Creedence Clearwater Revival Albums (11)
What The Critics Say
Originally released in 1980 as The Royal Albert Hall Concert but quickly retitled when the label discovered the show it captures was recorded in California at the Oakland Coliseum on January 31, 1970, The Concert is as simple as its name. The album simply captures Creedence Clearwater Revival at the height of their powers, when they were the most popular American rock & roll band. They released three albums in 1969, all of which went into the Top 10. They had three number two singles that year ("Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," "Green River") and one number three single ("Down on the Corner"). They were simply a phenomenon and this record shows why. It's not as good as a compilation of hit singles; CCR were the rare excellent live band whose studio recordings were as ferocious as their stage work, and those were better detailed, too. Still, it's a pretty terrific little record, since the band is in fine form, tearing through the hits and such album favorites as "Tombstone Shadow," "Don't Look Now," "Born on the Bayou," "The Midnight Special," and "Keep on Chooglin'." Only hardcore fans really need to pick up this record and they might not even spin it all that often. But when they do, they'll wind up satisfied. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
This album has often taken it on the chin from fans and critics who failed to perceive its value. Long regarded as an inferior release, mostly because it emerged at the tail-end of CCR's history, after Tom Fogerty had quit, and came from the tour associated with unpopular Mardi Gras album, Live In Europe was considered something of a bummer. Neither the original LP release (which spread under an hour of music onto four sides), nor the edited domestic CD presented much to enjoy -- the band sounded flat and harsh. Victor Entertainment's 1998 remastering from Japan, in 20-bit sound off the uncut tape (which restores two songs off the original LP that are missing from the American CD), rectifies those mistakes and more. It puts the listener seemingly at the concert (and center-stage in the stereo mix) in terms of the closeness of the sound, and gives us a chance to hear how spirited and refreshed CCR was performing as a trio. The band reinvented songs they'd originally cut as a quartet in blazing fury, with Doug Clifford pounding away with a rock-solid beat, Stu Cook's bass doing graceful acrobatics covering for the "missing" rhythm guitar, and John Fogerty in a soaring virtuoso performance that must've cost him five pounds in sweat alone each night on this tour. The 20-bit audio gives the band a close, loud, crunching sound like a Chuck Berry performance on 50,000 watts of amplification and, given the animated nature of the performance, the whole album now makes for bracing as well as fascinating listening, with "Keep On Chooglin'" a great way to end the official history of the band, assuming that it had to end. The original tape always had some minor flaws, in terms of microphone placement and mixing, but the Victor reissue minimizes them. As a bonus, the Japanese CD restores Stu Cook's "Door To Door," (one of the better non-Fogerty numbers off of Mardi Gras), to the song lineup. The album doesn't appear to offer much, but with "Sweet Hitch-Hiker," "Up Around The Bend," "Hey Tonight," or "It Came Out of the Sky," much less "Proud Mary," "Green River," or "Lodi," there is still no earthly reason for it to be dropped by Fantasy when it was issued on CD. The price is high, but the music is worth it. (Japanese import) ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
During 1969 and 1970, CCR was dismissed by hipsters as a bubblegum pop band and the sniping had grown intolerable, at least to John Fogerty, who designed Pendulum as a rebuke to critics. He spent time polishing the production, bringing in keyboards, horns, even a vocal choir. His songs became self-consciously serious and tighter, working with the aesthetic of the rock underground -- Pendulum was constructed as a proper album, contrasting dramatically with CCR's previous records, all throwbacks to joyous early rock records where covers sat nicely next to hits and overlooked gems tucked away at the end of the second side. To some fans of classic CCR, this approach may feel a little odd since only "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" and maybe its B-side "Hey Tonight" sound undeniably like prime Creedence. But, given time, the album is a real grower, revealing many overlooked Fogerty gems. Yes, it isn't transcendent like the albums they made from Bayou Country through Cosmo's Factory, but most bands never even come close to that kind of hot streak. Instead, Pendulum finds a first-class songwriter and craftsman pushing himself and his band to try new sounds, styles, and textures. His ambition results in a stumble -- "Rude Awakening 2" portentously teeters on the verge of prog-rock, something CCR just can't pull off -- but the rest of the record is excellent, with such great numbers as the bluesy groove "Pagan Baby," the soulful vamp "Chameleon," the moody "It's Just a Thought," and the raver "Molina." Most bands would kill for this to be their best stuff, and the fact that it's tucked away on an album that even some fans forget illustrates what a tremendous band Creedence Clearwater Revival was. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Throughout 1969 and into 1970, CCR toured incessantly and recorded nearly as much. Appropriately, Cosmo's Factory's first single was the working band's anthem "Travelin' Band," a funny, piledriving rocker with a blaring horn section -- the first indication their sonic palette was broadening. Two more singles appeared prior to the album's release, backed by John Fogerty originals that rivaled the A-side or paled just slightly. When it came time to assemble a full album, Fogerty had only one original left, the claustrophobic, paranoid rocker "Ramble Tamble." Unlike some extended instrumentals, this was dramatic and had a direction -- a distinction made clear by the meandering jam that brings CCR's version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" to 11 minutes. Even if it wanders, their take on the Marvin Gaye classic isn't unpleasant, and their faithful, exuberant takes on the Sun classics "Ooby Dooby" and "My Baby Left Me" are joyous tributes. Still, the heart of the album lays in those six fantastic songs released on singles. "Up Around the Bend" is a searing rocker, one of their best, balanced by the menacing murkiness of "Run Through the Jungle." "Who'll Stop the Rain"'s poignant melody and melancholy undertow has a counterpart in Fogerty's dope song, "Lookin' out My Back Door," a charming, bright shuffle, filled with dancing animals and domestic bliss - he had never been as sweet and silly as he is here. On "Long as I Can See the Light," the record's final song, he again finds solace in home, anchored by a soulful, laid-back groove. It hits a comforting, elegiac note, the perfect way to draw Cosmo's Factory -- an album made during stress and chaos, filled with raging rockers, covers, and intense jams -- to a close. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
If anything, CCR's third album Green River represents the full flower of their classic sound initially essayed on its predecessor, Bayou Country. One of the differences between the two albums is that Green River is tighter, with none of the five-minute-plus jams that filled out both their debut and Bayou Country, but the true key to its success is a peak in John Fogerty's creativity. Although CCR had at least one cover on each album, they relied on Fogerty to crank out new material every month. He was writing so frequently that the craft became second-nature and he laid his emotions and fears bare, perhaps unintentionally. Perhaps that's why Green River has fear, anger, dread, and weariness creeping on the edges of gleeful music. This was a band that played rock & roll so joyously that they masked the, well, "sinister" undercurrents in Fogerty's songs. "Bad Moon Rising" has the famous line "Hope you've got your things together/Hope you're quite prepared to die," but that was only the most obvious indication of Fogerty's gloom. Consider all the other dark touches: the "Sinister purpose knocking at your door"; the chaos of "Commotion"; the threat of death in "Tombstone Shadow"; you only return to the idyllic "Green River" once you get lost and realize the "world is smolderin'." Even the ballads have a strong melancholy undercurrent, highlighted by "Lodi," where Fogerty imagines himself stuck playing in dead-end towns for the rest of his life. Not the typical thoughts of a newly famous rock & roller, but certainly an indication of Fogerty's inner tumult. For all its darkness, Green River is ultimately welcoming music, since the band rocks hard and bright and the melancholy feels comforting, not alienating. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Willy and the Poor Boys'
Release Date 1/1/1969
Tracks 10
Label Fantasy
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Make no mistake, Willy & the Poor Boys is a fun record, perhaps the breeziest album CCR ever made. Apart from the eerie minor-key closer "Effigy" (one of John Fogerty's most haunting numbers), there is little of the doom that colored Green River. Fogerty's rage remains, blazing to the forefront on "Fortunate Son," a working-class protest song that cuts harder than any of the explicit Vietnam protest songs of the era, which is one of the reasons that it hasn't aged where its peers have. Also, there's that unbridled vocal from Fogerty and the ferocious playing on CCR, which both sound fresh as they did upon release. "Fortunate Son" is one of the greatest, hardest rock & rollers ever cut, so it might seem to be out of step with an album that is pretty laid-back and friendly, but there's that elemental joy that by late '69 was one of CCR's main trademarks. That joy runs throughout the album, from the gleeful single "Down on the Corner" and the lazy jugband blues of "Poorboy Shuffle" through the great slow blues jam "Feelin' Blue" to the great rockabilly spiritual "Don't Look Now," one of Fogerty's overlooked gems. The covers don't feel like throwaways, either, since both "Cotton Fields" and "The Midnight Special" have been overhauled to feel like genuine CCR songs. It all adds up to one of the greatest pure rock & roll records ever cut. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Opening slowly with the dark, swampy "Born on the Bayou," Bayou Country reveals an assured Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band that has found its voice between their first and second album. It's not just that "Born on the Bayou" announces that CCR has discovered its sound -- it reveals the extent of John Fogerty's myth-making. With this song, he sketches out his persona; it makes him sound as if he crawled out of the backwoods of Louisiana instead of being a native San Franciscan. He carries this illusion throughout the record, through the ominous meanderings of "Graveyard Train" through the stoked cover of "Good Golly Miss Molly" to "Keep on Chooglin'," which rides out a southern-fried groove for nearly eight minutes. At the heart of Bayou Country, as well as Fogerty's myth and Creedence's entire career, is "Proud Mary." A riverboat tale where the narrator leaves a good job in the city for a life rolling down the river, the song is filled with details that ring so true that it feels autobiographical. The lyric is married to music that is utterly unique yet curiously timeless, blending rockabilly, country, and Stax R&B into something utterly distinctive and addictive. "Proud Mary" is the emotional fulcrum at the center of Fogerty's seductive imaginary Americana, and while it's the best song here, his other songs are no slouch, either. "Born on the Bayou" is a magnificent piece of swamp-rock, "Penthouse Pauper" is a first-rate rocker with the angry undertow apparent on "Porterville" and "Bootleg" is a minor masterpiece, thanks to its tough acoustic foundation, sterling guitar work, and clever story. All the songs add up to a superb statement of purpose, a record that captures Creedence Clearwater Revival's muscular, spare, deceptively simple sound as an evocative portrait of America. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
