Probably do to its short length, Green River offers the most bonus tracks of the re-issues. Two unfinished songs feature only the music. “Broken Spoke Shuffle” has serious country western twang. “Glory Be” has a British Invasion sound and Stu standouts on bass like never before, offering up some funky lines that make you wish he had been allowed to do this more often.
The three live tracks are from the band’s final concert swing through Europe as a trio in 1971. “Bad Moon Rising” from Berlin, Germany is played in their typical “slightly faster live” pace. John’s vocals are mic’d well, but his guitar sounds out of tune and over amplified so you can’t make anything else out but the drums. In this performance, some of the joy is missing and is replaced with trepidation.
The melding of “Green River/ Suzie Q” shows how close the music. In fact, the transition is seamless. The audio quality is much better in its presentation of the whole band, likely due to this performance being recorded for but cut from Live in Europe.
While the audio quality of “Lodi” from Hamburg, Germany doesn’t sound good, the bad recording actually adds to the song. The poor-sounding performance helps to exemplify why the narrator is stuck in Lodi, and sounds like an AM radio station having trouble picking up a signal.
Creedence Clearwater Revival didn’t rest on their laurels as they toured, including joining the world at Woodstock, and released Willie and the Poor Boys this same year in November.
Article comments
1 - Guy Michaud
Bad Moon Rising was about Richard Nixon's rise to power - last I heard anyway.
2 - El Bicho
Guy, there are some people who saw no difference in Nixon's rise to power and the end of the world. That's the beauty of art and metaphors.