Blew the place away at Jazzworld stage on a wet muddy evening!

the greatest song ever about a band on the road?

Clocked you!

here we go

and set Sheev off again.

...Just how much better is your life made by the existence of Creedence? Well, in my case lots!

Back in 69 as a schoolboy I heard 'Proud Mary'on the radio for the first time and it was, as they say, love at first listen. So I raided the piggy bank and bought my first ever proper grown-up LP - 'Bayou Country' - for what seemed to be a vast sum at the time, of 38/6d. It was, and still is, one of my all time favourite albums. Not long after this 'Green River' came out and I went to see them twice at the Albert Hall. the first time supported by Quintessence (that was a strange pairing! - and I also have a hazy memory of seeing John Peel there as well), the second time supported by Tony Joe White. I bought everything they ever made and played it to death. Just three short years later their last album came out and sadly, Creedence were no more.

So, were my schoolmates impressed by my musical taste and foresight? Were they heck! In fact much flak and mickey-taking came my way as a result of my passion for CCR, along with my inability to appreciate the finer points of twiddly prog bands such as the Nice.

CCR are still played regularly up here in Cumbria and the local sheep can often be seen choogling along. Despite the many other fine bands that I have heard over the intervening years, they still sound as fresh,exciting and relevant to me now, as they did to that pimply adolescent over four decades ago.

Like you I've only ever owned chronicle,but I downloaded the first 5 Creedence albums from emusic last month - five albums for a grand total of around 10 of your European Euros. A bargain I reckon. I haven't listened yet but your post will inspire me to try and make some space on the ipod tonight and see if I can fit them all on. Looking forward to it.

from around that era that just doesn't date at all. One of the reasons I love 'em.

I saw them at the Albert Hall in nineteen mutter mutter.

First recollection was early teens at a holiday camp - possibly Butlins Minehead - early seventies. Jukebox had lookin out my back door on. I played it over and over again.
Jump forward to early eighties and the release of Fogarty's Centrefield. That album got absolutely played to death on my car stereo. For me Creedence and Fogarty have been at least as influential as Bob Dylan, The Stones and the Beatles. I would put them up there at the top of the tree.

I inherited a love for CCR from my Dad: he had Cosmo's Factory and Pendulum and Chronicle vol. 1. I think my favourite CCR moment is the guitar break between ca. 1:14-1:30 in Green River...

It's not fashionable to say it, but I prefer this one:

if conventional wisdom is correct his insistence on Creedence not having a manager condemned them to one of the worst record deals in history, and his intransigence eventually led to his brother leaving and then the break-up of the group.
But then I suppose if he had the business nous of Mick Jagger we'd be subjected to the sight of CCR dragging their battered old bodies around the world's enormodomes and tainting their glorious past.

Green River and Suzie Q but their quality control was of a high order indeed. The latter track is actually a pretty straight cover of Dale Hawkins' minor hit from the late 50s, which I only know about as he died recently. So that's where the delta chooglin' comes from.

The story that the band eventually wound up suing Fogerty for failing to write Fogerty-typical material is, I think, one of the tawdrier episodes in rock history.

In terms of no-nonsense, fuss-free, authentic rock'n'roll though, bloody great band, weren't they?

...is that he's spent the last 35 years making an honourable effort to make music that's as invigorating and special as those CCR sides and largely failing. He kept the faith with the music that made him but it doesn't appear to have kept the faith with him.

...to being a little sniffy about CCR back in the day, declaring them to be somewhat simplistic and unadventurous alongside the likes of my beloved Hendrix and Cream.

Arriving as they did at the height of psych rock, their checked shirt and backwoods image didn't tick any of the right boxes at the time.

In fact I think it was their vinyl quilted amplifiers that put me off as much as anything else (huge banks of Marshalls were de rigueur back then).

However, I later saw the error of such snobbery and was eventually won over by the timeless genius of John Fogerty.

This is my fave:

that I decided to trawl back through posts I hadn't spotted.

Lucas, I owe you a big vote of thanks. I've just downloaded the Creedence and am listening to it - LOUD - as I type.

Whoo-hoo! (As Homer would say.) (Oh, the benefits of an education in the classics...)

I even went so far as to make Ramble Tamble a ringtone on my phone.

Glad to spread the euphoria.

...what it was that finally converted me to CCR. Around 1983 I was watching Twilight Zone: The Movie on one of the new-fangled HiFi VCRs with great sound, when Midnight Special came on (Dan Aykroyd is playing it on a cassette in his car, until the tape breaks).

It sounded absolutely huge and atmospheric as a backdrop to the horror film and I was so taken with it that I went back and listened to the entire CCR catalogue with new ears.

... and thanks to my uncle, I could sing the chorus of Proud Mary before I could sing any nursery rhyme. They've stayed with me ever since.

I couldn't find a decent clip of Someday Never Comes, so I thought I'd share this. If you look carefully, you'll see CCR watching Booker T & The MGs from the side of the stage. Two of my fave bands, one of my fave songs.

Great great band - and so many superb songs as well as the big hits - 'Lodi', 'Someday Never Comes, 'Bootleg', etc etc. And he has kept on as high a standard of work since his heyday as pretty much anyone of his generation. Apart from 'Eye of the Zombie' and 'Deja Vu' (title track apart) any of his solo albums are certainly worth the admission and include songs as good as any of the Creedence classics.

Fogerty is clearly not the easiest individual - there is something of the Macca control freakery about him I suspect, but it is hard to think of anyone else in American music with as strong a combination of singer, guitarist, producer and song writer in one individual