Recommendations of the Editorial team
The 100 best musicians: Croedence Clearwater Revival – Essay by Stephen Malkmus
My parents had exactly nine Vinyl albums: the red and the blue Beatles album, the Carpenters, Neil Diamond, Elton John, “Endless Summer” by the Beach Boys, Jim Croce, Gordon Lightfoot and … “Creedence Gold”. The album from Creedence Clearwater Revival was the only one who was interested. It had the most boring cover that the world had ever seen, but it was later in the best company in addition to Devo, Kiss, the Yardbirds, early Stones albums, the soundtrack “The Decline of the Western Civilization” and “Fresh Food for Rotting Vegetable” by Dead Kennedys. At that time I only heard “Suzie Q” and “Born on the Bayou” and only learned later, also appreciated the rest of the album.
All songs are great. There are swamp-boogie such as “Green River” and “Born on the Bayou”, impressive power eruptions (“Fortunate Son” and “Sinister Purpose”), Pop (“Have You Ever Seen the Rain”) and soul numbers such as “Long as I can see the Light”.
They are the songs that are always the focus-and not the rock star bullshit, which was rampant at the time
John Fogerty had an inimitable voice. He kept going to the border with her – and won. The rhythm group is extreme: if you try to replay these things, you will quickly notice that the boys could march.
The albums of Creedence Clearwater Revival all have their own charisma: they are mostly live in live, with just a few overdubs, and sound as if a band like Booker T. and the MGS from Memphis have been pulled to the west coast to get a shot of Youth Culture. But it is the songs that are always the focus-and not the rock star bullshit that was rampant at the time. And Creedence Clearwater Revival also had no shyness to create atmospheric moods.