CCR (Creedance Clearwater Revival) - Where to start?
Posted by: ClaudeP on 19 November 2007
If everything goes as planned, I should hear them live in concert in a few months (early 2008).
What album(s) should I buy to get to know them?
Thanks for your help!
Claude
What album(s) should I buy to get to know them?
Thanks for your help!
Claude
Must have CCW? : )
Chronicle - The 20 Greatest Hits (Vol 1)
1. SUSIE Q
2. I PUT A SPELL ON YOU
3. PROUD MARY
4. BAD MOON RISING
5. LODI
6. GREEN RIVER
7. COMMOTION
8. DOWN ON THE CORNER
9. FORTUNATE SON
10. TRAVELIN' BAND
11. WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN
12. UP AROUND THE BEND
13. RUN THOUGH THE JUNGLE
14. LOOKIN' OUT MY BACK DOOR
15. LONG AT I CAN SEE THE LIGHT
16. I HEARD IT ON THE GRAPE VINE
17. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN
18. HEY TONIGHT
19. SWEET HITCH-HIKER
20. SOMEDAY NEVER COMES
Available in UK supermakets for only 5ukp!!
(Also available in 24 Karat Gold disc from amazon at around 21ukp...ish)
[AAD] Fantasy. (Performed from 1965-1972)
I have the gold disc version too, i think this album is brilliant! : )
Kind Regards ~
nymph
Excellent - Claude - I see you're of man of taste. Creedence Clearwater Revival were without doubt one of the most rocking bands in the known universe. John Fogerty is my guitar hero and a great song writer and he plays organ, saxophone, drums, fiddle and is right clever so and so.
So if you want an absolute treat - a feast of wonderfully recorded Creedence hits then I'd recommended the DVD by John Forgerty called The Long Way Home. This is an immaculately recorded live concert.
For original Creedence albums then if you can track down the 45 r.p.m vinyl editions then you are in for a treat, but the vinyl copies I have from the late 60s and early 70s are excellent too. The CD re-mastering is not special IMHO, but the CDs are not bad by any means.
Musically, I'd have to start with Green River
This is one of the greatest rock albums ever made and contains two multi-million selling singles: the title track and Bad Moon Rising. These guys knew how to play and they just went in to the studio and laid it down. They could play it note perfect live. The power of the songs is unquestionable as is Fogerty's strong vocals.
Almost as good is the previous album Bayou Country
Of course, it contains Proud Mary, the Creedence song everybody knows. And I just love the opening lines of Born On The Bayou -
When I Was Just A Little Boy
I stared into my daddy's knee
My father said son don't let the man get you
Do what he's done to me
'Cos the get ya
Next is the other essential CCR album Willy And The Poor Boys with Down On The Corner, Fortunate Son and one the best tracks they ever did Effigy - (if you know Television's Marquee Moon then surely those guys listened to Effigy over and over before doing it - I think TV admitted as much).
This is a charming and immensely likeable recording from a group who were together and at the pinnacle of their success and prowess.
The albums I've recommended are the second, third and fourth.
If you want to go further than the first self titled album is great too - a few cover versions, but they work and sound just like part of the whole work. Pendulum is another fine album, but shows CCR falling apart in places. This is so obviously a John Fogerty album with the others playing bit parts. John plays Organ (Born To Move) and Sax on several tracks. There are some great songs on Pendulum and the hits are Hey Tonight and Have You Ever Seen The Rain. It's a quality record.
The other two from the CCR catalogue are the commendable Cosmo's Factory - some great moments on this Up Around The Bend, Travelling Band, Who'll Stop The Rain, Ramble Tamble and Run Through The Jungle, but a rather tedious rendition of Heard It Through The Grapevine, which is a well known OK non-CCR song that they drag out. I'm not keen on the other covers that fill out the album, but the John Fogerty originals are enough to make me enjoy Cosmo's.
A note on Run Through The Jungle - John Fogerty assigned the copyright for this song to Fantasy Records. Later, in his solo career, he wrote "Old Man Down the Road" that was distributed by Warner Brothers. Fantasy claimed it was derived from "Jungle." and took him to court as he had plagiarised his own song. The case was thrown out.
- and that brings me to Mardi Gras, the last CCR album, it has two great songs Switch Hitcher Hicker and Someday Never Comes, but that's it - it should have been a single. SHH was, but with Stu Cook's Door To Door on the flip. I've read varying accounts did John Fogerty get fed up writing all the songs and doing everything and insist the others contribute. Or did the others demand a share of the writing. John would not sing the others songs. His elder brother Tom (Fogerty) had left acrimoniously. Avoid this album - it is very poor by Creedence standards.
So in order top buy
Green River
Bayou Country
Willy and the Poor Boys
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Pendulum
Cosmo's Factory
---- don't buy --
Mardi Gras
John Fogerty has released some great and highly underrated solo albums too: Centrefield and Blue Moon Swamp are my favourite two. Avoid Eye of the Zombie even JF does and I don't like the Blue Ridge Rangers album.
HTH Rotf
So if you want an absolute treat - a feast of wonderfully recorded Creedence hits then I'd recommended the DVD by John Forgerty called The Long Way Home. This is an immaculately recorded live concert.
For original Creedence albums then if you can track down the 45 r.p.m vinyl editions then you are in for a treat, but the vinyl copies I have from the late 60s and early 70s are excellent too. The CD re-mastering is not special IMHO, but the CDs are not bad by any means.
Musically, I'd have to start with Green River
This is one of the greatest rock albums ever made and contains two multi-million selling singles: the title track and Bad Moon Rising. These guys knew how to play and they just went in to the studio and laid it down. They could play it note perfect live. The power of the songs is unquestionable as is Fogerty's strong vocals.
Almost as good is the previous album Bayou Country
Of course, it contains Proud Mary, the Creedence song everybody knows. And I just love the opening lines of Born On The Bayou -
When I Was Just A Little Boy
I stared into my daddy's knee
My father said son don't let the man get you
Do what he's done to me
'Cos the get ya
Next is the other essential CCR album Willy And The Poor Boys with Down On The Corner, Fortunate Son and one the best tracks they ever did Effigy - (if you know Television's Marquee Moon then surely those guys listened to Effigy over and over before doing it - I think TV admitted as much).
This is a charming and immensely likeable recording from a group who were together and at the pinnacle of their success and prowess.
The albums I've recommended are the second, third and fourth.
If you want to go further than the first self titled album is great too - a few cover versions, but they work and sound just like part of the whole work. Pendulum is another fine album, but shows CCR falling apart in places. This is so obviously a John Fogerty album with the others playing bit parts. John plays Organ (Born To Move) and Sax on several tracks. There are some great songs on Pendulum and the hits are Hey Tonight and Have You Ever Seen The Rain. It's a quality record.
The other two from the CCR catalogue are the commendable Cosmo's Factory - some great moments on this Up Around The Bend, Travelling Band, Who'll Stop The Rain, Ramble Tamble and Run Through The Jungle, but a rather tedious rendition of Heard It Through The Grapevine, which is a well known OK non-CCR song that they drag out. I'm not keen on the other covers that fill out the album, but the John Fogerty originals are enough to make me enjoy Cosmo's.
A note on Run Through The Jungle - John Fogerty assigned the copyright for this song to Fantasy Records. Later, in his solo career, he wrote "Old Man Down the Road" that was distributed by Warner Brothers. Fantasy claimed it was derived from "Jungle." and took him to court as he had plagiarised his own song. The case was thrown out.
- and that brings me to Mardi Gras, the last CCR album, it has two great songs Switch Hitcher Hicker and Someday Never Comes, but that's it - it should have been a single. SHH was, but with Stu Cook's Door To Door on the flip. I've read varying accounts did John Fogerty get fed up writing all the songs and doing everything and insist the others contribute. Or did the others demand a share of the writing. John would not sing the others songs. His elder brother Tom (Fogerty) had left acrimoniously. Avoid this album - it is very poor by Creedence standards.
So in order top buy
Green River
Bayou Country
Willy and the Poor Boys
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Pendulum
Cosmo's Factory
---- don't buy --
Mardi Gras
John Fogerty has released some great and highly underrated solo albums too: Centrefield and Blue Moon Swamp are my favourite two. Avoid Eye of the Zombie even JF does and I don't like the Blue Ridge Rangers album.
HTH Rotf
quote:Originally posted by naim_nymph:
Must have CCW? : )
Chronicle - The 20 Greatest Hits (Vol 1)
1. SUSIE Q
2. I PUT A SPELL ON YOU
3. PROUD MARY
4. BAD MOON RISING
5. LODI
6. GREEN RIVER
7. COMMOTION
8. DOWN ON THE CORNER
9. FORTUNATE SON
10. TRAVELIN' BAND
11. WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN
12. UP AROUND THE BEND
13. RUN THOUGH THE JUNGLE
14. LOOKIN' OUT MY BACK DOOR
15. LONG AT I CAN SEE THE LIGHT
16. I HEARD IT ON THE GRAPE VINE
17. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN
18. HEY TONIGHT
19. SWEET HITCH-HIKER
20. SOMEDAY NEVER COMES
Available in UK supermakets for only 5ukp!!
(Also available in 24 Karat Gold disc from amazon at around 21ukp...ish)
[AAD] Fantasy. (Performed from 1965-1972)
I have the gold disc version too, i think this album is brilliant! : )
I've got this compilation. Great band.
quote:Originally posted by JonR:quote:Originally posted by naim_nymph:
Must have CCW? : )
Chronicle - The 20 Greatest Hits (Vol 1)
1. SUSIE Q
2. I PUT A SPELL ON YOU
3. PROUD MARY
4. BAD MOON RISING
5. LODI
6. GREEN RIVER
7. COMMOTION
8. DOWN ON THE CORNER
9. FORTUNATE SON
10. TRAVELIN' BAND
11. WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN
12. UP AROUND THE BEND
13. RUN THOUGH THE JUNGLE
14. LOOKIN' OUT MY BACK DOOR
15. LONG AT I CAN SEE THE LIGHT
16. I HEARD IT ON THE GRAPE VINE
17. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN
18. HEY TONIGHT
19. SWEET HITCH-HIKER
20. SOMEDAY NEVER COMES
Available in UK supermakets for only 5ukp!!
(Also available in 24 Karat Gold disc from amazon at around 21ukp...ish)
[AAD] Fantasy. (Performed from 1965-1972)
I have the gold disc version too, i think this album is brilliant! : )
I've got this compilation. Great band.
That is a mighty fine collection of all their singles plus somebody had the good sense to forget Stu Cook's Door To Door was the flip of Sweet Hitch-Hiker and substitute the fabulous Someday Never Comes. I'd have put Born On The Bayou in for Heard It Through The Grapevine, but you can't have everything.
ROTF
Yes it has the pre-Creedence stuff. Not at home right now but will check for details when I get there. It is 6 CDs, and includes thearly stuff and some live material plus all the studio albums. (response may be delayed as I install my new speakers!
)
Yes it has the pre-Creedence stuff. Not at home right now but will check for details when I get there. It is 6 CDs, and includes thearly stuff and some live material plus all the studio albums. (response may be delayed as I install my new speakers!
)