John Fogerty

I saw John Fogerty live in the mid-00s. It was fucking phenomenal. Those songs. That playing. The voice. The Fog was on fire and how could he not be – with Run Through The Jungle, Born On The Bayou, Long As I Can See The Light and so many more.

I’d previously seen Creedence Clearwater Revisited – the rhythm section with some jobbers filling for The Fog. And you know what…even that was great. No Fogerty growl and that shrieking-great guitar, but some good-enough approximations. The feel of the band. And again: those songs!

So the truth is with this new live album/soundtrack to a concert-special film you could just play any of the original CCR albums or compilations that you must already own and love if you’re even reading this review. Or you could (and should) check out the band’s only just officially-released Woodstock live set if you’ve not got to it yet or didn’t know about it.

You don’t really need this at all. But it’s pretty fucking good. Because it’s John Fogerty. And he still has everything that made him great.

Another part of what makes him great is how this year he donated his fee from the failed 50^th Anniversary of Woodstock event to a Las Vegas charity that provides veterans with housing; all the “Fortunate Sons”. He also hit the road around the country that inspired and grew the wonderful music that he made in celebration of it being 50 years since CCR took the Woodstock stage, the same year the band really arrived, offering three hit albums in the space of months.

You’ll also, of course, get the solo hit Centrefield, which is a big baseball hit in the states and a great purloining of La Bamba’s intro-riff. And the greatest solo Fogerty song ever, The Old Man Down The Road. A track so good it gets the ultimate honour bestowed on it: People just assume it’s yet another great CCR hit.

Here I am saying you don’t need this – meaning the bases are covered already and the original recordings still give me all I would ever need. But I’m glad I checked in. I have such fond memories of seeing The Fog just fucking own a stage and play with the right amount of rage. And this live set brings all of that back to the front of my mind. Which is exactly where I want to keep it. Always.
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