BCB 100 - Creedence Clearwater Revival

[geoffcowgill]

The Byrds' closest competition for Best American 60s Band, surely? Insanely prolific for such a brief time, like 27 albums in three years or something. There's filler in the oeuvre, no doubt about it, but an impeccable singles band with several other jewels scattered about that didn't make it onto Chronicles. Pendulum, their penultimate release, is an underrated should-be classic with a healthy and unusual helping of organ. Dig "Sailor's Lament", fer instance.

Despite the ubiquity of it and its assimilation into the Forest Gump Approved Baby Boomer Nostalgia Canon, "Fortunate Son" remains one of the angriest and most powerul rock songs ever to grace us with its snarl and bite.


Favorite Album - Pendulum

Favorite Song - "Fortunate Son"

[My name is Spaulding]

BUMP!

[Sneelock]

Album: Bayou Country
song: green river

edit: I did choose 'cosmo's' and it's a fine choice but I changed my mind.
I think this one sounds a little 'swampier' and for me that's a good thing. I like how the songs go on a bit. Also, truth be told, I like the bitchin' album cover!

[Wolfman Raph]

Album: Cosmo's Factory

Song: Bad Moon Rising (how could a song with gloomy lyrics like these have been n°1...)

[Carlisle Wheeling]

The Byrds..... Best American 60s Band, surely?

do me a favour. Nearly spat out my toast.

To business:

Favorite Album - "Green River" (just, from "Bayou Country")

Favorite Song - "Born On The Bayou" One of the great b-sides. Bought it the same day I got Joe South's "Games People Play" b/w "Mirror Of Your Mind".

[Bungo the Mungo]

there's something wonderfully simplistic about CCR, but i find it's easy to tire of them. best heard when you're least expecting it.

song: proud mary
album: the chronicle comps

[The Write Profile]

My thoughts on CCR will be inextricably tied with a family holiday, way back in 1992, when seemingly the only "music" tape in the car was Chronicle (there were lots of story tapes, things like Spike Milligan and Roald Dahl, for instance). We travelled from the very top of the North Island right the way down to Bluff in the South Island. It was the first time we had done that as a family, so I think any music played during that trip would've become evocative, but it seems perfect that Creedence was the unwitting choice. So when I picked up Chronicle on CD, I guess it wasn't too surprising that I grew to love them again.

There's something about their music, the way it straddles itself between rootsiness and garage grunginess, yet is totally compact, in the playing and phrasing at all times. Fogerty was one of the great lyricists, too, with a real sense of how tell a story through a song, getting all the details right. I suppose there's too many songs to mention, but I just love the sound of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?," to say nothing of its plaintative tone. It's the echo on the guitar parts, I think, or the melancholy it conjures without going too far. "Lodi" is another one that gets me in that regard, just Fogerty's resigned delivery. Another point is how prolific they were in such a short space of time- they released not one, but three great albums in 1969 alone!


One of the era's great bands, without a doubt. And a special one for me, too, because of the associations.


Album: Green River. The best production and best arrangement of songs
Song: too many to mention at this moment, but I'll go with "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

[BARON CORNY DOG]

an impeccable singles band

I count at least five essential albums. If you love Creedence, you are doing yourself a disservice by sticking with Chronicles.

It shouldn't be particularly controversial to rank them amongst the great American bands.

[The Write Profile]

Despite the ubiquity of it and its assimilation into the Forest Gump Approved Baby Boomer Nostalgia Canon, "Fortunate Son" remains one of the angriest and most powerul rock songs ever to grace us with its snarl and bite.

And yet, I didn't realise that until I actually took the time to listen to it without thinking of the Forest Gump aspect. Really, that film took the guts out of the song to a degree that it almost didn't recover, just the lazy way it deployed the song as emotional shorthand without the real substance or visuals to back it up. But listening to it, on its own can be very powerful indeed- it's the force of Fogerty's convictions and the way the music matches him for desperation.

[Walk In My Shadow]

Fogerty's one of the greatest songwriters still alive, especially during his time with CCR.
There fore you need THE BOX::





The singles, the standout album tracks, the lot.

[bixhenry]

Count me as a huge fan. Forget the fact that we're probably all sick of hearing most of their big hits, but instead focus on the fact that in 1969, CCR recorded and released, in Bayou Country, Green River, and Willie And The Poor Boys, three undeniable, stone-classic American rock records. Fogerty was on fire as a writer. And the following year's Cosmo's Factory might even be their best album.

A phenomenal band, Fogerty's an amazing singer and writer, and responsible for one of the best artistic runs in rock history.

Album: Cosmo's Factory
Song: 'Up Around The Bend' - where supreme riffage and the sheer exuberance of making music come together, unforgettably

[C]

So many great tracks from so many great LPs.

A great band

.

[toomanyhatz]

I like what Geoff has to say about them. Any discussion of best bands of the period has to include them. And that 69/70 run is pretty staggering.

Album - Green River
Song - Pretty tough call, another one that'll probably change by the day. Right now Commotion. They rocked as hard as anyone.

[yomptepi]

One of the great rock and roll bands, I'm watching the DVD of their early tv performances right now, and they come over as Fogarty and his band, but I think they were a lot more than that, He never hit the highs again once they split up. Some of the best singles of the 60's and early 70's.

Album

Cosmo's Factory...so many brilliant songs, and the greatest guitar driven jam of all time in Heard it thru the grapevine.

Single Proud Mary.

[C]

Keep on Chooglin'

.

[Six String]

Great band and one that I have returned to in the last few years with immense enjoyment. Growing up with CCR blasting out of the radio, especially in the summer, was a great experience. The first album was one of my early lp purchases but it is long gone now. I just borrowed the lp from my neighbor last week and I was floored by how good the guitar and vocal are on I Put a Spell on You. The guitar in particular is amazing.

Favorite album - Cosmo Factory

Song - Born on the Bayou

[C]

Great band and one that I have returned to in the last few years with immense enjoyment. Growing up with CCR blasting out of the radio, especially in the summer, was a great experience.

Indeed.

The Concert LP is amazing - just a string of gems back to back played live (I flag it up because many may not have heard it)

Also...

Fogerty's Premonition played in front of an invited audience is worth having too

[Moleskin]

I love Creedence. Got the boxset shown above. An excellent object.

Album: Bayou Country
song: 'Fortunate Son'

[sloopjohnc]

Album: Green River
Song: Green River

Fogerty is one of the top songwriters and singers rock & roll has produced. Modern bands as diverse as Gang of Four and The Minutemen, have cited CCR's musical influence on them.

Fortunate Son is one of the most personal and down-to-earth anti-war songs ever written. I'm sure more poor, drafted kids could relate to it vs. almost any other song.

I can get tired of them too having heard them so much for so much of my life, but a great, great band that seems to float under the radar for some reason.

I think it's because their songs always seem to have been there, that they're taken for granted.

[Beno]

Absolute first rate band, much underappreciated in the UK at least.

Album: Cosmo's factory just sneaks it over Willy & The Poorboys

Song: Fortunate Son - so many to choose for it could easily have been one of many