There are two songs from their previous incarnation as The Golliwogs. “Porterville,” the first CCR single and coincidentally the last single by the Golliwogs, with its jangly guitar and background vocals sounds like The Byrds and The Beatles circa 1965. “Walk On The Water” is a remake of “Walking On The Water.” Similar to “Gloomy,” it finds the band again playing with studio effects to augment the song.
The 40th anniversary edition of Creedence Clearwater Revival features four bonus tracks, two from the studio and two live. “Call It Pretending” was the B-side of “Porterville.” It has much more of a Motown R&B sound. A cover of Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me” was recorded during their first studio date and would be rerecorded for Cosmo’s Factory. The two live tracks, “ Ninety-Nine And a Half” and “Susie Q,” are taken from a 3/14/69 performance at the Fillmore in San Francisco, which was recorded for radio station KSAN. “Susie Q” gets extended over eleven minutes. The extra time allows John to stretch out on his guitar, venturing into ragged and rugged terrain one usually finds Neil Young. The band, particularly Clifford’s drums, keeps an intense rhythm going. The audience voices their approval at the conclusion.
Ben Fong-Torres provides new liner notes reminiscing about the album and the band. The back of the album is recreated, but the white words on the black and white photo are hard to make out, but I am pretty sure Ralph J. Gleason must have had good things to say about the band and its debut. I know I do.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
you know, i really have to check out one of their early records. back in the day, they were all over the place on the radio, but everybody usually had the greatest hits records (me included).
2 - El Bicho
first, stop attacking me.
second, i am very impressed with many of the deep cuts throughout. if people take a chance and move past their "Chronicle" cd, it could very well lead to a greater appreciation of the band than they already have. very few artists can match the consistent quality of these six albums cranked out over three years. CCR have moved up a few pegs on my greatest all-time list.
3 - Josh Hathaway
I have the Fantasy Fogerty/CCR combo compilation which I quite like, but I've never had any of their actual albums. Good work, El B.