Creedence Clearwater Revival- Bayou Country- John Fogerty

Creedence Clearwater Revival began a superhuman creative run of releasing three full-length albums in 1969, starting in January with CCR’s second, Bayou Country. It contained the swamp rock classic “Born on the Bayou”, as well as one of the biggest songs of the last half of the 20th century, “Proud Mary”. The composer, singer, guitarist, and producer of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s albums, John Fogerty, is my guest In the Studio.

This is my very rare interview with John Fogerty, who wrote and sang every Creedence Clearwater Revival song, played lead guitar & great chunky rhythm guitar, and produced every CCR album. When my parents could finally afford a little monaural record player, Bayou Country with its “Proud Mary” and”Born on the Bayou” was among the first albums I ever bought. As popular and influential on other musicians as Creedence Clearwater Revival was, it is safely said that no one has ever sounded quite like CCR. ( L-R CCR‘s  John  Fogerty, drummer Doug Clifford, the late TomFogerty, bass player Stu Cook)

My hunch is that more people double- and triple-check the release dates of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bayou Country,  Green River,  and Willy and the Poor Boys  albums than practically anything musically historical on Wikipedia, Google, or AllMusic.com. When you see the  year of release for all three as 1969, common sense tells you that is highly improbable and must be a mistake, as the creative talent and time required to write and record three albums of material, while simultaneously touring, would be superhuman. On further inspection when it is stated that Green River  came out in August as CCR was appearing at the Woodstock Festival, with only three months  until Willy and the Poor Boys in November 1969, any reasonable assumption tells you that is simply impossible, since only one man, John Fogerty, was responsible for writing all of the original songs on this terrific album trifecta in that ridiculously short span of time. But it happened just that way in barely a thirteen month period.-Redbeard