Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 207 CCR (2)

I posted about this particular album last year on this very day and make a small apology for doing so again. It's one of those albums that demands a hearing again and again.It was voted in 2003 at #265 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. But it really should have been higher than that I think. Ever since I first began really listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival this one has remained my favourite album of theirs.

As a kid I can always remember hearing CCR songs on the radio but it wasn't until the mid-eighties that I began really tracking down their albums. Cosmos Factory was the first one because Up Around The Bend was on it and I had loved the Hanoi Rocks cover for their Two Steps From The Move album. But the whole album is fantastic I think.

  Cosmo's Factory - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Fantasy (US)
Liberty (UK)
Released 25th July 1970
Produced by John Fogerty
US Chart #1
UK Chart #1
The Album was also #1in Australia, Canada, France and Norway.

 

Side One

 1. "Ramble Tamble"
2. "Before You Accuse Me" (Ellas McDaniel)
3. "Travelin' Band"
4. "Ooby Dooby" (Wade Moore, Dick Penner)
5. "Lookin' Out My Back Door"
6. "Run Through the Jungle"
Side Two        
1. "Up Around the Bend"
2. "My Baby Left Me" (Arthur Crudup)
3. "Who'll Stop the Rain"
4. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong)
5. "Long as I Can See the Light"

 

This was CCR's fourth Top Ten Album and their second Number One (Green River from 1969 had made it to the top in the US). It is by far the best album the band had ever made and it's popularity is such that in 1990 it had received the honour of going Four Times Platinum by selling Four Million copies. 

The title of the album is taken from the warehouse in Berkley where the band were rehearsing called "The Factory" by Drummer Doug Clifford because it was the place everyday John Fogerty made the band practise.

 

Three Double A-Sided Singles were taken from the album (though two of them were released prior to the album in January and April of 1970). They had to be Double A-Sides because when you see the songs there is no way any of them could ever be a B-Side!

Travelin' Band / Who'll Stop the Rain

(January 1970 US Chart #2, UK Chart #8)

Up Around the Bend / Run Through the Jungle

(April 1970 US Chart #4, UK Chart #3)

Lookin' Out My Back Door / Long As I Can See the Light

(July 1970 US Chart #2 UK Chart #2)

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 187 CCR

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Fantasy

Produced by Saul Zaentz

Released 5th July 1968

US Chart #52

Personnel
   John Fogerty - lead guitar, lead vocals
    Tom Fogerty - rhythm guitar, backing and co-lead (3) vocals
    Stu Cook - bass guitar, vocals
    Doug Clifford - drums, vocals

Singles from Creedence Clearwater Revival

   1. Porterville / Call It Pretending
    Released: November 1967(US)

Released as The Golliwogs

Did Not Chart

   2. Susie Q. (Part 1) / Susie Q. (Part 2)
    Released: June 15, 1968 (US)

US Chart #11

   3. I Put a Spell on You / "Walk on the Water"
    Released: October 1968 (US)

US Chart #58

**********

This is the self-titled Debut Album from Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was their only Studio album not to break the Top 20 (five albums made the Top 10 - two were #1, their last studio album only reached #12).

Saul Zaentz had bought Fantasy Records and offered the group a chance to record an album but with one stipulation - they change the name of the band. They had actually been signed to the label in 1964 as The Golliwogs (which was another name change brought at the request of the co-owner of Fantasy Records at the time as they were called The Blue Velvets). Zaentz deemed the name of the band as having possible Racial implications. The band all agreed and signed on the dotted line as Creedence Clearwater Revival. Porterville was the last single to bear the name The Golliwogs and it was reissiued in January 1968 under the CCR banner.

The band and their debut album didn't command respect straight out of the gate. Barry Gifford writing in Rolling Stone at the time stated, "The only bright spot in the group is John Fogerty, who plays lead guitar and does the vocals. He's a better-than-average singer (really believable in Wilson Pickett's Ninety-Nine and a Half), and an interesting guitarist. But there's nothing else here. The drummer is monotonous, the bass lines are all repetitious and the rhythm guitar is barely audible."

Clearly there was work to be done and as John Fogerty's songwriting ability and the band getting better live and in the studio would need to change but it would all pay off, probably a bit sooner than they thought!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Rewind: CCR's Last Stand (1972)

Mardi Gras - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Fantasy

Produced by Doug Clifford, Stu Cook and John Fogerty

Released 11th April 1972

US Chart #12

Some bands go out in a blaze of glory, others go out in the midst of a terrible mess, such was the case with CCR. 

On this day in 1972 they released their Seventh and final studio album. It was not an album that gained the love of many, particularly the critics who for once were actually correct in their assessment, Rolling Stone reviewer Jon Landau deeming it "the worst album I have ever heard from a major rock band." 

Years later John Fogerty would tell Rolling Stone, "I figured that Creedence made six albums. Let me count... the first one, Bayou Country, Green River, Willy and the Poor Boys, Cosmo's Factory, Pendulum... yeah, six. I wouldn’t even count Mardi Gras and neither would anybody else. I had no control over anything after that. The rest is horse manure. Baloney."

So what happened?

Well Tom Fogerty had left the band in late 1970 during the recording of Pendulum (though it wasn't made public until February 1971. This was due to younger brother John taking a stand and wanting complete control of the band. Tom was not replaced and the band continued as a trio.

I'm not sure what prompted John's decision to reverse the complete control for democracy (he had basically told the others that they had to accept this decision or he would leave the band!) but it gave Stu Cook and Doug Clifford the opportunity to pitch in and get some of their songs on an album. Fogerty only contributed three songs to Mardi Gras, Doug Clifford two, Stu Cook three and a co-write between Clifford and Cook and the terrible cover of Hello Mary Lou completed the album. Not only was the writing shared out but also the vocals with Fogerty singing four but Clifford and Cook singing the songs they wrote. Fogerty also refused to contribute any vocals or instrumentation to Cook and Clifford's songs, except for guitar.

They toured in support of the album in the States and Europe but relations within were straining fast and so it was little wonder that in October 1972 it was announced that the band were no more!

Besides the internal strife John Fogerty was increasingly at odds with the record label, Fantasy, of whom it was felt that they had given the band a really poor contract.

John Fogerty would later comment on the demise of CCR in a 1997 Swedish magazine:
 

"I was alone when I made that [Creedence] music. I was alone when I made the arrangements, I was alone when I added background vocals, guitars and some other stuff. I was alone when I produced and mixed the albums. The other guys showed up only for rehearsals and the days we made the actual recordings. For me Creedence was like sitting on a time bomb. We'd had decent successes with our cover of 'Susie Q' and with the first album. When we went into the studio to cut 'Proud Mary,' it was the first time we were in a real Hollywood studio, RCA's Los Angeles studio, and the problems started immediately. The other guys in the band insisted on writing songs for the new album, they had opinions on the arrangements, they wanted to sing. They went as far as adding background vocals to 'Proud Mary,' and it sounded awful. They used tambourines, and it sounded no better.
 

That's when I understood I had a choice to make. At that point in time we were just a one hit wonder, and 'Susie Q' hadn't really been that big a hit. Either this [the new album] would be a success, something really big, or we might as well start working at the car wash again. There was a big row. We went to an Italian restaurant and I remember that I very clearly told the others that I for one didn't want to go back to the car wash again. Now we had to make the best possible album and it wasn't important who did what, as long as the result was the very best we could achieve. And of course I was the one who should do it. I don't think the others really understood what I meant, but at least I could manage the situation the way I wanted. The result was eight million-selling double-sided singles in a row and six albums, all of which went platinum. And Melody Maker had us as the best band in the world. That was after the Beatles split, but still. ... And I was the one who had created all this. Despite that, I don't think they understood what I was talking about. ... They were obsessed with the idea of more control and more influence. So finally the bomb exploded and we never worked together again."

Rewind: 1970 - CCR Unleash Their Very Best

Cosmo's Factory - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Fantasy (US)

Liberty (UK)

Released 25th July 1970

Produced by John Fogerty

US Chart #1

UK Chart #1

The Album was also #1in Australia, Canada, France and Norway.

Personnel

John Fogerty – lead guitar, lead vocals, piano, saxophone, harmonica, producer, arranger
Tom Fogerty – rhythm guitar
Stu Cook – bass
Doug Clifford – drums

Side One

 1. "Ramble Tamble"
2. "Before You Accuse Me" (Ellas McDaniel)
3. "Travelin' Band"
4. "Ooby Dooby" (Wade Moore, Dick Penner)
5. "Lookin' Out My Back Door"
6. "Run Through the Jungle"
Side Two        
1. "Up Around the Bend"
2. "My Baby Left Me" (Arthur Crudup)
3. "Who'll Stop the Rain‡"
4. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong)
5. "Long as I Can See the Light"

This was CCR's fourth Top Ten Album and their second Number One (Green River from 1969 had made it to the top in the US). It is by far the best album the band had ever made and it's popularity is such that in 1990 it had received the honour of going Four Times Platinum by selling Four Million copies.

The title of the album is taken from the warehouse in Berkley where the band were rehearsing called "The Factory" by Drummer Doug Clifford because it was the place everyday John Fogerty made the band practise.

Three Double A-Sided Singles were taken from the album (though two of them were released prior to the album in January and April of 1970). They had to be Double A-Sides because when you see the songs there is no way any of them could ever be a B-Side!

Travelin' Band / Who'll Stop the Rain

(January 1970 US Chart #2, UK Chart #8)

Up Around the Bend / Run Through the Jungle

(April 1970 US Chart #4, UK Chart #3)

Lookin' Out My Back Door / Long As I Can See the Light

(July 1970 US Chart #2 UK Chart #2)

I was only a 7 year old boy when this was released and have no memories to report of it. I can recall a few years later when I had begun to start liking  music that I remember that DJ's on the radio were still fond of playing the odd Creedence Clearwater Revival track so songs like Bad Moon Rising, Up Around the Bend, Long As I Can See the Light and Travelin' Band were not alien to me. I do remember the moment though that I first began to investigate them further and that was in the 1980's after Hanoi Rocks had covered Up Around the Bend for their Two Steps From The Move album in 1984. I can remember buying a copy of Cosmos Factory at the Record and Tape Exchange in Notting Hill for a couple of pounds mainly because Up Around the Bend was on it but also because Long As I Can See the Light was also on it and I had come to really love that song after hearing it on an old cassette. After that I also purchased a bunch of their other albums and to this day they are still played and enjoyed. 

CCR are up there with the finest of artists in my book. They are one of the bands that if there was such a thing as time machine I'd want to program it to a day and a place where CCR were performing just so I could see them for myself in all their gloriously rockin' splendour!

It was voted in 2003 at #265 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It's still an album that brings me a lot of joy when I play it

Rewind: 1968 Creedence Clearwater Revival Release Debut Album

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Released 5th July 1968

Fantasy 8382

Produced by Saul Zaentz

US Album Chart #52

Singles from the album

Suzie Q Pt1 / Suzie Q Pt2. US Chart #11

I Put A Spell On You / Walk on the Water. US Chart #58

40th Anniversary Edition with Bonus Tracks

Original Track listing
All songs written by John Fogerty, except where noted.

Side one
    1. "I Put a Spell on You" (Screamin' Jay Hawkins) – 4:33
    2. "The Working Man" – 3:04
    3. "Susie Q." (Eleanor Broadwater, Dale Hawkins, Stanley Lewis) – 8:37
        Recorded January 19, 1968.

Side two
    1. "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)" (Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett) – 3:39
    2. "Get Down Woman" – 3:09
    3. "Porterville" – 2:24
        Recorded October 1967. Initially released as a single in November 1967. It was the last single that the band released as The Golliwogs.
    4. "Gloomy" – 3:51
    5. "Walk on the Water" (John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty) – 4:40
        This track is a remake of "Walking on the Water", a recording released by the band as a single, in 1966, while they were still known as The Golliwogs.

Personnel
    John Fogerty - lead guitar, lead vocals
    Tom Fogerty - rhythm guitar, backing and co-lead (3) vocals
    Stu Cook - bass guitar
    Doug Clifford - drums

Despite being formed in California CCR played a real Southern Rock Style of Rock and Roll.

In 1966 John Fogerty and Doug Clifford were enlisted into the Military Service. Fogerty went to The Army Reserve and Clifford to the United States Coast Guard Reserve. By 1968 they had been discharged and the other members had quit their day jobs to begin an intense period of rehearsal and playing in the clubs full time.

The little bit of success following the release of the debut album and also of the single Suzi Q laid the groundwork for what was to follow in the life of CCR. Hit albums and singles and not just in their own land but in Europe as well (In the UK in 1969 their single Bad Moon Rising would be #1 and in 1970 their exceptional album Cosmos Factory would be a #1 also in the UK).

Alphabet Beats #019: The Letter C is for...Creedence Clearwater Revival

C is for...

Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford. Their musical style encompassed the roots rock and swamp rock genres. Despite their San Francisco Bay Area origins, they portrayed a Southern rock style, with lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River, and other popular elements of Southern American iconography.
Creedence Clearwater Revival's music is still a staple of American radio airplay; the band has sold 26 million albums in the United States alone. Creedence Clearwater Revival was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Rolling Stone ranked the band 82nd on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. Their musical influence can be heard in many genres, including southern rock, grunge, roots rock, and blues.

 

CCR Music

Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968).

Bayou Country (1969).

Green River (1969). 

Willy and the Poor Boys (1969). 

Cosmo's Factory (1970). 

Pendulum (1970). 

Live At Filmore West FM Broadcast (1971).

Mardi Gras (1972).

Live in Europe (1973).

The Concert (1980). - Recorded at Oakland Coliseum in 1970.

The Ultimate Collection (2012).

CCR Live

Woodstock 1969.

Royal Albert Hall, London 1970.