Cdfe

After knocking out an astonishing amount of work in just three years, CCR released their final album MARDI GRAS in 1971. In retrospect, it was probably time for them to disband. Interpersonal tensions had heightened, and all three members were pulling in different directions. These problems had taken their artistic toll on John Fogerty, whose songs no longer bore quite the same carefree, easy-as-falling-off-a-log feel as they had before…

Make no mistake, Willy & the Poor Boys is a fun record, perhaps the breeziest album CCR ever made. Apart from the eerie minor-key closer "Effigy" (one of John Fogerty's most haunting numbers), there is little of the doom that colored Green River. Fogerty's rage remains, blazing to the forefront on "Fortunate Son," a working-class protest song that cuts harder than any of the explicit Vietnam protest songs of the era, which is one of the reasons that it hasn't aged where its peers have…

It could be argued that Creedence Clearwater Revival were the greatest American rock & roll band, and one convincing argument would be that no other of their peers had such a commanding grasp on a variety of American music and could synthesize them in such a bracingly original fashion…

Creedence Gold is a collection of Creedence Clearwater Revival's hit singles. Unfortunately, the album is a little too small to meet anybody's needs. A mere eight tracks are featured on Creedence Gold…

The Fantasy label's 1973 follow-up to Creedence Gold – the glibly titled More Creedence Gold – is by far the superior compilation, boasting 14 tracks including bona fide rock & roll classics like "Run Through the Jungle," "Fortunate Son," "Lookin' Out My Back Door," "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Lodi," and "Up Around the Bend"…

Opening slowly with the dark, swampy "Born on the Bayou," Bayou Country reveals an assured Creedence Clearwater Revival, a band that has found its voice between their first and second album. It's not just that "Born on the Bayou" announces that CCR has discovered its sound – it reveals the extent of John Fogerty's myth-making. With this song, he sketches out his persona; it makes him sound as if he crawled out of the backwoods of Louisiana instead of being a native San Franciscan…