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On the occasion of the release of a new album with new Credece images, John Fogerty looks in the new Rolling-Stone Music now-podcast back to the roots of his band.
New album and political attitude
“I knew that I had done something remarkable,” Fogerty says about his years with Creedence Clearwater Revival. “In a way, I did what the Beatles did – just all alone. I didn’t have two other boys who wrote songs with me.”
For his new album “Legacy: The Croedence Clearwater Revival Years” (VÖ: August 22), Fogerty took up classics such as “Born on the Bayou” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” with his sons Shane and Tyler – instead of the long -separated volume. In the interview, he talks about the beginnings of Creedence, pays some praise and more to his former bandmates.
Fogerty is pleased that his friend Bruce Springsteen publicly commented against Trump, and believes that the president made a tactical mistake that himself avoided Richard Nixon: “I am really proud of Bruce that he stands by his values and is not afraid of expressing them. Nixon would have recognized that the other side would not have any additional attention by name.”
Sharp criticism of AI music
Fogerty cannot do anything with AI-generated music-even if bands like Velvet Sundown try to sound to Creedence. “This is all elevator music,” he says. “This elevator could drive far higher than the Empire State Building, and it would still be elevator music. It is artificial, fake and created for the wrong reasons. There is no real pain, no real experience in it – of course I don’t like that.”
The swampy guitar sound in “Born on the Bayou” was Fogerty’s version of the Tremolos of Pops Staples, guitarist of the Staples Singers. “That was Pops’ very unusual sound,” recalls Fogerty. “The first record I knew from them was probably” Uncloudy da “Y (1956). I used vibrato mixed with Tremolo via a curative amp-that was the killer effect. ”
Recognition for the old CCR chemistry
Despite decades of disputes, Fogerty appreciates the unique chemistry of the original CCR line-up: “These are the four people who have made these records. Something like this did not happen again in music history. These four people are unique. I give them a lot of loan for the feeling in songs like ‘Proud Mary’ or ‘Born on the Bayou’. To have had in your pocket alone. “
In 1969, when Creedence released three classic albums in one year, Fogerty worked out of pure pressure: “I said to myself: Basically I’m now a one-hit wonder,” he recalls after the chart success with “Suzie Q”. “It took us to get here – now you only have five minutes to take the next step, otherwise the headlights will move to Led Zeppelin or someone else. Then it is over if you don’t deliver anything now.”