Creedence Clearwater Revival Photos

This to me is the finest CCR album. It doesn't have the most hit songs ('Proud Mary' was [and still is] mercilessly overplayed as a number two hit), but this set hit me square between the eyes between my freshman and sophomore years in high school. I don't know if humans imprint, but indelibly etched in my brain cells is the memory of this album being played while I soaked up a warm summer evening at a beach on Lake St. Clair. Some freaks in the parking lot had 'Born On the Bayou' blaring from their car stereo, and it was one of those moments in early adolescence when you savor your budding sense of autonomy. Of course, in the early 1970's, all manner of freedom was breaking out everywhere, helping to frame this as a touchstone experience for me.

That's not to say there isn't great music on this album which speaks for itself. 'Born On the Bayou', 'Good Golly Miss Molly' (comparing it to Mitch Ryder's #4 hit version is like comparing apples and oranges, so I won't go there... suffice it to say that it rocks every bit as much, and features a driving lead guitar that cannot be denied), 'Bootleg', 'Penthouse Pauper', and 'Keep On Chooglin' (I guess they go chooglin' instead of truckin' down South) hold their own with any other highlights from Creedence albums.

Even more than their first album, 'Bayou Country' is a blues recording, with a thick overlay of the 'pop/swamp sound' that became their signiture. 'Bootleg' and 'Chooglin' are up-tempo blues, while 'Graveyard Train' (the only weak link in this set, and the primary reason this album is being denied 5 star status) and 'Penthouse Pauper' are more laid back. Fogarty's lead guitar solo's bend, fold, and mutilate, and several songs also include John belting out mouth harp (I call it a harmonica) solo's as well. Ironically, the 'odd-song out' is 'Proud Mary', the only composition (aside from 'Good Golly...') with enough 'pop' to make it a Top-40 candidate.

At under 35 minutes (8 1/2 claimed by 'Graveyard Train') this CD won't strain how you budget your time, so take the time to strain your budget to own it. The album declared CCR to be a major playa, and together with 'Green River' and 'Cosmo's Factory', solidified their status as an elite band in rock n' roll's glory years.


Uneven - pick up Cosmo's Factory or Green River instead.   November 4, 2006
 6 out of 10 found this review helpful

Okay, this record at least gets off to a great start: the rockin' slice of self-mythology Born on the Bayou and the underrated Bootleg. Then it takes a complete u-turn, with the murky, meandering, uninteresting jam Graveyard Train. And it remains in that u-turn, first on a dull cover of Little Richard's Good Golly, Miss Molly, then with the equally forgettable Penthouse Pauper. Proud Mary (most certainly the best thing on this disc) comes along and saves the day, but it's only temporary - things close with an even less interesting jam, Keep on Chooglin'. At least Graveyard Train has interesting lyrics...
But there are some upsides. The aforementioned Proud Mary cooks, a merger of soul, gospel, rock and country. And who could forget the "World, keep on turnin'/Proud Mary keep on burnin'/Rollin', rollin', rollin' down the river" refrain? Not me, that's for sure. Born on the Bayou is another one of the centerpiece tracks and most certainly their best song not to be released as a single. And Bootleg is their best album track, a lost little gem that's actually worth buying the album for. It's uneven, but the three good tracks make it worth a look.


One of the best rockabilly albums ever   March 23, 2004
 4 out of 7 found this review helpful

The first time I heard Bayou Country right after it's release in
January 1969, it blew me away. This was truly a unique sound
that captured the imagination of practically every kid who had a guitar
or even the slightest interest in starting a garage rock band.
From the haunting, opening E7th chord salvos in "Born on the
Bayou" to one of the staples of 60's/70's pop, "Proud Mary"
and ending with the catchy, rhythmic "Keep on Chooglin' ", this album continues to amaze me how it still grabs the musical psyche.
Creedence took the San Fran. rock style of the late 60's and made it a little more palatable to the main stream.
The grooves on side one of my original vinyl have worn through to side two. This album still remains close to my heart
as a favorite, and one that helps recapture a long-squandered youth.


This Music Is Not Old   January 7, 2006
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

'Born On The Bayou' followed Creedence's debut album, and became the first in a string of immaculate, classic & fastly created classic albums, that Creedence unleashed during 1969 and 1970.
The album opens with 'Born On The Bayou', a steady rocker, that, at the same time, is both as familiar as anything Creedence, but also has a great amount of indecipherable strangeness to it, like the kind that would later surface on the 'Pendulum' album in 1970.
It is followed by the almost-excellent 'Bootleg', that sounds very much like a blueprint for the later 'Run Through The Jungle' (itself a blueprint for Fogerty's later solo hit, 'Old Man', though 'Run Through The Jungle' must be said to be the best of those three).
After the slow & bluesy 'Graveyard Train', the band rocks on with their more-than-merely-perfect cover of 'Good Golly Miss Molly', which is arguably better than Little Richard's original.
'Penthouse Pauper' is a great song of underrated brilliance, that follows much in the vein of 'Born On The Bayou', in that it sounds Creedence, but is inhabited with some very disturbing strangeness.
Then comes the smash hit of the album, & arguably the best track here, 'Proud Mary', which, together with 'Down On The Corner', is probably Creedence's best known song today (even rap fans know it). It resides over a divine intro & an equally divine chorus, one of the best singalong choruses ever.
To finish the album off, Fogerty reveals the good but not brilliant 'Keep On Chooglin''. Perhaps better used as a mid-album track than as a closer, it still works very well in just that place because of its tremendous lenght (seven minutes), and the strangeness of its position. Generally the album is wrapped in a veil of strangeness, that gives even the weaker songs a massive foundation. It is not Creedence's best record, but it is up there along with them, even if some of the songs here don't match the wonders to come.
And for everybody who thinks Creedence is just some golden oldie, then I can tell you, that this music is so living & vibrant this very day, as anything else, & that music doesn't have to rage like the Sex Pistols to survive through the decades. This music was made by young men for a young generation, and all the wonders, fears & emptiness of youth is delivered here in these magnificent songs. I know. I'm sixteen years old, and this music really means something to me. More than it does to my parents. For them it's nostalgia. For me, this is life in its purest form, rock'n'roll, which has all the colours of youth in it, in its purest form. And no passing suns can take that away!


Birth of Swamp Rock   March 10, 2000
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

When the first guitar notes of BORN ON THE BAYOU rise from out of the mud,it is definitely clear you are smack dab in the middle of BAYOU COUNTRY. This is the second release of Fogerty and co.,and what an improvement there has been.Close your eyes and you are there on the PROUD MARY riverboat;or chooglin' on down to New Orleans on a fast freight train.The playing on this album is exceptional,and (with the exception of GRAVEYARD TRAIN,which is repetitive and boring)tight.Creedence Clearwater Revival was the American band for many in the late '60s-early '70s;this release shows you why.