onurblues: Creedence Clearwater Revival - 1969 Live At Woodstock (2019, Remastered) / 1970 The Concert (2009, 40th Anniversary Remastered Ed.) + 1969 Willy And The Poor Boys (2008, 40th Anniversary Expanded Ed.)

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Rockin'  the bayou

The best word to describe CCR is probably “simplicity”. But simple in no way means primary or awkward. From the beginning their music was simple compared to the “acid rock” of some psychedelic bands at the same period often tortuously artificial, due to their strong attraction to artificial paradises precisely. Their songs were generally short and extremely punchy, naturally rooted in vintage blues, rock'n'roll and R'n'B, but revisited in the unique CCR way by leader John Fogerty. “Kick-ass” rock'n'roll, as Peter Fonda once described it when introducing the band at a Vietnam tribute concert.

Fogerty had a rare talent for writing lyrics rhythmically sticking to his apparently simple but efficient tunes (or re-arranging old classics) with an explosive cocktail of vintage sound, blazing beat and unmistakable killer vibrato guitar riffs. A CCR song can be recognized from the very first notes, a privilege only obtained by great artists. Few in rock music have achieved such feat : Dylan, the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zeppelin, Santana, Neil Young, JJ Cale… Right now, I can't think of any more. Fogerty distinctive powerful and soulful scorching voice puts him at the same level as a Robert Plant, a Joe Cocker or a Tina Turner…

Most people think CCR songs are easy to play. No, no, no Sir ! They “look” easy, which is different. To make something difficult look easy is again a marker of great artistry. What's also striking when listening to these two live albums is the band incredible ability to sound in concert almost exactly like they do on record. Or maybe, it's rather the contrary.

My ambition here is not to go through another biographical presentation of the band (1) but a few anecdotes concerning these two lives are worth digging a bit. CCR were the first artists contacted by the Woodstock festival promoters and consequently the first to sign for it. They were not very gratefully rewarded though : they jumped up on stage in the middle in the night of August 17, 1969, after the Grateful Dead show was delayed and spoiled by technical problems.

According to Fogerty, when CCR got up on stage most of the festival-goers had been put to sleep by the poor performance of the Dead and by dope ! Still they delivered a superb concert. But vexed by this mishap which led, in their opinion, to a mediocre performance, they resentfully refused to be featured on the original versions of both the movie and the triple soundtrack album released in 1970. Nor were they featured on the double album “Woodstock 2” released in 1971. The real reason was rather due to a failure of the financial negotiations between their label, Fantasy Records, and Cotillion that was publishing the soundtrack. It's only in 1994, when Atlantic Records released a four-CD remastered set that five CCR songs from their performance were included.

As for The Concert, it was originally released in 1980 as The Royal Albert Hall Concert until the label discovered a few months later that the show had not been recorded in the famous London concert venue at all, but actually at the Oakland Coliseum in California on January 31, 1970 ! It was reissued in 1981 as The Concert.

The Golden Triangle of blues

CCR fascination for the Golden Triangle of blues (South Tennessee, East Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi) is a constant of their work. Their Southern sound marked by Fogerty's distinctive use of vibrato has been baptized “bayou rock” (to distinguish it from “swamp rock”) and is largely present on both albums through their iconic opening songs “Born On The Bayou” and “Green River”, and through famous titles like “Bootleg” (Woodstock), “Commotion”, “Tombstone Shadow” (The Concert), “Bad Moon Rising”, “Proud Mary”, “The Midnight Special” (a magnificent rework of the Lead Belly's traditional - The Concert), “Down On The Corner” (The Concert)...

John Fogerty

Their long versions of “Keep On Chooglin'” (on both albums) and “Suzie Q” (Woodstock), an old rock'n'roll totally revisited which made them instantly worldwide famous in 1968, are their only concession to near-psychedelia, with Fogerty slipping into a guitar-slinger costume and messing around with the audio feedback (Larsen effect) during his extended guitar solos, a technique largely popularized by Hendrix.

The band also offers scorching renditions of R'n'B numbers like “Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won't Do)” (Woodstock), and especially of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' “I Put A Spell On You” (Woodstock) and “The Night Time Is The Right Time”, with Fogerty's incredible voice and his blazing guitar and harmonica, of country-flavored songs like “Don't Look Now” and “Who'll Stop The Rain” (both on The Concert), transformed into the unmistakable CCR style, or of barn-burning rock'n'roll like “Travelin' Band” (The Concert).

CCR were not openly very engaged politically but many of their songs, like “Fortunate Son” (The Concert), were adopted as anti-war anthems by the GIs fighting in Vietnam. Woodstock was precisely an anti-war event.

If John Fogerty is about half the band by himself, his fellow members shouldn't be run down : Stu Cook and Doug Clifford are not flamboyant but dreadfully efficient in their flawless rhythmic output, and Tom Fogerty, John's elder brother, supplies an unbreakable boogie on rhythm guitar.

◄ Tom Fogerty

The Woodstock concert, superbly recorded and remastered (and ripped by our Flac wizard friend BDV), and The 1970 Concert are both fascinating blues-rock moments. Personally they took me back to my mid-late teens in high school when we had set a borrow-and-loan exchange system during recesses to be able to listen to the latest rock albums. CCR was always much on demand. Keep on Chooglin' ! ■

(1) For BD younger followers who would not be too familiar with this legendary band, Wikipedia will provide essential information. Another site probably deserves a little visit though, especially the History page : https://www.creedence-online.net/history/

Addition : 50 years later, Willy as fresh as ever

This edition of “Willy And The Poor Boys” was issued 40 years after its original release, in November 1969, just a few months after Woodstock. Today, while writing this review, I celebrate half a century during which this album has been a part of my musical life.

Of all CCR albums, this one always was my favorite : it has a particular sound of its own, a roots flavor perceptible from the very first note of “Down On The Corner” and peaking up on such songs as Leadbelly's revisited “Cotton Fields”, the jugband-like “Poorboy Shuffle”, the swampy rolling “Feelin' Blue”, the rockabilly “Don't Look Now” or the superb traditional “Midnight Special” (in competition for me with Buckwheat Zydeco's version), as many vintage-flavored tracks I fell in love with from my first listening back then, a special feeling intact today.

And then there are the swamp rocks “It Came Out Of The Sky” and “Side O' The Road” with its superb guitar sound, closer to the classic CCR style on their previous works. There's also the surprising “Effigy” that closes the original release, with this almost out-of-key repetitive guitar bang.

And finally, there's the never aging “Fortunate Son”, a raging rock written and sung with anger by John Fogerty. When Robert Zemeckis compiled the musical soundtrack that was going to bring back the atmosphere surrounding the “boys” during the Vietnam War in his movie “Forest Gump”, he didn't get mistaken, he chose “Fortunate Son” from CCR. Actually, CCR songs are featured in almost every movie dealing with the Vietnam War, not because they were anti-war (except “Fortunate Son”) but because they symbolize this dark decade of American history.

This 40th Anniversary Edition has been expanded with three additional tracks : live takes of “Fortunate Son”, in Manchester, UK, in 1971, and “It Came Out Of The Sky”, in Berlin the same year, and a raw studio jam version of “Down On The Corner” with Booker T. & The MG's.

Frankly, except maybe for the live version of “Fortunate Son”, they do not bring any extra interest to the 1969 release of this magnificent album. ■

► CCR on YT
► Audio album  - Live in Europe, 1971 : https://youtu.be/R2oDmK8cEZE

Strangely there are not as many interesting videos of CCR as we would've thought and most are not top quality. Fortunately, later, John Fogerty often performed CCR songs. Some of them are listed further below.

■ The five 1969 Woodstock Festival songs finally included in the 1994 four-CD remastered set released by Atlantic Records in 1994, and in the new version of the movie : https://youtu.be/wMO58JWVOBY

■ The January 31, 1970 Oakland Concert, documentary + show : https://youtu.be/uE6u0YZHB14

■ San Francisco, 1970, short documentary : https://youtu.be/NfkyJhbIQpk

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CCR bassist Stu Cook

CCR songs at random

■ “Night Time is the Right Time” : https://youtu.be/QqcUvmWcZq4

■ “Bad Moon Rising” & “Proud Mary”, The Johnny Cash Show,1969 : https://youtu.be/c1T6cadPtUM

■ “Born On The Bayou” : https://youtu.be/Elw0RVAw8uI

CCR drummer Doug Clifford

■ “Keep On Chooglin'” :

→ Olympia, Paris (France), 1970 : https://youtu.be/lhXeinjo8MA

→ from the Oakland Concert, 1970 : https://youtu.be/fkSb_nLQDRw

■ “Tombstone Shadow” : https://youtu.be/mNtlxU5FsiY

■ “Fortunate Son-Commotion

■ "Ramble Tamble" : https://youtu.be/mybxGSznllk

■ I Heard It Through The Grapevine, 1972 : https://youtu.be/RXf40aHwLfU

■ “Feelin' Blue” : https://youtu.be/cDSyBjLm7PE

■ “Pagan Baby” : https://youtu.be/AfdrlAVnF3Y

► John Fogerty (https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnFogerty/videos)

■ “Proud Mary”, Farm Aid benefit concert, 1997 : https://youtu.be/VNLi3tjSDfs

■ Complete concert, Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, CA, 1998 : https://youtu.be/c6rQthKld-g

■ Introduced by Peter Fonda, John Fogerty plays CCR songs for the first time in years at a benefit concert  for Vietnam veterans in 1987: https://youtu.be/A2UknGjCkCI

■ Austin City Limits, TX, 2004 : https://youtu.be/KkMELi075BE
■ Glastonbury Festival, UK, 2007 : https://youtu.be/VxRn1m5jUOM

■ John Fogerty and ZZ Top, “Sharp Dressed Man”, Tulsa, OK, 2013 : https://youtu.be/lAOKwD0gabU
■ "Bad Moon Rising" & "Fortunate Son" at Howard Stern's Birthday Bash, 2014 : https://youtu.be/NdCIa_VXHyE