CCR’s Proud Mary has always bothered me. It’s a song about this guy that got fed up with the Man, and went and did a bunch of odd jobs until he was able to score a gig on a Mark Twain-style riverboat. It’s the last verse that has always disturbed me:
If you come down to the river,
Bet you gonna find some people who live.
You don’t have to worry 'cause you have no money,
People on the river are happy to give.
Excuse me? That’s pretty presumptuous, man. Did they even bother to check with the people on the river? Do you think the river people have been putting up with the occasional hippy on the doorstep for nearly forty years, asking if they’d hand over some spare change and clothing because John Fogerty said they’d be cool with it?
CCR said that people on the river are happy to give. But what if that isn’t true?
Actually, this did bother me a bit back in the '70s. I imagined that throngs of Fogerty-fueled freeloaders were going to head down to Louisiana hoping to mooch off the “people on the river.”
A friend who lives in San Francisco told me that he was a bit peeved in the '60s with the song “San Francisco” that encouraged hippies to wear some flowers in their hair, and assured them that “summertime will be a love-in there” and “you’re going to meet some gentle people there.” Yeah, just what every town needs, more deadbeats with flowers in their hair.
Only semi-related, but has anyone seen Creedence Clearwater Revisited? Do they even come close without Fogerty? I have a pair of tickets and am hesitant to use them.
I’ve only read about CCRevisited. I have to tell you that I’ve never read anything good about them. You have the bassist and the drummer and some other guys. Try to imagine what a band sounds like, who didn’t write any of the material they’re playing, didn’t play many of the parts on the records, and never sang on them, but are performing them anyway, billing themselves as something like the original. I’ve got nothing against Cosmo and Stu, but jeezus. Creedence Clearwater this ain’t.
They’re the equivalent of an edition of ELO without Jeff Lynne, which is only rumored to exist. Nobody will actually admit to having seen or heard them, or having bought any of their records.
Thanks, fishbicycle. The tickets I have are at a venue where you can bring your own picnic and alcohol and relax on the lawn. I guess I’ll just bring more booze and not expect too much from the band.
I have their Recollection CD, the second disc of which was recorded live. They sound like a CCR tribute band, which isn’t really a bad thing. I just wish “Suzie Q” and “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” didn’t drone on for so long…
What a missed opportunity. It would have been so much more evocative to say “chopped a lot of cane…” Would have evoked images of Leadbelly at Angola, of searing southern Louisiana heat and humidity in the high summer. Would have been a lot more “classically Southern.”
Ah Fogerty, as much as you wanted to be a Southerner, you were really a poseur all along.
…which is not to say I don’t love your songs. I do.
How do you pump pain? I think he was nippin’ at the giggle juice when he wrote it. He’s just pissed off because Tina had a better hit with 'tane. Cuz it actually makes sense.