cosmo's factory

Creedence Clearwater Revival forged a wond'rous apparition in clouds of mystery to ponder perpetual motion in this ramble tamble travelin' ooby dooby.   After releasing their debut album Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1968, they cranked out three more in 1969 Bayou Country,   Green River , and  Willy and the Poor Boys before returning to Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, California to record 'Cosmo's Factory' with John Fogerty on lead guitar, lead vocals, piano, saxophone, and harmonica;   Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar;   Stu Cook on bass;   and  Doug Clifford on drums.   Russ Gary was the engineer.   

The sessions were produced and arrangered by John Fogerty:   "When I did 'Cosmo’s Factory', in my mind, it was sort of — at the time — a culmination. I was really kind of going to pack it full, thinking that I was then going to turn a corner and go off into a new place. Unfortunately, there was so much tension within the band that the new place wasn’t necessarily happy. (Laughs.) . . . When I look back now, I can sure see how pretty amazing “Cosmo’s Factory” is. There’s at least six charted singles on that album, and if you also want to include “Heard It Through the Grapevine,” that’s seven. I mean that’s kind of like Michael Jackson territory. (Laughs.) But at the time I just sort of took that in stride. That was what we were doing back then...As you probably know, the history of the band — I was a very strong leader, and I had a mountain, a whole roomful of musical ideas. So I was sort of an unstoppable force. Basically the hardest part was just getting the band up to speed musically so they could record and accomplish these songs. And also just to be in sync and on the same page, wanting to do it. As the success and time went on and got greater there was more and more dissension within the band. You mention how other bands are. What happens then is you spend half your time in the political realm, meaning, well, “I don’t know if I want to do that song.” Or, “I want to come up with my own song.” That takes time. There’s a lot of time being consumed in bands where everybody’s having their say, then you have a meeting, you take a vote — you see what I’m getting at. But basically, “Cosmo’s Factory” was really the very end of me being very strong and very pure and very clear in my direction. And after that . . . (laughs) . . . the fine running machine was starting to get a little wobbly. Democracy’s a wonderful thing. But as we all know in America, it’s really hard to manage."

'Cosmo's Factory' reached number ten in Japan; four in Germany; two in the Netherlands; and number one in Australia, Canada, Norway, the UK, and the US.  

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


http://creedence-revisited.com/








"Lookin' Out My Back Door"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVeyC849E54



"Who'll Stop the Rain"  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmrwAW5-5rU



"Travelin' Band"




"Run Through The Jungle"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf_xZVhaAKs




"Up Around the Bend" 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QMdN1y-omg










'Cosmo's Factory' 
full album:



All songs written and composed by J.C. Fogerty, except where noted. 

Side one
1. "Ramble Tamble"   7:09
2. "Before You Accuse Me" (Ellas McDaniel) 3:24
3. "Travelin' Band‡"   2:07
4. "Ooby Dooby" (Wade Moore, Dick Penner) 2:05
5. "Lookin' Out My Back Door"   2:31
6. "Run Through the Jungle†"   3:09
Side two
1. "Up Around the Bend†"   2:40
2. "My Baby Left Me" (Arthur Crudup) 2:17
3. "Who'll Stop the Rain‡"   2:28
4. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong) 11:05
5. "Long as I Can See the Light"   3:33

Note: All tracks recorded June 1970, except for † recorded March 1970 and ‡ recorded late 1969

green river

Creedence Clearwater Revival found success overflowin' with the sinister smould'rin' shadows of these syrupy bad moon barefoot blues.  Following on the commercial breakthrough of their second album 'Bayou Country' and the classic single 'Proud Mary', the band went back into the studio to crank out their next album.  

John Fogerty remembers:  "After Bayou Country, I began to feel I had the freedom or power to do what I wanted. And where I went, starting with “Bad Moon Rising”, was right to my emotional, musical core, which was very resonant of Sun Records. “Green River” was my favourite song from the Creedence era, because it really had the whole Sun Records vibe to me – and the album, too. The barefoot boy with a cane pole down by the river – it seemed to have that feel all over that album. My own personality really came to the fore. When I was 7, 8 years old, I started collecting titles, and “Green River” came from sitting at the counter at the drugstore a block-and-a-half from my house in El Cerrito. They served soft drinks, and behind the counter was a big bottle of Green River, which was a syrup. On the label there was this artist’s rendering of a sunset behind a little creek. I said, “‘Green River’… that’d be a cool song. Someday I should grow up and write it.      “Green River” was a true place. It just seemed very Southern in nature, although it happened to be a place in Northern California. It was where my parents took the family on summer vacation, a two-room cabin. The creek, Putah Creek, was no more than 15 or 20 feet from the back door, and there was a rope hangin’ from the tree. I discovered pollywogs the first time I went underwater. It was quite a strong memory. Here, nearly 60 years later, it’s still quite a strong memory of… I don’t know… discovery, independence."

'Green River' was produced by John Fogerty at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, California and features Doug Clifford on drums;  Stu Cook on bass guitar;  John Fogerty on lead guitar, lead vocals, and arrangements;  and Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. 

'Green River'  became an even bigger hit than 'Bayou Country', going to number forty-six in Japan, twenty in the UK, nineteen in Finland, eleven in Germany, five in Norway, two in Canada, and taking them for the first time to the top of the charts in the US. 

John Fogerty considers:  "Oh yeah, [there have been all sorts of people convinced I was born and raised in Louisiana] even in the old days. I had guys my age that I've met in the Eighties or Nineties who are musicians and folks from there. They go, "Yeah he's up by Lake Charles. No he's down by Thibodaux." And so the myth carried on through the years just because I mentioned so many local or colloquial places in the songs. What really happened is that I used a setting like New Orleans, but I would actually be talking about thing from my own life. Certainly a song like "Green River" – which you may think would fit seamlessly into the Bayou vibe, but it's actually about the Green River, as I named it – it was actually called Putah Creek by Winters, California. It wasn't called Green River, but in my mind I always sort of called it Green River. All those little anecdotes are part of my childhood, those are things that happened to me actually, I just wrote about them and the audience shifted at the time and place."





http://www.johnfogerty.com/

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





'Bad Moon Rising' duplicated the success of 'Proud Mary', going platinum and charting at number ten in the Netherlands; eight in Austria and Germany; five in Canada; four in Belgium; three in Australia, Norway, and Sweden; two in the US; and their only number one single in the UK.  John says:  “Proud Mary” and Bayou Country were in the US Top 10 by February [of 1969], so I knew we needed another single. It was in my mind, at least, to compete with The Beatles.  I had the phrase “Bad Moon Rising” written down in my song-title book. I thought back from that to an old movie I’d seen called The Devil And Daniel Webster. It’s about this man who sells his soul to the devil to have greater rewards here in this life, and one night there was this terrible hurricane, and the man is cowering in his barn. In the morning, he looks over at his neighbour’s yard, and all the corn is just squashed down, and everything’s totally destroyed. And, right at the fence line, where his property is, the corn is standing straight up, peaceful and untouched. That just seemed so spooky, the idea of an epochal force –nature, or the devil, or whatever – that’s gonna get you.   Later, people began to point out, “Hey, John, you’ve got this song about death and doom, but it’s this bouncy little thing.” And I’d go, “I just didn’t worry about that part.” The scariness of the words seemed to be telling enough; the cool music was gonna put it across. When you’re a very tuned-in young person, you’re tied to everything that affects your generation. So I think [that some social commentary] was in there..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Psclfgfhw


I see the bad moon arising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes and lightnin'.
I see those bad times today.

Don't go around tonight,
Well it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.

I hear hurricanes a blowing.
I know the end is coming soon.
I fear rivers over flowing.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

Well don't go around tonight,
Well it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.

Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we're in for nasty weather.
One eye is taken for an eye.

Well don't go around tonight,
Well it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.

Don't come around tonight,
Well it's bound to take your life,
There's a bad moon on the rise.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej5n2oieXYo






The single for 'Green River' was certified gold, charting its way to number nineteen in the UK; ten in Sweden,;eight in Germany; six in Australia; five in Austria, Belgium, and Canada; and number two in the US.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9XmGf40pn4



Well, take me back down where cool water flows, yeah
Let me remember things I love
Stoppin' at the log where catfish bite
Walkin' along the river road at night
Barefoot girls dancin' in the moonlight

I can hear the bullfrog callin' me
Wonder if my rope's still hangin' to the tree
Love to kick my feet way down the shallow water
Shoefly, dragonfly, get back to your mother
Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River
Well

Up at Cody's camp I spent my days, oh
With flat car riders and cross-tie walkers
Old Cody, Junior took me over
Said, "You're gonna find the world is smould'rin'
And if you get lost come on home to Green River"

Well
Come on home






'Green River' 
full album:



Side one
1. "Green River"   2:36
2. "Commotion"   2:44
3. "Tombstone Shadow"   3:39
4. "Wrote a Song for Everyone"   4:57
Side two
1. "Bad Moon Rising"   2:21
2. "Lodi"   3:13
3. "Cross-Tie Walker"   3:20
4. "Sinister Purpose"   3:23
5. "The Night Time Is the Right Time" (Napoleon "Nappy" Brown, Ozzie Cadena, Lew Herman) 3:09







interview on American Bandstand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHlFHvMoCOc





Broken Spoke Shuffle from test sessions



Glory Be from test sessions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY93JmXw8Fs

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

creedence clearwater revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival took their brand of swamp rock to the faithful with this howling garage blues debut.  The group started out as teenagers playing around the San Francisco area as the Blue Velvets with Tom Fogerty on guitar and vocals, John Fogerty on guitar, Doug Clifford on drums, and Stu Cook on piano.  When local label Fantasy Records had a nationwide hit with Vince Guaraldi's 'Cast Your Fate To The Wind', they auditioned and were signed to the label under the new moniker the Visions.  Fantasy co-founder Max Weiss renamed them the Gollywogs in an attempt to capitalize on the British Invasion sound.  During this time Cook migrated over to bass guitar and John Fogerty began taking over lead vocals and writing original songs.  

After three years, the group fizzled out when John Fogerty and Doug Clifford were drafted into the reserves.  It was during his time in the service that Fogerty developed a new songwriting technique:   "They're marching you around all the time because they don't know what to do with you.  I would become delirious and go into a trance. And I started narrating this story to myself, which was the song Porterville. I realised I could go anywhere and just make it up...I was very driven; it was life and death. I could see we didn't have a publicist, we didn't have a manager, we didn't have a producer, and we were on the tiniest label in the world, so we had to do it with music. And that kind of meant me...I was more like a book writer than a songwriter because I couldn't make any noise. I think I accidentally discovered a form of transcendental meditation because it was so real.  I was the best I've ever been in my life."

When Fantasy Records was bought by Saul Zaentz he offered the group the chance to make an album; but insisted they change their name.  Creedence Clearwater Revival drew from the name of one of Tom's friends Credence Nuball, a beer commercial, and a sense of renewal.  John considers:  "The most important part was revival." 

'Creedence Clearwater Revival' was produced by Zaentz at Coast Recorders in San Francisco with Doug Clifford on drums; Stu Cook on bass guitar; John Fogerty on lead guitar and lead vocals; and Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar, vocals, and co-lead vocals.  The album reached ninety-two in Japan, fifty-two in the US, and twenty-nine in Norway.  

http://creedence-revisited.com/

http://www.johnfogerty.com/

"I Put a Spell on You" went to seventy-two in Canada and fifty-eight in the US.

"Suzie Q." a walked to eighty-eight in Australia, eleven in the US, and ten in Canada with an abbreviated single version.

'Creedence Clearwater Revival' 

full album:

http://www.last.fm/music/Creedence+Clearwater+Revival/Creedence+Clearwater+Revival

All songs written by John Fogerty, except where noted. 

Side one
"I Put a Spell on You" (Screamin' Jay Hawkins) – 4:33
"The Working Man" – 3:04
"Susie Q" (Dale Hawkins, Eleanor Broadwater, Stanley Lewis) – 8:37
Side two
"Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)" (Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett) – 3:39
"Get Down Woman" – 3:09
"Porterville" – 2:24
"Gloomy" – 3:51
"Walk on the Water" (J. Fogerty, Tom Fogerty) – 4:40

bonus tracks
"Call It Pretending" (B-side of "Porterville") – 2:09
"Before You Accuse Me" (1968 outtake) - 3:24
"Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)" (Live at the Fillmore, San Francisco, California, 3/14/69) - 3:47

"Susie Q" (Live at the Fillmore, San Francisco, California, 3/14/69) - 11:45