A Record Store Day collectors’ heads up: Concord (UMG) will release the Creedence Clearwater Revival 1969 Box Set– 3 vinyl and ephemera from the time period celebrating the historic year. The box will also come complete with 3 CDs and 3 international EPs on 7” vinyl. Albums include Green River, Bayou Country and Willy And The Poor Boys. A sneak peak at this amazing piece can be seen here
From the Fantasy vaults comes the Record Store Day 1969 Archive Boxcelebrating Creedence Clearwater Revival’s epic year. In that year alone the band released three Top Ten albums, had four hit singles (charting at #2, #2, #2 and #3 respectively) with three additional charting B-sides. This archive box collects artifacts from 1969, documenting the global success of a band from El Cerritos, who were believed by many to be from the Mississippi Delta. Meticulously reproduced artifacts include 3 x LPs, 3 x CDs (of each of the above LPs), 3 x 7” vinyl International, EPs, 2 x Posters, 1 x Concert Ticket, 1 x Bumper Sticker, 1 x Publicity photo 60 page scrapbook and more. Limited to 7000 copies.
What is sometimes forgotten with the passing of time and against the seminal influence of Woodstock is that Creedence Clearwater Revival were one of the few bands to appear at the festival that had already achieved significant success . Truth is that there are some that do not even know about the band’s forgotten Woodstock performance shortly after midnight on 17th August 1969. The reason, of course, is that CCR were not in the movie or the album that came out in the wake of Woodstock.
Creedence’s hour-long set was like a greatest hits album, with ‘Bad Moon Rising’ and ‘Proud Mary’ both having reached No.2 chart positions. As they walked on stage at Woodstock, just after midnight on Saturday, their current single, ‘Green River’ was at No.15, it’s third week on the U.S. chart; it would be their third single to stall at No.2. As John Fogerty later said, “By the time we got to Woodstock, I felt we were the number one band. Assuming that The Beatles were God, I thought that we were the next thing under them.”
This iconic performance, CCR really brought the southern soul to Woodstock in 1969 with “Born on the Bayou.”
Creedence Clearwater Revival opened up their set with “Born On The Bayou.” They also played such hits as “Green River,” “Suzy Q,” and “Proud Mary.” Janis Joplin came on after Creedence. John Fogerty had never actually been to a bayou before writing this song, instead he researched it an encyclopedia.
Opening with this fresh, southerly funk at the greatest concert of all time, Creedence really brought the house down at Woodstock that year .The most famous concert in Rock and Roll history. Creedence Clearwater Revival was actually the first band to sign a contract to play Woodstock. They got $10,000 in exchange for playing a single set. The guys ended up playing just before 1 am on Sunday. John Fogerty allegedly complained about his late starting time due to Grateful Dead playing over their time slot. He thought everyone had already gone to bed. He’s apparently expressed his disappointment in the festival at other times, as well.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s catchy music was one of the true hightlights of the whole festival. Though they started late in the night from Saturday to Sunday their blend of R&B, Folk- and Country-Rock didn’t fail to impress. However, John Fogerty complained that the long set of The Grateful Dead delayed their set so most of the audience went to bed when CCR performed in the middle of the night
For some reasons Creedence Clearwater Revival weren’t heavily bootlegged in their prime time (1967 – 1971 ), but this is a very good recording of one of the greatest bands .
Although we see this as a legendary and life changing performance, the band actually forbade Woodstock to use any of the footage of it in the movie considering they were unhappy with this 3 AM show.
This great, feel- good tune really does make us all want to head down to the South and enjoy some fresh air on the bayou, doesn’t it?
To the band, Woodstock must have seemed like – just another festival, as it did at the time to so many of the artists. In the summer of 1969 CCR had already played the Newport Festival in California, the Denver and the Atlanta festivals, along with the Atlantic City Festival. Given the fact that they were just about the hottest band on the charts every promoter wanted them at the top, or close to the top, of the bill.
Unlike so many of the bands at Woodstock CCR went on stage fairly closed to their scheduled midnight slot, although they were supposed to be in a prime Saturday evening slot. According to John Fogerty, ” We were supposed to be in the prime spot for that evening. The Dead went on and pulled their usual shenanigans.”–
Their hour-long set started at half past midnight on Sunday 17th August and kicked off with the perfect opener, ‘Born On The Bayou’. They followed it with ‘Green River’ and then a cover of Wilson Pickett’s ‘Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do)’, from their debut album, after which it was ‘Commotion’, ‘Bootleg’, ‘Bad Moon Rising’ and ‘Proud Mary’
They played their current single and their two previous big hits and the other songs in the set, to this point, very much as they were on record. As their set progressed they stretched their songs set into longer, more improvised, rock songs, which was their normal way of playing them.‘I Put A Spell On You’ stretched the 5 minute single to almost twice its length, while ‘Keep On Chooglin’’ ran for close to ten minutes. ‘Suzie Q’, the Dale Hawkins classic had been their first hit and on the album it ran for 8 minutes; for their encore they kept it rocking for even longer.
John Fogerty later said, “I could never put my finger on what it was, but we were considered outsiders in our own town.” Maybe they were outsiders in San Francisco but they were at the top of their game when they played Woodstock. John Fogerty’s unique voice and great song writing had come together as a perfect combination just at the right time.
Why were they not on the film? Most likely their record company at the time was unwilling to co-operate. Did it affect their career? Well it would have done them no harm on the world stage to have had all that additional exposure. Like ‘Green River’, ‘Bad Moon Rising’ and ‘Proud Mary’, both ‘Travellin’ Band’ and ‘Lookin’ out My Back Door’ made No.2 on the Billboard chart. They really were one of the unluckiest bands bands that could never break through to achieve the coveted top spot on the America singles chart, although they did top the charts in Britain with ‘Bad Moon Rising’. Their album, Green River came out a month after Woodstock and it topped the charts for four weeks, as did Cosmo’s Factory following year – it had a nine-week run at No.1. The fact is CCR were huge…but they might well have been even bigger.
The setlist consists of material from their first three albums (the fourth album Willy and the Poor Boys was released in November 1969). There were no surprises, CCR chose only the hightlights. The performances are tight and upright. They rushed through “Green River”, “Bad Moon Rising” and “Proud Mary” and left little room for improvisation. John Fogerty keeping the tempo up and the band just followed him.
At the end they got a little bit more relaxed. The haunting “I Put a Spell on You” (written byScreamin’ Jay Hawkins but nevertheless the opener on their self-titled debut album) hollows in the dark, followed by – the title says it all – “The Night Time Is the Right Time”.
“Keep on Chooglin'”, announced as their last number, includes a harmonica solo and lasts for over 9 minutes. The band then returned with the pretty “Suzy Q” as the encore and jammed for about 10 minutes before leaving the stage at Woodstock forever. This is the full set
1. 00:00 Born on the Bayou (Video)
2. 04:57 Green River (audio)
3. 07:45 Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do) (audio)
4. 11:02 Commotion (audio)
5. 13:46 Bootleg (audio)
6. 16:58 Bad Moon Rising (Video)
7. 19:07 Proud Mary (audio)
8. 21:59 I Put a Spell on You (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins cover) (video)
9. 26:00 Night Time Is the Right Time (Roosevelt Sykes cover) (audio)
10. 27:59 Keep On Chooglin’ (video)
11. 37:25 Suzie Q (Dale Hawkins cover) (audio)
Green River is the third studio album by American rock and roll band Creedence Clearwater Revival, released in August 1969. It was the second of three albums they released in that year,
Green River The album isn’t just an excellent introduction to Creedence Clearwater Revival, but rock ‘n’ roll as a whole. Creedence were huge band and ‘Green River’ is a near-perfect collection of country, blues, soul and rockabilly, resulting in a record that digs into bedrock Americana. The guitars twang, the bass lines tumble down, the drums chug like a locomotive and Fogerty’s foghorn voice barks above it all. The sound is collectively beautiful in its simplicity – the sound of a band locked into a gleeful groove. The songs, on the other hand, , ‘Lodi’ – a dead-end town where Fogerty imagined he might find himself down the road, singing for his supper. Fogerty was feeling the weight of his responsibility when writing many of the songs on ‘Green River,’ weary of urban ‘Commotion,’ wary of his ‘Tombstone Shadow,’ unable to communicate with his love on ‘Wrote a Song for Everyone.’
If I had to pick a favorite song from this album of Credence Clearwater Revival it would hard… but this song would be a contender. It’s the way Fogerty wearily sings the lyrics, he sounds so much older than he was at the time. The song is off of the great “Green River” album. John Fogerty on writing the song.
“Inspired by my young wife at the time. It was early ’69, and I was 23 years old. We had our first child, who, at the time, was two and a half. I was sitting in my room, writing the songs, pushing my career. Without the songs, the career ends. You might be a great band, but without the songs, you’re not going anywhere. At one point, my wife and I had a mild misunderstanding, I wouldn’t even call it a fight, She was miffed, taking our young son out, wishing I would be more involved. But there I was, the musician manic and possessed the only guy holding things up. Without me, it all collapses, so I’m feeling quite put upon. As she walks out the door, I say to my self, “I wrote a song for everyone, and I couldn’t even talk to you.” I looked at my piece of paper and changed gears. How many great leaders can’t even manage their own families? So I went with that. “Pharaohs spin the message/Round and round and true/Richmonds about to blow up” referring to nearby Richmond, California. It was actually a true emotion that took on a larger meaning. It’s still a special song in the sense that it keeps my feet on the ground. You sit and write these songs, yet you try to talk to your own son and daughter and maybe you’re totally inadequate, trying to explain life to a child. We used to record our album very quickly and I remember finishing five different songs in one afternoon. The fifth one didn’t work, and that was “Wrote A Song For Everyone.” I had to start over on that one.”
Even the warm nostalgia of the title track is tainted by the knowledge that ‘Green River’ might be the last refuge. or fear in Fogerty’s heart – between the jaunty chords of ‘Bad Moon Rising’ and the end of all existence described in the lyrics – makes for a rocking listen, again and again.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
John Fogerty – lead and backing vocals, lead guitar, piano, keyboards, harmonica, arranger
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The Fat Angel Sings 