Music Review: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River (40th Anniversary Edition)

In honor of the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Fantasy Records is releasing the six studio albums of the band as a quartet. No word yet of their final album, Mardi Gras, which found lead guitarist John Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford as a trio after rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty quit.

John must have been on fire creatively because in March 1969, weeks after Bayou Country, they released “Bad Moon Rising” with “Lodi” on the flipside, two CCR classics with the former arguably being their definitive and most well-known song. In August of that same year, Green River was released. If Bayou County is where they found their distinctive sound, Green River is where they perfected it. The only flaw is its length, coming in at 28-plus minutes, but it’s a fair trade off for such a quick turnaround of such strong material.

A surefire way to get yourself back to the bayou is to travel down “Green River.” John’s swamp boogie guitar on the title track that opens the album lets you know your heading in the right direction to get “back down where cool water flows, yeah.” The reason the narrator needs to “remember things I love” is because many of the songs on the album are filled with gloom and doom and in his youth he was given sage advice from Old Cody Jr. that “if you get lost come on home to green river.”

One reason to feel lost is the “Commotion” of life. The band rips through this one at an up-tempo pace, reflecting the hectic nature of life as people are “hurryin' to get” where there going. However, a commotion can be raised by someone not even moving, such as those who “keep a-talkin', they don't say a word,” yet that doesn’t stop them as they “Jaw, jaw, jaw, jaw, jaw,” including those in the White House, one of John’s first songwriting slights at those in charge.

Article Author: El Bicho

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