01. Bad Moon Rising
02. Born On The Bayou
03. Proud Mary
04. Travelin’ Band
05. Have You Ever Seen The Rain
06. Green River
07. Down On The Corner
08. Lodi
09. Fortunate Son
10. Lookin’ Out My Backdoor
11. Run Through The Jungle
12. I Put A Spell On You
13. Susie Q
14. Sweet Hitch-Hiker
15. It Came Out Of The Sky
16. Who’ll Stop The Rain
17. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
18. Hey Tonight
19. Cotton Fields
20. Long As I Can See The Light
21. Molina
22. Hello Mary Lou
23. The Midnight Special
24. Up Around The Bend

http://lix.in/-65c7af

I’m not what you’d call a “Music Buff”. Most of the songs that I adore get me mocked by by lovely friends… *Cough Cough* But this is MY blog, so you get MY opinion! Haha.

One of my all time favourite bands is Creedence Clearwater Revival. A true blue American rock band that became famous in the 1960’s and created songs so good that even in the 2000’s their music still heavily saturates radio stations. When I’m chilling at home, sitting on the deck out in the sun, more often than not I have Creedence playing on my ipod. It’s fun, catchy and makes you feel good.

Their songs can be a little bit bluesy, but are mostly soft rock that gets you singing and tapping your foot. Some of my particular faves are “Bad Moon Rising”, “Good Golly Miss Molly”, “Midnight Special”, “Suzie Q” and “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”. All the songs are available on iTunes and, in my opinion, are a great addition to anyones music collection. Anyway, doesn’t hurt to broaden your listening preferences, right?

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Se puede decir que Creedence Clearwater Revival definió

el espíritu del rock and roll norteamericano en su esencia.

The amazing Marina Fini stopped by for a little Counter Culture Collective madness last night. We just got a new sound system – apparently built by the same two hands that work the guitar in Creedence – so the tunes were bumping, the nectar was flowing, the trees were blowin’ in the wind and these photos are just a few of what she captured. Also – say hi to CCC’s newest member, TwirlyGirl!

STEPHEN TYLER ROCKS WITH FOX:

Stephen Tyler may or may not be with Aerosmith at the moment???  Over the last few weeks it has been said that he quit the band, is back on drugs, and that everything is fine.  Maybe he’s looking into joining Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones on a Robert Plant-less Led Zeppelin tour again?  Whatever Stephen Tyler is up to, one thing is known…he is still rockin’!  This past weekend he joined the likes of Gregg Allman and Roger Daltrey for a Michael J. Fox Parkinson’s benefit.  The former Family Ties and Spin City star even played guitar!

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

MTV IS “GROUNDED”:

I stopped watching MTV regularly around six years ago.  Their original programming has not really done it for me in some time.  But at least for the most part they have stayed ORIGINAL.  I will give them that.  They may not have stayed music, but they continued to produced programs that were unique to whateve the MTV brand stood for at the time.  That has all ended recently.  Over the last year they have started showing movies and now they have added a sitcom to their line-up….Grounded for Life!  Nothing against that show (I’ve never seen it) but why is it on MTV?  It has been added to their weekday schedule at 9/9:30am and again at 7/7:30pm.  They have also added South Park weekdays at 8/8:30pm.   Now South Park certainly fits in better with the MTV spirit of yesterday, but it’s a Comedy Central show.  MTV used to be so much it’s own thing…it was not necessary to borrow from sister networks to pad its schedule.  I know they can’t show music videos all day anymore with You Tube and all…but please come up with something original!  Being original is after all what defined MTV for over two decades.

————————————————————————————————————————————————–

CCR (Revisited, Not Revival) DOES RUDOLPH:

I’m a big fan of the late 60’s “swamp rock” group Creedence Clearwater Revival.  John Fogerty is undeniable!  However, if you didn’t know, today the group is called Creedence Clearwater REVISITED.  This band does not include Mr. Fogerty as the remaining members of the original band and him did not leave on the best of terms back in the early 70’s.  John continues to tour, singing the CCR hits as only he can sing them, as the others tour as “Revisited” with a different lead singer.  Kudos to them I suppose, gotta keep making the money.  I wouldn’t particulary care to see them however as I realize John Fogerty was and is Creedence.  I have seen him a few times though and he still puts on one hell of a show.   The “Revisited” group however have released a cover of the Christmas classic “Run, Run Rudolph” for the Juvenile Diabetes charity CD, “Hope for the Holidays- Rockin’ Christmas for a Cure” .    Collective Soul, Weezer, and The Beach Boys are some of the other contributors.  CCR has put the track up on their website.

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My CURRENT TOP 5 ROCK SONGS:

I can’t say I enjoy a lot of current rock, but there are probably at least 5 current songs I can say I turn up driving around town.  A new weekly feature if you will.  Agree or think they suck?  Well…what’s your top 5 then?

Close Call- Chevelle- “Jars”

5- Godsmack- “Whiskey Hangover” (Getting a little tired of it…but it’s a great weekend drinking tune!)

4- Muse- “Uprising” (Always liked this band…it seems this song will take them a little closer to the mainstream than their previous singles)

3- Breaking Benjamin- “I Will Not Bow” (Notice how I typed Benjamin and not “Ben”….that is the name of the band…it’s really not that long…stop shortening it radio DJs!)

2- Alice in Chains- “Check My Brain” (Never thought I’d want to hear a song by the “new” version of this classic 90s grunge band, but I gotta say….this one’s pretty rockin’)

1- Three Days Grace- “Break” (New record is called Life Starts Now. Sounds like a good buy to kick off the new year).

thanks for asking.

Creedence Clearwater Revival asked Have You Ever Seen the Rain? Yes, I’ve been to Exeter. I’m sure it’s a perfectly lovely city, but considering I went there for the first time when it was a) dark and b) raining, it didn’t leave a great impression. Still, the multicoloured stone seats outside Wagamamma were nice (in a giant-Quality-Streets kind of way) and the food inside was quite brilliant — plus I used chopsticks close to properly for the first time. And had squid, albeit in a wrapped-up, breaded capacity. We also managed to win a bottle of wine in what is definitely the most middle-class pub quiz I’ve ever experienced. Honestly, if it wasn’t a question about mortgages or Michael McIntyre, it was asking us to assign the correct postcode to areas of the British Isles. I’m surprised they didn’t hand us a box of After Eights along with our wine.

Also, the gay bar was fun. Fun in an I’m an outsider so I can stand back and be vicarious way, although the sight of a woman who can only be described as a cross between Mrs Overall and Little My performing an inexpert bout of boggling on the dancefloor was surely entertaining for everyone. I feel compelled to point out that I was in this gay bar because of My Gay Friend™, which brings me to a thought I had after leaving the establishment (Vaults on Gandi Street, so many lights, so much boggling): I had the impulse to announce quite clearly to the clientelé that I am assuredly straight, just to get that out of the way for starters, and now we can converse. It’s an odd dinosaur of an impulse, but there it was nonetheless.  It’s the kind of Jurassic thought that fortunately lumbers quite a few steps ahead of bums against the wall, lads, but it’s essentially borne out of the same geologic period. Regardless, the place was perfectly friendly, and I left with my ears ringing to the sounds of some enjoyably horrific karaoke. A tip: If you’re going to get up and sing Teenage Kicks, then make sure the mic is turned on. It’s kind of required.

Filming is happening tomorrow (well, today in about nine hours, but it’s all relative) where I get to be in both a car and a waistcoat. Nice.

- T.

I’ve got your number / So does every kiss-and-tell who dares to cross your threshold.

#179  Creedence Clearwater Revival > Up Around The Bend
1970 släpptes Creedence främsta album, Cosmo’s Factory, som också var namnet på bandets replokal.  ’Up Around The Bend’ är inget annat än en ren och skär rock’n’roll explosion där Fogerty sliter i strängarna och sjunger som om det vore det sista han skulle göra i livet…

There’s a place up ahead and I’m goin’ just as fast as my feet can fly
Come away, come away if you’re goin’, leave the sinkin’ ship behind

All images © FOX

[Ed. Note-- Hello monsters! Please welcome our staff blogger Erika into your monster clique. She will be recapping Glee for us every week. SPOILER ALERT, duh. Presented is her recap of last week's show. Season 1, Episode 9: "Wheels"]

Last week: No… Glee… again…

Week before last: Our beloved Gleeks took a field trip to the World Series

Week before the week before last: Music solves everything until Sue gets ditched by her anchorman love and everyone gets slushied.

So! This week:

The Cheerios, sans Quinn, are hard at work on their new jump rope number. The fallen cheering star sits in the bleachers, dejected. Finn asks her what’s wrong and she hands him a bill for $685.

"It's not like finding a job is hard in this economy, you useless poor. Unemployment in Ohio, which is where we are, is only 9.7%, down from its June peak of 11.2%! If only you weren't so stupid and lazy!"

Then, Fobray fans forgive me, she pulls the ultimate bitch and tears Finn’s head off. Because he totally got her knocked up. Oh wait, that was Puck. Sorry, I forget.

She leaves the auditorium, because being off the team sucks. What happened to all that Glee support?

The creepy J-fro guy is interviewing Sue about the Cheerios, specifically, Quinn’s departure. Sue explains why she can’t have a pregnant girl at nationals and then she steals his tape recorder.

"I'm taking your tape recorder, rube."

Meanwhile, Will is trying to convince Figgins to pay for the handicap-accessible bus required to take all the Glee members—Artie included—to sectionals. Once again, Figgins is pleading budgets. Will has to find the money to hire the bus. Sorry Will.

Quinn is still getting doctor’s bills. And she’s still gnawing at Finn. Maybe she needs a new chew toy or something like that to cheer her up.

Will has the new song: “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. Kurt and Rachel are ecstatic, until Kurt finds out that he doesn’t have the chance to sing it. At least not the solo. Mercedes calls for a song suited to her “chocolate thunder.”

In more important news, Will has found the solution to the bus issue. Bake sale! Everyone, was flabbergasted at the school’s lack of funding, and they were quick to sink the holes in Will’s plan. It’s not that people have—in the words of Will—“stopped eating delicious, sugary treats.”

Brittany has something amazing to say about this:

“It’s not that… it’s most of us don’t know how to bake… I find… recipes confusing.”

And according to Finn, everyone is too busy with teen pregnancy. Artie gets put on the spot and he says it doesn’t bother him.

Cue Artie’s first solo song His version of Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself” is catchy, hip-swinging, and bouncy. He does some wicked wheelchair tricks down the hallway and we find out that he’s got a crush on Tina, who totally doesn’t notice him. Artie does some more really cool wheelchair tricks on the auditorium stage, where talent stalker Will watches him from behind the curtains.

Kurt asks to audition for the Defying Gravity solo. Will shoots him down and then admonishes the Gleeks for their treatment of Artie. Rachel says they didn’t think he’d take it personally, to which Artie replies, “You’re irritating most of the time, but don’t take that personally.” Good one, Artie.

So, in addition to the bake sale, the AV Club has wheelchairs for the rest of the Glee team  (what?). He also tells them: we’re doing a wheelchair number. Only in Glee.

Finn and Rachel figure out how much it sucks to be Artie in the lunch room and in the hallway. Finn takes some unnecessary hits to the head (seriously, guys, he can’t get much slower than he already is) and Rachel (initial victim of the slushies) becomes the first Gleek to be… mushroom-beef-noodled?

Ew

Meanwhile, Quinn and Puck are in the Home Ec room. Puck suavely hands her a whopping eighteen dollars. She hands it back and calls him an egg-head. When he denies this state of being, she fixes it with a literal egg to the head. Note: she looks happier here than she has at any other point in the series. They get into a cupcake ingredient fight and almost into what promised to be the possible beginning of a steamy make-out session when Finn walks in.

Sexy food fights, everyone has them.

“What the hell?” he says. I would have asked a few more questions, Finn.

In other news, Kurt is at his dad’s auto shop being spacey. His dad asks him what the problem is and Kurt spills about not getting to gender-bend the singing roles. At least they don’t have to worry about teen pregnancy. But Kurt’s dad finds this discrimination, despite his son being “as queer as a three dollar bill,” an outrage and goes to Figgins.

Will completely agrees. In the name of gender equality, the Glee club is having a Diva-off on who gets the solo. The judges? The rest of Glee club.

"It's on."

Rachel protests, as expected, and Kurt has everyone promise to vote for the person who sings the song better. Go Kurt. Rachel, as expected, is mad at Will for creating teaching moments that ruin her life. Has she not discovered that the world does not revolve around her? Her dramatic exit is hindered by the wheelchair, she smacks the doorframe on the way out.

Figgins is really happy about handicapping the Glee club. Will tells him about the lack of wheelchair ramps in the school. Sue, who is there for some reason, says they make people lazy. But Figgins has a different idea. Inspired by equal opportunity, he wants Sue to hold open tryouts for the Quinn’s slot in the Cheerios.

At lunch, the ‘cool kids’ are trying to sell cupcakes. Brittany lost her wheelchair and she’s hanging out with Becky, a mentally handicapped girl. [Ed. Note--Seriously, Brittany is so great. The Best.] Quinn manages to turn the lack of cupcake sales into another dig at Finn and his jobless state.

"Brittany's always cheating off her test papers."

On to Cheerio tryouts! Sue is confused, Will is supervising. Mercedes and Kurt try out: both are knocked down. They are followed by a couple on poorly choreographed girls, creepy Jacob, and Spiderman.

The last to be auditioned in Becky, who is trying to jump rope… badly. Sue stops her and the audience braces itself for one of her meanest, kitty-eating comments… that doesn’t happy. Becky is on the squad.

WHAT?!

Will feels the audience’s sentiments and immediately starts accusing her of less than noble intentions.

"What are you up to, sneaky person I do not trust?"

Finn and Puck are arguing about Quinn in the hallway, wheelchairs and all. In addition to calling his best friend stupid, Puck takes up on Quinn’s lead and starts getting on Finn’s back about his lack of job and baby money. To take care of a baby that’s not even his. They get into a minor bumper-wheelchair battle that turns into an all out brawl. Will breaks it up. Apparently Puck is just really stressed out about the bake sale.

At practice, Artie is trying to teach the club how to turn around in the wheelchair. Tina and Artie, alone, talk about why Artie is in a wheelchair. While a car accident has disabled his legs, he wants it clear that his penis is not incapacitated. D’oh!

Kurt is still practicing for the Diva-off. At the same time, his dad gets a phone call. The caller says “Your son’s a fag,” and hangs up. Kurt notices how agitated his dad is. Dad relays the phone call to his son and Kurt is left looking kind of guilty.

"Sorry Dad. Sorry for being who I am."

Finn and Rachel are in the rehearsal room and Finn is… fixing her wheelchair? Handyman Finn. Quinn storms in to ruin the fluffy, happy moment. Rachel attempts to flee, but fails because Hurricane Quinn needs a witness. She has a Past Due notice for Finn and hangs the future of their relationship over his head. He is devastated. However! Devious little Rachel has quite the plan.

Big (mind)wheels keep on turnin'

On a happier note, the bake sale is going well. Puck supplied the ‘recipe’ because he thought that the wheelchair bake sale was somehow going to give money to Quinn’s baby-fund. His secret ingredient? Marijuana.

"Just enough to give you a wicked case of the munchies."

Will is watching Sue tear at Becky while she learns to jump rope. He tries to confront her about the way she treats Becky. Sue tells him that he doesn’t know the first thing about her.

The Diva-off begins with Kurt who is… amazing. He is handing Rachel’s ass to her. [Ed. Note: I disagree. The song is in Rachel's is more in her "belting range" (whatever that is) and her voice sounds way stronger than Kurt's, whose falsetto I find offputting. Music! Art! Subjectivity!] Speaking of Rachel, we switch to her solo, and then it goes back and forth. They’re both belting it out. Chills. Chills. Chills. And then… Kurt fudges the note. He looks like he’s about to cry.

Looks like he fumbled the money note

Puck approaches Quinn in the hallway with a fistful of money. He then tries to convince Quinn that he’s the better choice. Quinn realizes that he stole the money from the bake sale. Bad Puck. She does the right thing and tells him to put it back. Good Quinn. Finn arrives on the scene and tells Quinn that he has a job and Rachel’s devious plan is revealed. I think the lines actually speak for themselves.

Rachel: Excuse me. Are you the manager?

Unsuspecting Businessman/Prey: Yes?

Rachel: You need to hire my friend Finn. He is clearly handicap able and refusing to hire him could be seen as discrimination. My dads are gay and unless you want the full force of the American Civil Liberties Union coming down on you, I’d work something out.

Bad Rachel. Bad Finn.

"Ain't I a stinker?" --Bugs Bunny

But this is a good thing and Finn even gives Quinn a lift to rehearsal… on his wheelchair. Puck is left alone. Poor Puck.

Thanks to Puck’s secret ingredient, Glee club has raised $1200 for the bus to sectionals. But, in a selfless act, Artie asks his fellow Gleeks if he could give the money to the school so a handicap ramp could be built in the auditorium. No one objects and you get this wonderful feel-good moment.

BUT!

Sue and her diabolical self just wrote Figgins a check for three new handicap ramps for the school. What?! Will is stumped and suggests that her erratic behavior is caused by a brain tumor.

Then we find out the Sue Sylvester is HUMAN. Jean, her older sister, has Downs Syndrome. I actually chocked up here. I couldn’t tell if it was from the shock or the tender moment.

We know what you're thinking. We're thinking it, too: "AWWW!"

Tina and Artie are on a date in the school hallway. Tina makes a move on Artie and then tells him that her stutter is faked. Artie gets really pissed and leaves her alone.

Kurt reveals that he blew the note on purpose, to lay low and minimize the painful calls for his dad. There’s a really touching father-son moment and I found myself tearing up again.

The show ends with the wheelchair number and Mercedes’ “chocolate thunder”. More chills. Artie, Mercedes, and Tina all have awesome solos. The song? The Creedence Clearwater Revival classic, “Proud Mary”.

"Chocolate thunder" is right.

Next Week: Instead of matching up based on music, the Gleeks will match up based on fate and Rachels gets over Finn to fall in love with… Will?

Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Album: Bayou Country
Release Date: January 5, 1969

Out of all the bands from before my time that I listen to, I think it’s a perpetual fight between The Who and CCR for my favorite. What’s weird is the fact that CCR rarely comes up when I listen to stuff, so I tend to subconsciously put their output in the back of my mind (note that I used to do the same with Pearl Jam). But then I turn on an album like Bayou Country, and suddenly I remember just how much I love John Fogerty’s straining vocals, the guitars that alternate between frantic and funky, and the overall musical love letter for the deep south. You know, it’s a sign that something is incredibly well done when I start to feel a sense of nostalgia for a place I’ve never been. Creedence Clearwater Revival does that.

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Born on the Bayou [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==

Music Induced Euphoria Report:

Click here to go to MIE to check Eddie Vedder covering The Beatles “Blackbird”, M Ward covering CCR “Green River”, Marie Le Foret covers the Rolling Stones “Paint It Black”, Elliot Smith covers the Beatles “I’m Only Sleeping”, Ben Harper covers the Beatles “Strawberry Fields Forever”, Okkervil River cover Iggy Pop “Some Weird Sin”

“I Put a Spell on You” is a 1956 song written by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, whose recording was selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It was also ranked #313 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Hawkins had originally intended to record “I Put a Spell on You” as a refined love song, a blues ballad. He reported, however, that the producer “brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, and we came out with this weird version. I don’t even remember making the record. Before, I was just a normal blues singer. I was just Jay Hawkins. It all sort of just fell in place. I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death.”

“I Put a Spell on You” became a quick success, despite being banned by some stores and radio stations. A softer version, minus certain sounds deemed “cannibalistic”, did not chart but brought Hawkins together with Alan Freed and his “Rock and Roll Review”. Up to this time, Hawkins had been a blues performer; emotional, but not wild. Freed suggested a gimmick to capitalize on the “demented” sound of “I Put a Spell on You”: Hawkins wore a long cape, and appeared onstage by rising out of a coffin in the midst of smoke and fog. The act was a sensation, later bolstered by tusks worn in Hawkins’ nose, on-stage snakes and fireworks, and a cigarette-smoking skull named “Henry”. The theatrical act was one of the first shock rock performances, and was the progenitor of much that came later in rock and roll, who vied for Hawkins’ title as a rock and roll madman.

My favorite performance of the song is that of Creedence Clearwater Revival

gaur ostirala da eta bukatu den asteari musika jartzerako orduan ez zait bururatzen beste abesti hobeagorik. creedence clearwater revival talde mitikoak aspaldi oparitu zigun abesti eder hau zurekin banatuko dut orain. john fogertyren hitzek dioten bezala, kandela bat piztuko dogu, hemen ez dauden guztiekin gogoratzeko. eskuetan daukagun denbora aprobetxatzen jakin behar dugula esateko, inoiz ahaztu gabe asteburua eta bizi guztia dauzkagula aurretik:
long as i can see the light

Put a candle in the window, ’cause I feel I’ve got to move.
Though I’m going, going, I’ll be coming home soon,
‘Long as I can see the light.

Pack my bag and let’s get movin’, ’cause I’m bound to drift a while.
When I’m gone, gone, you don’t have to worry long,
‘Long as I can see the light.

Guess I’ve got that old trav’lin’ bone, ’cause this feelin’ won’t leave me alone.
But I won’t, won’t be losin’ my way, no, no
‘Long as I can see the light.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Oh, Yeah!

Put a candle in the window, ’cause I feel I’ve got to move.
Though I’m going, going, I’ll be coming home soon,
Long as I can see the light.

Las primeras encarnaciones de Creendence Clearwater Revival llevaban por nombre The Visions y The Golliwogs a mediados de los 60, y sonaban como los grupos beat británicos pre-psicodélicos, antes de que el servicio militar llamara a filas a John Fogerty y al batería John Clifford. Cuando dejaron el ejército, el grupo cambió su nombre, abandonó sus pretensiones inglesas y editó su fundacional álbum de debut en 1968.
Los muchos años de giras (el grupo había venido tocando conjuntamente desde la escuela) hicieron de ellos un apetitoso proyecto de directo. Claramente motivamos por el primitivo sonido del rock’n'roll de los años 50,Creedence sirvieron una rodaja irresistible y pura de rock al estilo sureño, una aproximación a las raíces que se inspiraba en la manera en que The Band y Dylan habían dado la espalda a los excesos de la psicodelia. Curiosamente, la portada del álbum era borrosa y ligeramente lisérgica, una advertencia tramposa para lo que sería el contenido desnudo del interior.
Bayou Country, el segundo álbum de Creendence, incluía su primer gran éxito, “Proud Mary”, que vendió un millón de copias, una oda de Fogerty a la majestad de un remero del Missisipi; más adelante llegarona  las listas de éxitos diversas versiones de la misma canción. Otros momentos estelares son la versión rockera de un clásico de Little Richard, así como la pantanosa “Born On The Bayou”, la más blues, “Graveryard Train” y “Keep On Chooglin”, que Fogerty fue capaz de alargar en ocho minutos. Este éxito marcó la pauta para otros subsiguientes ocho singles, discos de oro y de platino, infiltrados en el Top 10 americano en los siguientes dos años y medio. Y en 1971, una clasificación del NME situó a la banda como el mejor grupo del mundo, por encima de los Beatles.

Tracklist:
01-Born On The Bayou.
02-Bootleg.
03-Graveyard Train.
04-Good Golly Miss Molly.
05-Penthouse Paper.
06-Proud Mary.
07-Keep On Chooglin’.

Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” Pop # 1, R&B # 1

By Joel Francis

Producer and songwriter Norman Whitfield had finally triumphed. His fourth attempt at recording “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” had finally made it past Berry Gordy’s Quality Control meetings and triumphed at the top of the charts. Now, just over a year later, he wanted to release an earlier version of the song recorded by Marvin Gaye. Label honcho Berry Gordy had denied Whitfield’s request to release Gaye’s “Grapevine” before Gladys Knight had a hit with the song. His stance would not change. Whitfield was successful, however, in getting the song inserted on Gaye’s “In the Groove” album. Just as he had hoped, listeners started requesting “Grapevine” and DJs clamored for Motown to release the song as a single. Finally released in late October, 1968, “Grapevine” shot to the top of both the pop and R&B charts, outselling Knight’s version and becoming the biggest-selling Motown single to date. The song was so popular, Gaye’s album “In the Groove” was renamed “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”

The path to getting the song recorded wasn’t much smoother. Whitfield spent a month recording the backing track with the Funk Brothers, Detroit Symphony and backing vocal group the Andantes. During these sessions, Gaye and Whitfield started to argue over the vocal arrangement. Whitfield, who worked primarily with the Temptations, wanted Gaye to sing above his natural ranges, as David Ruffin did on the Tempt’s hit “Ain’t To Proud To Beg.” Gaye initially resisted, but finally gave in. The combination of Gaye’s rasp and the Andantes convinced Whitfield he had a hit. Now he had to persuade Gordy.

Gaye’s version of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” bears little resemblance to the song Knight took to No. 1. The defining organ line in Gaye’s arrangement barely appears in Knight’s version. Her reading was all about funk and atmosphere; Gaye’s speaks directly to the lyrics. His strained voice is haunting and filled with pain. And while the emphasis is placed on the strings, check out the great interaction between the bass and drums and the great drum sound. It almost sounds tribal.

This reading of “Grapevine” has become the definitive version, but that hasn’t stopped dozens of other artists from trying their hand. Hoping to strike lightning thrice, Whitfield gave the song to the Temptations, who included it on their 1969 album “Puzzle People.” In 1970, Creedence Clearwater Revival released a blistering 11 minute version that featured lots of fretwork and jamming from the usually concise quartet. Talk-box titan and funkmaster Roger Troutman took the song back to No. 1 on the R&B charts with his 1982 cover. The song was also famously co-opted by the California Raisins (and sung by former Jimi Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles) in 1986.

Puntaje del Disco: 4

1. Lookin’ for a Reason: 5
2. Take It Like a Friend: 3
3. Need Someone to Hold: 4
4. Tearin’ Up the Country: 3
5. Someday Never Comes: 6
6. What Are You Gonna Do?: 3
7. Sail Away: 4
8. Hello Mary Lou: 7
9. Door to Door: 3
10. Sweet Hitch-Hiker: 8

La década de los ’70 había arrancado para Creedence tan bien como había culminado la anterior. En 1970 habían lanzado dos grandes discos como “Cosmo’s Factory” en Julio y “Pendulum” en Diciembre, en los que entre otros, se destacaban clásicos como “I Hearth it Through the Grapevine” y “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”.Todo hacía suponer que lo próximo que editarían, si bien difícilmente fuese tan bueno como lo anterior, mantendría un nivel de coherencia y seguiría una misma línea. Sin embargo, ciertas diferencias entre los hermanos Fogerty durante la grabación de “Pandulum”, provocaron que Tom se marchara de la banda reclamando mayor intervención creativa. Las consecuencias de dicho alejamiento tuvieron su repercusión, lamentablemente, en la música.

Fue así como John Fogerty estableció un método más “democrático” de participación para los demás integrantes del grupo: cada uno escribiría y produciría su propia música. Graso error. Con esta decisión quedó en evidencia de que el genio creativo de Creedence provenía básicamente del menor de los Fogerty.

Este nuevo acuerdo que debieron aceptar Stu Cook y Doug Clifford dio como resultado el séptimo y último disco en la carrera de CCR: “Mardi Gras”; un lamentable material que culminó con la trayectoria de una de las mejores bandas de country rock de los Estados Unidos.

El mismo arte de tapa es una antesala de lo malogrado del disco. Con colores opacos la imagen muestra a una niña en el centro sosteniendo una especie de escudo en lo alto. Continuando con estas fallas, por llamarlo de alguna manera, las participaciones de Cook y Clifford son verdaderamente olvidables. “Take It Like a Friend” y “Need Someone to Hold” carece completamente de ritmo y no aportan nada. “Door to Door” intenta un estilo rockero con riffs de guitarra pero más que eso, es sólo ruido carente de sentido.

Por otro lado son rescatables del disco las canciones a cargo de Fogerty, quien con temas como “Lookin’ for a Reason” y especialmente “Sweet Hitch-Hiker” mantienen algunas cenizas del fuego que supo encender CCR a fines de los ’60. La buena versión  “Hello Mary Lou” y pasajes como en “Someday Never Comes” balancean el puntaje de un disco pero que no obstante dejan la sensación que Creedence merecía despedirse con mayores honores.

Piro

In Birthday Memorial for Daniel David Boyles