Creedence's fourth album, Willie And The Poor Boys, came just a few months later. On its surface, Willie represented a return to the band's more bluesy roots with Creedence adopting the alter-ego of the band singing "Down On The Corner", and scoring yet another hit in the process. Most of this record is steeped deeper than ever in the music of the deep south, as titles like "Cotton Fields" and "Poorboy Shuffle," and a very down home sounding cover of "Midnight Special" certainly bear witness.
But Fogerty's songwriting also continued its political left turn, with his most blantantly antiwar song yet in "Fortunate Son." Of the six Creedence albums, Willie And The Poor Boys is their most obvious homage to the southern-based musical traditions it was by now so obvious that the band had adopted as their own.
Taking a break (at least by the prolific standard they had established), Creedence didn't return until nine months later with 1970's Cosmo's Factory. The band's fifth album in about two years, it would also prove to be their biggest, and some would say, their best.
The album's centerpiece is a stunning, eleven minute plus reinvention of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," that features several extended guitar solos where Fogerty stretches out like he hadn't done since way back on Bayou Country roughly two years prior.
The album was also deeper than ever in singles, including the rock and roll rave-ups "Travelin' Band," and "Up Around The Bend," as well as more of Fogerty's emerging politically themed songs in "Who'll Stop The Rain," "Run Through The Jungle," and "Long As I Can See The Light." Cut for cut, Cosmo's Factory is almost a greatest hits record unto itself.
Creedence's sixth record before splintering apart when John Fogerty's brother Tom left the group (triggering a sibling feud that continued right on up to his death), Pendulum is also the group's most often dismissed record. This is probably due more to the fact that Cosmo's Factory was such a hard act to follow than anything else. Repeated listens reveal that Pendulum deserves better.
Unlike Cosmo's track listing of wall to wall hits, Pendulum contained "only" two singles. Where "Hey Tonight" was a countrified rocker recalling earlier singles like "Down On The Corner," "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" sounds almost like the answer to "Who'll Stop The Rain." It also remains one of Fogerty's best pop songs, with its hopeful lyrics of optimism providing an escapist's outlook even as the world situation was growing more and more chaotic.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
What a blast from the past! I remember Creedence with fondness, too. I learned to play guitar by them. Their songs were the easiest to play, all nice three-chord progressions that could be spiced up by even a dummy like me with just a twist of the wrist.
I'm going to have to get this one!