bayou country

Creedence Clearwater Revival went rolling on the river and contracted swamp fever for this chooglin' electric blues rock hoodoo.  After their eponymous debut, John Fogerty took over the arrangement and production reins for 'Bayou Country' with Hank McGill engineering.  The sessions took place at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California and featured Doug Clifford on drums;Stu Cook on bass guitar; John Fogerty on lead guitar, lead vocals, and harmonica; and Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar and backing vocals.  

John Fogerty reveals:  "I had that burst of inspiration on my mind. And it’s the middle of the night, I’m looking at my blank wall and basically going into another dimension — whatever you do when you’re kind of meditating — and that whole sound, that ringing, the way my amp sounded was takin’ me in there, and right at that moment, I don’t know if I’d written it first on a piece of paper, but it collided in my brain with the phrase, born on the bayou. And I just rolled with it [Laughs] That’s the best thing I can say. I said, 'Well, yeah, that’s what this is gonna be.' And I pulled everything I knew about it, which wasn’t much because I didn’t live there. It was all through media. I loved an old movie called 'Swamp Fever', with Walter Brennan and Dana Andrews, about a revenuer at a company in the swamp that’s gotta catch this guy that’s got an illegal still. That’s Walter Brennan. And Walter Brennan ends up saving the revenuer because he gets bit by a snake. '[Imitates Brennan] You’ve been cottonmouth bit! You’ve been cottonmouth bit!' I wish I could tell you the end of the movie, ‘cause I can’t remember it, but anyway, every other bit of southern bayou information that had entered my imagination from the time I was born, it all sort of collided in that meditation about that song. And I knew that that sound and that story went together. I can’t tell you why. That’s the part that, many, many years later, I would look at people and I’d say, 'Well, do you believe in reincarnation? Maybe that’s it.' ‘Cause I knew that, Lynne. I think I’ve talked for along time about that, but I knew that whatever that feeling was when the narrative collided with the sound, I knew it. I was a kid, and I said, 'This is powerful.' It’s like the first time you’ve been allowed to drink from the holy nectar of the gods, whatever that is. I understood."

Stu Cook says:   "Once you broke through commercially, particularly with the ‘Bayou Country’ album, the press labeled you ‘Swamp Rock’. Even though you come from California, which is hardly noted for its swampy terrain! Well, you know, the media will eventually put a label on you no matter what you do. And they never paid any attention to where we were from. The music sounded like ‘Swamp Rock’ or ‘Louisiana Bayou’ to them and so that label just stuck. I guess we should be happy that we at least have a label, huh?"

'Bayou Country' went to ninety-three in Japan, sixty-two in the UK, thirty-three in Germany, fourteen in Canada, and number seven in the US.  It has been certified double platinum in the US. 





http://www.creedence-online.net/






'Proud Mary' became their most enduring song, beginning a string of number two hits that remain unmatched today.  Creedence Clearwater Revival has had more number two hits without a number one than any other artist.  'Proud Mary' rolled to thirteen in Sweden, eight in the Netherlands and the UK, six in Norway, five in Australia, four in Germany, two in Canada and the US, and number one in Austria.  It is their most covered song.  John Fogerty says:    "I don't know where the germ started. I can kind of remember writing the chords at the beginning of the song. Believe it or not, I was playing around with the famous riff from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. I used to tell people that the song sounds like what it's about. I thought, by the way, that the opening riff sounded just like the wheel at the back of a boat. 'Proud Mary' is not a side-wheeler, it's a stern-wheeler."



Left a good job in the city
Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been

Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of pain down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen

Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

If you come down to the river
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry 'cause you have [if you got] no money
People on the river are happy to give

Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river

Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river






 'Bayou Country' 
full album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXOyMz55Wd4



Born On The Bayou - 0:00
Bootleg - 5:08
Graveyard Train - 8:09
Good Golly Miss Molly - 16:13
Penthouse Pauper - 18:55
Proud Mary - 22:31
Keep On Chooglin' - 25:33