Joe’s Creedence.

Creedence Clearwater Revival.

CCR were John Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and Stu Cook (all born 1945) and Tom Fogerty— John’s older brother by three years. Formed in 1967, when the “Golliwogs” became Creedence.

In 1968 they released their debut album Creedence Clearwater Revival

         

CCR released their second album Bayou Country in January 1969 and becoming a #7 platinum hit, the record was the first in a string of hit albums and singles which continued uninterrupted for the next three years. The single “Proud Mary“, backed with “Born On the Bayou”, went to Number 2 on the national Billboard chart. It would eventually become the group’s most-covered song, with some 100 cover versions by other artists to date, including a hit version in 1971 by Ike and Tina Turner. Bob Dylan named it his favorite single of 1969. The album also featured a blistering remake of the rock & roll classic “Good Golly Miss Molly” and the band’s nine-minute live-show closer, “Keep On Chooglin’ “.

        

Only weeks later, in March 1969, “Bad Moon Rising” backed with “Lodi” was released and peaked at #2 on the charts. This was the year when CCR gained many new fans on this side of the Atlantic (including the writer) when Bad Moon Rising became their only No. 1 British Hit. The band’s third album, Green River, followed in August and quickly went gold along with the single “Green River”, which again reached #2 on the Billboard charts.  While touring Creedence was busy honing material for a fourth album, Willy and the Poor Boys, released in November 1969. “Down on the Corner“, a good-time street-corner number, and the famously militant “Fortunate Son” climbed to #3 and #14, respectively, by year’s end. 1969 had been a remarkable chart year for the band: three Top Ten albums, four hit singles (charting at #2, #2, #2, and #3, respctively) with three additional charting B-sides. On November 16, 1969, they performed “Fortunate Son” & “Down on the Corner” on the Ed Sullivan Show.^[7] Just after the new year, 1970, CCR released yet another new double-sided 45, “Travelin’ Band“/”Who’ll Stop the Rain“. In April 1970, Creedence was set to begin its first European tour. To support the upcoming live dates, Fogerty came up with “Up Around the Bend”, a good-time party rocker, and the broody “Run Through the Jungle”.

                 

“Cosmo’s Factory” was released in July 1970, along with yet another #2 national hit, “Lookin’ Out My Back Door“/”Long As I Can See the Light“. It was the band’s fifth #2 single. Pendulum, released in December 1970, was another top seller, spawning a Top 10 hit with “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?“. The album marked yet another shift in the band’s approach: gone was the wall of sound of Creedence’s previous three albums. The single’s flip side, the ringing “Hey Tonight”, was also a hit. In 1971 Tom Fogerty left the band and the CCR trio released the Top 10 single “Sweet Hitch-Hiker” in July 1971, backed with Stu Cook’s “Door to Door”. The band toured both the U.S. and Europe that summer and autumn, with Cook’s song a part of the live set. In spite of their continuing commercial success, however, relations among the three had become increasingly strained. The band’s final album, Mardi Gras, was released in April 1972, featuring songs written by Fogerty, Cook, and Clifford and one cover by Gene Pitney “Hello Mary Lou“.

Several Creedence songs are played in the film Dog Soldiers, which also goes by the alternate title Who’ll Stop the Rain. “Bad Moon Rising” is featured prominently in the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London, while “Born on the Bayou” opened the 1988 film The Return of Swamp Thing. Apocalypse Now included a sequence in which a USO show breaks down into chaos to the strains of “Suzie Q”. Many other movies have used Creedence songs, including Forrest Gump, The Big Lebowski, Live Free or Die Hard, The Manchurian Candidate, Michael, My Fellow Americans, Mr. Woodcock, Evan Almighty, Wild Hogs, Where the Buffalo Roam, We Are Marshall, My Girl, Blade, The Waterboy, Tropic Thunder, Remember the Titans, Twilight Zone: The Movie, December Boys, Road House, etc.

In 1993 CCR were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Bruce Springsteen who said that “in the late Sixties and early Seventies CCR weren’t the hippest band in the world – just the best”.

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Box Set is a box set released in 2001. It contains all of their complete studio albums, two complete live albums, and material recorded by the band under their previous names “The Golliwogs” and “The Blue Velvets”.

                 

John Fogerty.

John Fogerty continued with a solo career, releasing many acclaimed albums including “Centrefield” and the Grammy Award winning album “Blue Moon Swamp”.

1973 – The Blue Ridge Rangers.

1975 – John Fogerty. (incl. “Rockin’ All Over The World”).

1976 – Hoodoo (Not Released).

1985 – Centerfield.

1986 – Eye Of The Zombie.

1997 – Blue Moon Swamp.

2004 – Deja Vu (All Over Again).

2007 – Revival.

2009 – The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.

2013 – Wrote A Song For Everyone.

LIVE Albums.

1998 – Premonition.

2006 – The Long Road Home (In Concert).

He tours frequently and the Joe has been lucky to see his hero in 2000 on the Tina Turner Tour at the RDS Dublin, in 2006 at the Hammersmith Apollo, and again in 2007 at Wembley Arena.

(Did you know that Kurt Cobain was in a CCR Tribute band before starting Nirvana)”

Creedence Clearwater Revival. In case you had forgotton how great they were – look at this awesome countdown of their best. The No. 1 is so good I had it tattooed on my arm! Enjoy and Share.

https://screen.yahoo.com/latest-entertainment-videos/top-10-creedence-clearwater-revival-223026804.html?soc_src=default

Creedence Clearwater Recovered.

“CREEDENCE COMES TO THE PRIORY”.

(The Priory Inn, Trim, 2nd May, 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

l-r: Maurice Heavey – Vocals/Guitar, David Owens – Bass,  Barry O’Shea – Lead Guitar, David O’Neill – Drums, with Joe.

I met this band in Drogheda in 2009, and as a Creedence fan(atic), I immediately informed my local music venue, The Priory Inn, Trim who booked them. They were an immediate success and packed out the Priory each time they played. Sadly the band split and The Priory is no more. Maurice now plays with Shaken Edge (see separate page) and they have become one of the hottest band in Ireland. A Creedence C Recovered reunion is more likely than a reunion of the original group.

Below is an article I wrote for The Meath Chronicle on the visit of Tribute Band, Creedence Clearwater Recovered to Trim.

“The Golden Era of Creedence can be experienced again with the finest tribute band around  – Creedence Clearwater Recovered.

The band consists of:- Maurice Heavey – Vocals/Guitar. Barry O’Shea – Lead Guitar. David Owens – Bass. David O’Neill – Drums.

They pay their first visit to Trim on Saturday 2^nd May. If you want to hear classics such as Fortunate Son, Bad Moon Rising, Proud Mary, etc, expertly re-created with energetic passion, then come to the Priory and be early, this is going to be a gig to be remembered.”