Friday Night Jazz Swamp-Rock: John Fogerty

Revival_cover
If you are a fan at all of Creedence Clearwater Revival and/or John Fogerty, then check out some of the tunes on Fogerty’s new disc Revival

The title — obviously referring to CCR — is his first new disc in three years. The sound is unmistakably Creedence with little bits of swamp rock, blues, country, folk and soul.

Fogerty is more than a "just" a great song writer; He comes in at #40 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.   

CenterfieldThis is Fogerty’s return to politics with songs like "Long Dark Night, I Can’t Take it No More, It Ain’t Right, and Longshot.

For those of you who want a sample the work, Fogerty’s my space page has 4 streaming tunes from Revival. You can also see a few videos below (YouTube has tons of his earlier work).

In addition to CCR, I am a very big of the latter solo work: 1985’s Centerfield, with its chooglin’ one-chord jams. This is the album which led to his former label suing him, claiming that the songwriter had plagiarized himself. Fogerty eventually won the lawsuit.

Blue_moon_swamp
I also really like 1997’s roots rock shuffle, Blue Moon Swamp.

Both of these are must haves for CCR fans. ($7.97 at Amazon — about time the recording industry figured out dynamic pricing).

The reviews of the new disc have been good: Metacritic has it as an 83 (Universal Acclaim). Here’s some other reviews:

"Full-bore return to choogling swamp-pop." —USA Today, Edna Gundersen

"Revival is no rerun. It is Fogerty getting back to work—and finally
acting on his own advice, in a song he’s actually named after his old
band: "You can’t go wrong if you play a little bit of that Creedence
song."  —Rolling Stone, David Fricke

"Fogerty’s muse comes fully alive, nodding gently to his estimable legacy while moving firmly forward."   —Harp, Fred Mills

"Still making his guitar twang, still singing in that rockabilly yowl,
John Fogerty is angry about the war, the president, American culture
and vanished youth on his new album, ‘Revival,’ and it just makes him
rock harder."  —New York Times, Jon Pareles

"Mr. CCR has created a masterpiece and Revival is unquestionably one of the ten best discs of 2007."   —Relix, Lou Friedman

Don’t take my word for it, there are enough streaming versions of the new songs to almost sample the full CD.

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UPDATE:  October 27, 2007 11:24am

An emailer asked about CCR’s work. For those people with a passing interest, you should at least have Chronicle, Vol. 1: The 20 Greatest Hits in your music collections.

More hardcore fans may way to get the Creedence Clearwater Revival BOX SET — a 6 CD set, described as "superbly remastered versions of all of their studio and live albums," which, at $37 bucks, looks likes a good deal . . .

click for the surprisingly upbeat:  "Don’t You Wish It Was True"
Dont_you_wish

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Letterman Performance of Revival

Interview about the new album

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What's been said:

Discussions found on the web:
  1. DC commented on Oct 26

    But will he get sued again for ripping himself off?

  2. wnsrfr commented on Oct 26

    Barry, thanks for the tip, this is some good stuff. Not necessarily a CCR fan but I’m buying this one…

  3. 12th percentile commented on Oct 26

    DC

    I was just about to post about the fact that his record label sued him for sounding too much “like john fogerty”. You beat me to it.

    Labels were/are sorta like the people predicting profits for Countrywide in the 4th quarter.

    Here is something any modern band should bow down and worship

    From then on, the hits kept coming as the band churned out six albums of powerful, roots-oriented rock and roll between 1968 and 1970:

    6 albums in two years, bitches. Bow down.

  4. Kevin Crawford commented on Oct 26

    Hey you got you dates wrong. Centerfield came out in 86 and Blue Moon Swamp was 98. Nontheless, avoid Deja Vu’ at all costs. Centerfield, Blue Moon Swamp, the John Fogerty album (’75), if you can find it, and The Blue Ridge Rangers are the solo work you wnat. All CCR albums, sans Mardi Gras, are good, Green River being the masterpiece.

  5. David commented on Oct 26

    Berry-
    No fan here, John Fogerty’s voice is to harsh. Just like my boyhood small town; Guly. His politics are wrong.

    “ife’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, then is heard no more: it is a tale
    Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing.
    Macbeth
    William Shakespeare

  6. Barry Ritholtz commented on Oct 27

    Hey Kevin

    Yeah, those are the reissue dates — they looked too new to me. Good catch, I’ll fix above.

  7. Lisa commented on Oct 30

    I love John, he can do no wrong in my mind , cause he’s a legend! I’m pretty spoiled though with great Music in Texas. We have great local music and even better radio. Lonestar 92.5 is an awesome station with few commercials, and if you love Country, Alternative Country, and Classic Rock as much as me, I advise you to check them out at http://www.lonestar925.com. They have all kinds of events coming up to, so you should definitley hit up the site. I work with these guys so I can vouche for their vast knowledge of great music!

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