CCR: An appreciation

Creedence Clearwater Revival is one of those bands that everyone acknowledges as great, but that few people think to rank among the best of their era. But John Fogerty’s achievement with the band — and CCR only exists with Fogerty as front man — is one of the most singular of any American musician. As I said in a tweet last week, Creedence Clearwater Revival might be the most American of bands.

On six albums across about five-plus years, Fogerty and his band provided us with a tour of American music — moving from country and folk to swamp blues, all of it built atop a strong rhythm section, Fogerty’s screaming guitar and one of the most recognizable vocal styles in rock ‘n’ roll.

Two things stand out, though, which may explain CCR’s oddly ambivalent place in the rock pantheon. First, Fogerty (usually) eschewed the typical late-’60s excess in his songwriting. Aside from a handful of guitar-driven classics (“Heard It Through The Grapevine,” “Suzy Q”), Fogerty mastered the three-minute pop song and applied this tightly structured approach across what we now call the Americana genre. He could have a light touch — “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” — or full of pathos –“(Wish I Could) Hideaway.” He could go country (“Lodi”), rage politically (“Fortunate Son”) and play some R&B (“Born to Move”).

Something else struck me as I relistened (and relistened and relistened) to the CCR catalogue: the cover songs. Fogerty and band were recording at a time when playing others’ music was still an acceptable practice in rock — as it has remained in the other genres — and each album features CCR remaking early rock and blues in their own image. What is key, though, is that the cover impulse is reciprocal — Ike and Tina’s driving version of “Proud Mary” is the obvious example, but it is much more extensive than that. CCR may tear through “The Night Time is the Right Time,” but punk stalwarts like Richard Hell and the Voidoids doing a masterful version of “Walking on Water,” one of Fogerty’s lesser-known classics. Or The Gun Club doing a punked-up “Run Through the Jungle.”

No one denies the greatness of CCR (and if they do, they probably know very little about rock ‘n’ roll), but CCR does tend to get lost in the shuffle. For my money, they are every bit as good a band as the era produced. If you need a reminder, get your car, rolled down the windows and blast Green River from the speakers.

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