I remember a night in 1980 walking in downtown Toronto, Ontario. I happened to look in the window of one of the city's really good independent record stores. Normally their window displayed the latest imports from England or efforts by local punk bands, so it came as some surprise to see a copy of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Willy And The Poor Boys featured prominently. One of the staff had stuck a label on the cover reading "The Original Only Band That Mattered", in an obvious challenge to The Clash's promotion of themselves as "The Only Band That Matters".
"Down On The Corner", one of the singles from Willy And The Poor Boys, was one of the first pop songs that stuck in my head as a kid, outside of The Beatles. So although as a good punk I was properly indignant by the slight towards The Clash, I was intrigued enough to later that night dig out my brother's copy of Willy and put it on the turntable. Listening to it for the first time as an adult, I was amazed by what I was hearing. It was rock and roll at its purest. Raw, unrefined, and stripped down to the essentials it was everything that punks claimed to aspire to, but only a few came close to achieving. Listening to Willy And The Poor Boys is to understand what rock and roll is.
It's been forty years since Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) put out their first album, Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968, and in honour of that anniversary Concord Music Group, through their Fantasy Record imprint, the band's original label, have reissued re-mastered version of their first six recordings. Aside from the two already mentioned that includes Bayou Country, Cosmo's Factory, Pendulum, and Green River. ( I have to admit to a little confusion because the Concord site says the reissues are in honour of the band's 40th anniversary but also lists their first album, Creedence Clearwater Revival as being released in 1967 - I guess forty just sounds better than forty-one.)
In spite of the success they had with hit singles like "Bad Moon Rising", "Proud Mary", "Lookin' Out My Backdoor", and "Who'll Stop The Rain", to name only a few, the band started to splinter in 1971 when John Fogerty's brother Tom left the band. They dissolved the next year. The years following the band's break up were nasty to say the least as Tom and John Fogerty spent years in court fighting each other over ownership of CCR's catalogue. It's interesting to note that only John has had a successful solo career while the best others have done is try to cash in on the CCR name by putting together a lame cover band playing the band's hits.
Article comments