicians electing the blues as their main source and principal inspiration is a phenomenon that has been with us for more than a half century. We see its impact in the persons of such middle-age blueswomen and bluesmen as guitarist/singers Rory Block, John Hammond, Debby Davies, Roy Rogers, Dave Hole, Jo-Ann Kelly, and Steve James, singer Lou Ann Barton, and pianists Marcia Ball and Dave Maxwell, as well as older white blues artists like the multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, the eclectic guitarists John Fahey and Stefan Grossman, and singer Carol Leigh. Then there are younger white blues artists who have appeared on the scene this past decade, for example, guitarist/singers Sue Foley and Susan Tedeschi. And of course many of the generation of rockers who came up in the 1960s had listened closely to such early blues artists as Robert Johnson and Son House and to the post WW 2 Chicago blues of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and others . In fact, one could hardly name a rock group of those years that did not draw to some degree upon the recorded work of the great African-American pioneers of the idiom.
Few would disagree that, of those 1960s rock groups, none was as deeply immersed in the blues as Creedence Clearwater Revival. And Fantasy Records has provided us the proof of that pudding in the splendid set of reissues listed above. Not only are these discs of superior sonic quality to the originals on LP, the series comes with updated assessments and historical background by a roster of noted rock critics, namely, Ben Fong-Torres, Dave Marsh, Joel Selvin, Ed Ward, Robert Christgau, Craig Werner, and Stanley Booth.
The popular music of the '60s attracted not only the young generation. Because of the messages of its lyrics -- their anti-war sentiments and concerns with civil rights, the environment, education, health, and the burgeoning feminist movement -- as well as the musical quality of the best groups, many of an older generation were drawn into its orbit. Many of the songs of those years remain embedded in this writer's consciousness, yet he returns to listen to a mere handful of albums of that time. As for the body of work of a single group, he can safely say that it is only that of Creedence Clearwater Revival that he enjoys as a whole. Incidentally, it is well to keep in mind that most of CCR's recorded output was done from 1968 to '70 and that during those two years, as Craig Werner points out, they "released as many records as the Beatles had at their peak."
Several reasons for my affinity to CCR became apparent to me as I listened to the reissues and read the notes. It goes without saying that the music continues to grab me emotionally, as no other popular music of
that era does. "We just want our music to make people feel," leader John Fogerty said. Then there is, as Ben Fong-Torres observes, that the CCR "showed . . . how the music could embrace -- and was, in fact, founded on -- elements of R&B and the blues, country, folk, and jazz, as well as a world of other musical forms." Those are the very genres that this writer grew up "embracing" as a teenager in the 1940s, and they continue to be his favored listening fare.
Creedence didn't spend weeks or months in the studio, as did some rock groups -- sometimes with a symphony orchestra in tow --crafting an album. They went in and cut tunes, often in one take, and they played those tunes in concert so that they sounded more or less the same as on the record. In other words, CCR was without the pretense of so many of the rock groups of its time, and that no doubt accounts in large part for the staying power of the group three decades after its heyday. Dave Marsh clarifies that they were "pre-psychedelic rock 'n' roll . . their kinship was with the music of the '50s."
CCR's essence derived from the genius of Fogerty, who was "a naturally gifted writer with a deep sense of rootedness," says Ed Ward. Having been raised on Top 40, R&B, and the blues, he drew from such sources as Leadbelly, Ray Charles, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Booker T. & the MGs, the Stax house band, and other "root" musicians. Dave Marsh calls Fogerty "a modern Robert Johnson," citing his "Tombstone" as an "echo of 'Crossroads'," and Robert Christgau says he "wasn't just a white boy trying to sing the blues -- he was a white boy inventing his own white-boy blues." And as several of the notes writers emphasize, the rhythm section of guitarist Tom Fogerty, the leader's older brother, bassist Stu cook, and drummer Doug Clifford was one of the best in the annals of rock.
The recommendation I wholeheartedly make is that you acquire the series, load your player, turn down the lights, roll up the rugs, and put your body in motion to the likes of "Down on the Corner," "Bad Moon Rising," "Born on the Bayou," "Proud Mary," and other classics of the group's oeuvre. Before you know it, you're transported back to a period when rock 'n' roll was fresh and vital and the times they were a-changin'!
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