Fogerty’s Revenge
John Fogerty is an a**hole. No question. However bitter you may be with your former bandmates, it takes a special kind of mean to get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and then go perform your band’s hits at the ceremony with the house band as your former bandmates stand on the wings and look on. You figure you could mend fences at least for one night in order to honor your collective accomplishments. Nope.
Of course, rock and roll history is littered with bitter band break-ups or epic internal battles. The Band, The Kinks, Oasis, Beatles, Rolling Stones…you name the important band and they at the very least had periods of intense and bitter infighting. But John Fogerty’s disputes with his former bandmates in Creedence Clearwater Revival (and former record label) are really something special. Once older brother Tom Fogerty finally left the band in disgust in 1971, he remarked to an interviewer that CCR would never find a replacement because nobody existed who “could endure being in Creedence.”
John Fogerty’s word was law. You can see things somewhat from Fogerty’s perspective, though. CCR was one of the most successful rock bands of the late 1960’s. Their formula worked. John Fogerty wrote all of their original material, sang lead on everything, and played lead guitar. You cannot argue that CCR was John Fogerty’s band. But you also cannot dispute that the entire band had a certain unique chemistry, the rhythm section of Stu Cool on bass and Doug Clifford on drums had one of the deepest pockets in rock. It was that rhythm section, with Tom on rhythm guitar, that created that swampy world inhabited by John Fogerty’s cross-tie walkers and lodi musicians.
Tom, Stu and Doug had been demanding more say in CCR’s musical and business decisions for years. So in 1972, as the now trio prepared what was to be their final studio album, John Fogerty suddenly granted Stu and Doug their wish. Be careful what you wish for. Fogerty stunned his bandmates by telling them that CCR would now be a true democracy. Each member would contribute an equal number of songs, each member would sing on their own songs, and Fogerty would only play rhythm guitar, not lead, on his bandmates’s songs. Stu and Doug protested that this was not exactly what they were asking for, but Fogerty told them CCR would function in this way or he would quit. Hence, we have the notorious Mardi Gras (aka “Fogerty’s Revenge”) as CCR’s swansong. This is a pretty horrible album, which was exactly John Fogerty’s intent. A very public “f*ck you” to his bandmates. John’s contributions are pretty great (as expected), but his bandmates struggle mightily, and to John’s delight, fail.
But take Mardi Gras out of the equation, and CCR had a remarkable run in their four year existence as a popular band (they had been together since high school, but their seven records were recorded and released incredibly only over a four year period). As the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame entry for them states, they were “both progressive and anachronistic at the same time.” Their swampy rock and roll evoked such authentic images of a mysterious and haunted South, even though they were actually from San Francisco. John Fogerty was writing a remarkable string of tight, concise AM radio hits that sounded modern yet also clearly referenced an older and purer rock and roll during a time when most of the “important” bands were considerably more FM in their approach. No psychedelia, no flower power, no excess (other than the occasional jam that went on a little too long). I truly believe, and many artists such as Bruce Springsteen will back me up on this, that John Fogerty is one of the great American songwriters. While CCR was not cool amongst their peers in the late 60’s, their music has aged and stood the test of time much better. So Fogerty has the last laugh there too. And while you can throw aside most war protest tunes as relics of the era, CCR’s “Fortunate Son” still rings true and is as savage a protest today as it was in 1969.
What To Listen To:
What CCR accomplished in a four year period is simply incredible. Within the year 1969 alone, they released three (!) albums, one that is great, and two that are stone cold classics. The fact is that John Fogerty wrote very few bad (or even mediocre) songs. All of their records (save Mardi Gras) are worth having, but if you want the best of the best, go with the middle three. Those are the classics. Green River, Willy and Poor Boys and Cosmo’s Factory are all three brilliant rock records brimming with swampy, Southern Americana. If you want to go to the next step down from there, Bayou Country has some of their best songs but also some filler, and Pendulum is their most experimental record, and the experiments are hit and miss (but more hit). CCR is well represented on a good compilation, and they have many. But you need go no further than Chronicle and its companion, Chronicle, vol. 2. Chronicle is one of the greatest compilations ever released by anybody. 20 of CCR’s biggest radio hits. If some Martian landed on earth and wanted to learn about great American rock and roll, I would hand him a copy of Chronicle. Chronicle, vol. 2 presents 20 deeper album cuts that prove as strong as the hits, and is flawed only because it omits “Bootleg.” A note for CCR fans: if you are like me and bought the CDs many years ago, they have since been remastered. While many remaster projects can be skipped, CCR’s remastering job is astounding. You will discover so much more in these remasters. And they are available for download on iTunes for about 6 bucks a piece, so there is no excuse.
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