Rock and roll at it’s smoky, swampy best

Not quite a one hit wonder but with only a career spanning 1968 to 1971, Creedence Clearwater Revival is still one of the great rock and roll bands. The sandpaper high lead of John Fogerty is famous. His simple, building guitar leads show how real guitar playing can beat pyrotechnics.

Along with his brother Tom Fogerty (rhythm and backup vocals), Doug Clifford (drums) and Stu Cook (bass) they had a brief but important career. Their hits like “Suzie Q”, “Green River”, “Proud Mary”, and “Who’ll Stop the Rain” are still getting heavy air play today.

The rhythm section of CCR, which John Fogerty discounted as unimaginative, was one of the most solid harking back to 1950’s Chess house bands. Without that rhythm section, John Fogerty’s simplistic, long and mesmerizing lead breaks would have died.

CCR broke up over internal bickering and a loss of their muse in 1972 – still one of the best rock bands of all time. As usual, Fantasy their label cheated them out of their royalties and the copyrights on their songs. See Wikipedia and Creedence Clearwater Revival and Creedence Clearwater Revival Store on Amazon.com.