Creedence Clearwater Revival- Green River/Willy & the Poor Boys 55th- John Fogerty
After already releasing the hit album Bayou Country at the beginning of the year, Creedence Clearwater Revival released Green River in August 1969 and Willy and the Poor Boys just before Christmas. Those latter two veritable greatest hits packages loaded with “Bad Moon Rising”, “Lodi”, “Green River”, “Down on the Corner”, “Fortunate Son”, and “Don’t Look Now” were, like the two preceding Creedence Clearwater Revival albums, the artistic vision of one John Fogerty. Even as he wrote all of the original songs, sang every one, and provided the chunky lead guitar, John Fogerty also produced the distinctive “swamp rock” sound of every CCR album, including those THREE in 1969.
And while John Fogerty wasn’t the first to be entrusted with the then-new trend toward allowing the bands to produce themselves, he certainly was the most successful, truly remarkable when you realize that, at least in North America, Creedence Clearwater Revival rivaled The Beatles for consecutive Top 5 hits in the US from 1967-1970, and that is without the expert guidance of a producer such as The Fab Four had in George Martin. Jimi Hendrix and The Doors made equally indelible impacts upon rock history in the same inconceivably brief span of time as Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, but they each had help, Hendrix from ex-Animals member Chas Chandler and The Doors from veteran producer Paul Rothschild. Even fifty-five years later, my guest here In the Studio John Fogerty‘s sound and vision on Green River and Willy and the Poor Boys were completely self-contained and, to this day, never duplicated. Barely eight months after releasing Bayou Country in January, Bay Area quartet Creedence Clearwater Revival would offer up Green River in August, with the hat trick Willy & the Poor Boys before year’s end. This outpouring of timeless hits in a single year, including “Proud Mary”, “Bad Moon Rising”, “Lodi”, “Green River”, “Down on the Corner”, and “Fortunate Son” all penned, produced, and sung by Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, has never been matched and probably never will. –Redbeard
