CCR: Creedence Clearwater Revival (40th Ann Ed)

In honor of the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Fantasy Records is releasing the six studio albums of the band as a quartet. No word yet of their final album, Mardi Gras, which found lead guitarist John Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford as a trio after rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty quit.

Released in 1968 Creedence Clearwater Revival is a brief introduction to the band with eight songs coming in at almost 34 minutes. They play music that evokes genres associated with the South, which is surprising when revealed that they come from San Francisco, a scene awash in psychedelia at the time. They were a roots rock band, steeped in American music traditions, long before the term was used.

The album opens with a cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins “I Put A Spell On You.” The music and John’s wailing vocal retain some of the eerie mood of the original. Also, John’s guitar solos are fantastic coming out the left speaker, whether stretching out the notes or strumming at a blistering pace with Tom joining in on the latter. As I soak them in on repeated listens, I realize he is a much better player than I or anyone I remember ever gave him credit for on the strength of this performance alone.

A radio edit of their cover of Dale Hawkins’ “Susie Q” was their first big hit and reached as high as #11 on the Pop charts, but the album cut is fantastic. Coming in at over eight minutes, the influences of the San Francisco scene are evident as the band stretches out with John soloing out of the right speaker and the band just chugging along nicely out the left.

Aside from those two classic rock staples, the remaining songs on the album are not as well known and reveal a band trying different musical ideas as they seek their identity. The Creedence signature sound hasn’t coalesced yet, but you can hear the elements forming. The third cover on the album is of Stax Records artist Wilson Pickett’s “Ninety-Nine And A Half” as the boys head east on US 40 to interpret some Memphis soul. “The Working Man” is an upbeat blues rock tune filtered a through a bit of Cream. “Get Down Woman” has a classic ‘50s feel with lyrics that could have been sung by Elvis. “Gloomy” finds the boys going psychedelic with the sound effects of a clock and using the studio to manipulate the guitar similar to The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

There are two songs from their previous incarnation as The Golliwogs. “Porterville,” the first CCR single and coincidentally the last single by the Golliwogs, with its jangly guitar and background vocals sounds like The Byrds and The Beatles circa 1965. “Walk On The Water” is a remake of “Walking On The Water.” Similar to “Gloomy,” it finds the band again playing with studio effects to augment the song.

The 40th anniversary edition of Creedence Clearwater Revival features four bonus tracks, two from the studio and two live. “Call It Pretending” was the B-side of “Porterville.” It has much more of a Motown R&B sound. A cover of Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me” was recorded during their first studio date and would be rerecorded for Cosmo’s Factory. The two live tracks, “ Ninety-Nine And a Half” and “Susie Q,” are taken from a 3/14/69 performance at the Fillmore in San Francisco, which was recorded for radio station KSAN. “Susie Q” gets extended over eleven minutes. The extra time allows John to stretch out on his guitar, venturing into ragged and rugged terrain one usually finds Neil Young. The band, particularly Clifford’s drums, keeps an intense rhythm going. The audience voices their approval at the conclusion.

Ben Fong-Torres provides new liner notes reminiscing about the album and the band. The back of the album is recreated, but the white words on the black and white photo are hard to make out, but I am pretty sure Ralph J. Gleason must have had good things to say about the band and its debut. I know I do.

SUMMER OF LOVE: THE HITS OF 1967

Time-Life has put together a good collection of 40 songs that were playing on radios and record players back in 1967. That year the hippies and their ideas broke on through from the counterculture into the mainstream. It started in January with San Francisco’s Human Be-In and peaked in the summer, June specifically, when The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and two weeks later The Monterey International Pop Music Festival, the first major rock show of lasting notoriety, took place. Life as everyone knew it would never be the same.

In the July 7, 1967, TIME magazine cover story entitled, “The Hippies: The Philosophy of a Subculture,” they described the hippie creed for its readers: “Do your own thing, wherever you have to do it and whenever you want. Drop out. Leave society as you have known it. Leave it utterly. Blow the mind of every straight person you can reach. Turn them on, if not to drugs, then to beauty, love, honesty, fun.” They weren’t too far off as people, particularly the young, were tried of society’s seemingly arbitrary restraints and rules, so they started to explore peace, love, Eastern religions, sexual liberation, and consciousness expansion through psychedelic drugs.

All the arts were affected by this paradigm shift, and the most noticeable changes took place in music. Summer of Love allows you to hear them as the smooth sounds of the early to mid ‘60s, folk, Motown and the British Invasion, give way to blues, psychedelia and feedback. The straightforward pop of The Association’s “Windy,” Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love Her,” and Harpers Bizarre’s pointless cover of Paul Simon’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” sound as if they had to be from earlier in the decade when placed alongside Cream’s “I Feel Free”, Big Brother & the Holding Company’s “Down on Me,” and The Yardbirds’ “Stroll On.”

Summer of Love includes famous musicians like Donavan with “Season of the Witch” and Van Morrison with “Brown Eyed Girl,” bands you may not know, but whose songs are familiar like The Youngbloods’ “Get Together” and Procul Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” and then there are bands like The Peanut Butter Conspiracy and Blues Magoos who are known by people you should never play Musical Trivial Pursuit against for money.

While all the other bands get one song on the set, the members of Traffic make three appearances. Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood, and Dave Mason are rumored to have played on the singles “I'm A Man” and “Gimme Some Lovin’” by the Spencer Davis Group, whose lead singer was Steve Winwood. As Traffic, they perform their weakest contribution to set, “Paper Sun.” The work of both The Monkees and The Supremes are spotlighted twice. The Monkees perform “Pleasant Valley Sunday” while The Butterfield Blues Band misses the mark with “Mary, Mary.” Diana Ross and the Supremes sing “Reflections,” and Vanilla Fudge creates a slow soulful version of The Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.”

The DVD contains the “My Generation,” the sixth volume of the outstanding The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll series by Quincy Jones from 1995. It contains great archival footage of interviews and performances as well as what were present-day interviews from artists who were there in the late ‘60s, such as Jerry Garcia, Paul Kantner, and David Crosby, and those influenced by it, such as Bono, Bruce Springsteen, and Joey Ramone.

Summer of Love includes some popular and influential bands like The Byrds, The Beach Boys, and Jefferson Airplane, but there are some of the true musical heavyweights missing that were around that summer who helped make it what it was. Aside from the aforementioned, and arguably the album of that year, The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s, The Rolling Stones had released Between the Buttons and music fans were introduced to debut albums by The Doors, The Grateful Dead, and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It’s not definitive, and makes no claim to be, but it is an excellent starting point.