Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 189

Record label: Fantasy

Produced: John Fogerty and Saul Zaentz

Recorded: Wally Heider Studio, San Francisco; 1969

Released: December 1969 (UK) August 3, 1969 (US)

Chart peaks: 20 (UK) 1 (US)

Personnel: John Fogerty (v, g); Tom Fogerty (g, bv); Stu Cook (b, bv); Doug Clifford (d); Russ Gary (e)

Track listing: Green River (S); Commotion; Tombstone Shadow; Wrote A Song For Everyone; Bad Moon Rising (S); Lodi; Cross-Tie Walker; Sinister Purpose; The Night Time Is The Right Time

Running time: 29.20

Current CD: Concord FCD45142

Further listening: Bayou Country (1969); Willy And The Poor Boys (1970); Cosmo’s Factory (1970); The Blue Ridge Rangers – Blue Ridge Rangers (1973), essentially a John Fogerty solo album of country covers, lovingly rendered

Further reading: Bad Moon Rising: The Unofficial Story Of Creedence Clearwater Revival (Hank Bordowitz, 1998); Up Around The Bend: The Oral History Of Creedence Clearwater Revival (Craig Werner, 1998); www.creedence-online.com

Download: Not currently legally available

Green River was CCR’s second album of 1969 and John Fogerty, their driven front-man, assumed even more power during its making – banning the rest of the band from the studio during the mix. Drummer Doug Clifford remembers: ‘It was like, “Turn in your key”. It was a lock-out. We were allowed back in for 10 minutes to do the “wah doo days” on The Night Time Is The Right Time!’

‘I just refused to let them be there because it was so disruptive,’ explains Fogerty. ‘It was a go-around I had with Tom for the whole three years we were Creedence. He kept saying, “My part’s not loud enough.” The truth is, I would write the song, and then the producer in me would take over and write the arrangement, and I would show everyone exactly how it went.’ Clifford recollects things differently. ‘The good news was that I was the only drummer in the band, and he was less stringent with me than with the other guys. All the groovy little things I put in got to stay.’ Such as the spine-tingling high-hat work at the end of the Mephistophelean swamp rock of Sinister Purpose? ‘That was pure instinct; it was just a natural process.’

The tension between the players is also manifest in the subject matter of several tracks. The titles shout for themselves – Commotion, Tombstone Shadow, Bad Moon Rising.

‘If there wasn’t a demon there John would invent one,’ bassist Stu Cook reckons, ‘which was great when he was writing!’ And in the writing Green River is almost faultless. From the churning, nostalgic country R&B of the title track to the Sun-era rockabilly bounce of Cross-Tie Walker, Fogerty assimilated his influences perfectly and the band did him proud.

‘The circumstances weren’t exactly pleasant,’ muses Clifford, ‘but we did a job. We laid down the basic tracks in two days or so, and then waited to hear the record!’

‘Some of the initial playback tapes sounded better than the final product,’ remembers Stu Cook, ‘but I suppose it was partly our fault for letting him get away with it.’ Despite these problems, the album represents the pinnacle of Creedence’s achievement, and thus one of the high points of late ’60s American rock. Fogerty agrees. ‘My favourite album is Green River. That’s the soul of where I live musically, the closest to what’s in my heart.’