What are you listening to? Part II (The Revengening)

[Shiranu]

Weirdly upbeat for how angry the lyrics are.

[Cassia]

Weirdly upbeat for how angry the lyrics are.

Yep, it's a pleasant 4-chords but why the 25M views, LOL?

[Shiranu]

Yep, it's a pleasant 4-chords but why the 25M views, LOL?

I didn't even see the views, I woulda guessed at most like 25,000-100,000 - I have no clue *shrug*.

[the_antithesis]

Holy crap!

[Shiranu]

That's surprisingly viby.

-----

Been in an angry punk rock mood lately; can't believe this is the stuff I was listening to as a pre-teen... explains a lot in hindsight. I was just too young to be involved in the real scene, but too "old" to fit in; think they made a movie or two about that...

Not punk, but interesting and angry in the same vein.

[Unbeliever]

I just finished listening to Jethro Tull's Aqualung (I'm listening to all my favorite music), which I've heard many times, but I never realized that they had a full orchestra! I was blown away! 🤯

[Mr.Obvious]

We had the closing weekend of a play I directed.
This was the closing song.

My favorite cover of this classic, by far.

[the_antithesis]

I just finished listening to Jethro Tull's Aqualung (I'm listening to all my favorite music), which I've heard many times, but I never realized that they had a full orchestra! I was blown away! 🤯

Looked up on the wiki and they didn't. No orchestra is mentioned in the personnel. But, that song has been re-recorded numerous times, so there is a orchestra version with Ian Anderson.

[Shiranu]

I just finished listening to Jethro Tull's Aqualung (I'm listening to all my favorite music), which I've heard many times, but I never realized that they had a full orchestra! I was blown away! 🤯

That is pretty cool actually.

[Shiranu]

[Cassia]

I have a mini Korg Bluetooth keyboard so now I can practically lounge around on the couch with a laptap and compose tunes.

[Hydra009]

No relation to current events.  Deep current events.

[Shiranu]

[the_antithesis]

So,...

Creedence Clearwater Revival.

I have a sad tendency to do this. I'll buy an artist's entire catalog. Probably why I focus on artists with small discographies (Cream- four albums, Jimi Hendrix- four maybe five albums, Small faces- four albums) I'm not picking up all of They Might Be Giants's twenty-fucking-three studio albums anytime soon, is all I'm saying. Like watching Game of Thrones (or reading Song of Fire and Ice), feels too much like work.

Creedence had seven studio albums that were released within a four year period, which is kind of incredible. More incredible is at one point in that brief career, they were the biggest band in the world, thanks to the Beatles breaking up, but still... 

What we're seeing is the white-hot creative streak of one young man, John Fogerty. Everything CCR produced that wasn't a cover was written by him, until the seventh album, which we'll get to. His drive to write and to produce the best sound led to a riff that would break up the band early on. After being a one hit wonder with the cover "Suzie Q," he re-recorded the backing vocals himself on "Proud Mary" which pissed off the others.

So, it's an interesting story of a meteoric rise and fall and they're still suing each other to this day. So, after several videos on the topic came across my plate, I broke down and bought all seven albums, including the seventh, which we'll get to. So, should have I just bought a greatest hits album?

One thing I will say, overall, is the discography is listenable. There is a drop in quality about halfway through the discography, but I can't see myself hitting skip unless I'm in a mood. The first three albums, the self-titled debut, Bayou Country and Green River are all consistent and worth picking up if you're into the CCR sound. I did find a hidden gem here in the song "Graveyard Train," which has a different vibe than their radio hits.

The fourth album Willy and the Poor Boys is where John may have been losing some of his creative spark. It is the closest thing to a concept album CCR ever touched, like it was an album for this fictitious(?) troupe of street musicians. It contains two instrumental tracks which, while I'm not a fan of instrumentals, I would characterize as noodling to fill time. But, this is the album with "Fortunate Son" on it. Fun fact: "Fortunate Son" was originally the B-side to "Down On the Corner"

The next two albums, Cosmo's Factory and Pendulum, are unremarkable in that they are just decent CCR albums. Each has their share of hits, but the excitement or maybe freshness of the first three albums is muted or gone. It's worth noting that both albums have hit songs on them about the band breaking up with rain as a metaphor for the internal conflict tearing them apart. "Who'll Stop The Rain?" and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

Always a bad sign when the only material an artist can work on is about how their career is getting shitty. Which brings us to the seventh album, the infamous Mardi Gras. It's worth noting that all these albums were relatively recent releases in paper cases,... but not Mardi Gras. This is the album that ended Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Tom Fogerty, John's brother, left the band before this album was made because he was jealous of his little brother and wanted a solo career. He died in 1990. He left CCR in 1971 and then died in 1990 tell you everything about Tom Fogerty's solo career.

The writing and singing duties on Mardis Gras were split between all three remaining members, each contributing three songs and one cover of "Hello, Mary Lou" for a total of ten. It's not the dumpster fire I was expecting. John didn't put much effort into it because he just wanted it over with and the other two guys didn't have much to offer.

Drummer Doug Clifford's songs are largely forgettable, but not exactly bad. He probably could have made it as a country singer if he'd gone to Nashville after CCR.

Bassist Stu Cook, however, is bad. Terrible voice not helped by two of his three songs being about what an asshole John had been making the band successful and shit. What an ingrate.

John's efforts are also lame except the track "Someday Never Comes" which could have been better if John have given it the effort it deserved.

So, there's a reason the boxed set only contained the first six albums.

I enjoyed this journey, and this is mostly just first impressions. I imagine I'll delete most of Mardi Gras off my phone eventually. Worth a look if you're a fan, although most should stick to a greatest hits album. Which is true of most every artist.

[Mike Cl]

Hands down, the CCR was my worst concert of all time!!  Saw them in Hawaii in the convention center.  They played 45 min. and then left the stage.  This was during the time Lodi was their smash hit--they did not return to the stage nor did they play Lodi at any time.  People were screaming for Lodi and they were long gone!  At least The Steve Miller Band was a great lead band.  But CCR is still one of my all time fav bands.  Never went to another concert of theirs, tho.