The Band was much more influential to musicians than Creedence. Their legacy goes on in a different but much greater way.
Someday never comes was in 1972. They could’ve done anything they wanted. They just weren’t real great players. There long cuts weren’t that interesting. And JF was a control freak who probably couldn’t let things happen.
I see that as a very mainstream belief, but possibly an erroneous one. It’s the sort of ‘critics darling’ school of influence. And I’ve believed that sort of criticism and influence died about 1975. It’s like those folks who claim Patti Smith is more influential than Madonna. You only get there by choosing what you mean by ‘musicians’ or ‘influential’.
I never noticed a dislike. Perhaps CCR were not as “challenging”–but they had some great songs They were not obscure, but not everybody needs to be obscure.
Besides, some of the famous San Francisco bands were gentle folkies who only learned to rock when the crazed Thirteenth Floor Elevators went West. I like folk rock, but the Dead & the Airplane learned a lot from those acid-drenched Texans. Alas, the Elevators succumbed to excess–but, if you want “obscure” they were it.
Not that the Dead & the Airplane didn’t eventually create some fine music Along with Quicksilver & guys like the Beau Brummels. How about Moby Grape? A record company created the band from some fine SF musicians & over promoted them, causing much “hip” backlash. The joke: their first album was really, really good.
Doug Sahm did his time in SF–then returned to Texas; he had serious roots & a long, ever changing career.
Back in California, SF was not all that was happening. LA had a killer scene, with Buffalo Springfield & the Byrds & the beginnings of Country Rock. Alas, Gram Parsons OD’d & left it to the Eagles.
LA also included the Doors (who had some good moments before they imploded). And the most excellent Love.
There was a* lot* of excellent music going on & CCR had their place.
By musicians I mean:
The Beatles, The Stones, Dylan (Their mutual relationship), Van Morrison, C S N and Young, together and separately, Clapton, Rod Stewart, Elton John and countless others less significant, at that time. More latterly: Wilco, Ryan Adams, and the whole No Depression and Americana movements. Not critics at all.
By influential I mean:
These artists changed their sound and outlook musically because of that band, and either said so or demonstrated it publicly.
I’ve heard the Band in all those people but I don’t hear Creedence at all. You didn’t get to that musical sway by being a singles band. The Band got there by being a two keyboard, and three singer band, one of whom was Richard Manuel, and releasing two great LPs.
You got me interested now. I’ve never been a Patti Smith consumer, but Madonna: her songs are usually duds musically. You could trace a lot back to Patti, musically, and visually. I think I would. I’m curious: What are you tracing back to Madonna?
CCR played at our high school senior ball, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, in June of 1968. JUST before they hit it.
Suzie Q on the album was a very long song - not a very good one, but long. They might have lasted longer without all the fighting with their record company.
I liked them well enough for what they were, a singles band with a distinctive sound. But I suspect some people might have resented that they put on country airs though their roots were about as far from country as you can get. In a time of greater authenticity their act was just an act.
They wrote neither of those tunes, however.
…just sayin’.
If true it was probably because they were straight ahead rock 'n roll, not acid tripping or psychedelia. In my mind they hold up as well as any American group from the era.
Some bands prompted long, convoluted conversations about the “meaning” of this song or that album cover. How about the 13th Floor Elevators’ “Slip Inside This House”–8 minutes of psychedelia whose lyrics have inspired countless stoned musings? What was Dylan up to? What about The White Album?
I could play that game. It was fun!
CCR were more straightforward & did not inspire that sort of analysis. But, back in the day, I remember smiling whenever one of their songs came on the radio. I can’t remember anybody disliking them.
“Authenticity”? In a city where Lightnin’ Hopkins still ruled, Mance Lipscomb came down from Navasota from time to time and Clifton Chenier & his Red Hot Louisiana Band played in Frenchtown clubs, the “authenticity” of any white longhairs was nothing to crow about.
Lifestyle was a big thing. Times were changing, there was rebellion in the air,and the music was a major part of that. A good, famous band had to do more than make good music, they were supposed to live the lifestyle.
I was a teenager in 1970. And looking back, Credence Clearwater was sort of like Three Dog Night—I remember some of their songs, but the band wasn’t a symbol of an identifable lifestyle.
I don’t associate them with being cool, with living the hippie life, with rebellion against parents, etc.
Some folks who weren’t there or don’t remember from back then, CCR inspired a late 60s/early 70s round of folks wearing plaid flannel shirts and the occasional bib overalls. And they helped Kustom amps become popular in guitarist circles.
What they had was their own distinctive sound. I think later on, it was christened “Swamp Rock”.
In 1970, I was already living on my own & supporting myself. My friends & I had our own “lifestyles” & were free to like the music we liked. I even knew people who played in bands. Of course there were status games–but nobody was trying to be cool in home room.
FM radio was into playing longer, psychedelic cuts, at times. CCR was heard on FM–*and *on the Top 40 stations. But they were “good” pop in the august tradition of, umm, three years earlier. Three Dog Night sucked.
I never heard of “Swamp Rock.” In Greater Louisiana, Swamp Popwas long established. “Judy in Disguise (with Glasses” was a late hit in the genre.
I liked them. Fogarty on his own, not at all.
“Suzie Q” is sort of a special case. It’s from their first album, before they got big… they’re much more of a jam band on that LP than on any of their later ones. If they had continued in that direction, we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion.
By the way, I went to see John Fogerty this summer, and he introduced one of the few new songs he played by saying “This is the first love song I ever wrote.” It had never occurred to me before that none of CCR’s self-penned hits were love songs – damn!
Come on, everybody loves Creedence.
Hey, you wanna see something really scary?
I discovered CCR along with the rest of the classic-rock canon in high school in the late 80s. This is the first I’ve heard they were considered unhip. I think they’re a damn good band and their best stuff holds up amazingly well.
This is the first time I’ve heard that CCR were widely hated ANYWHERE.
To be sure, some people hated them, just as some people hate ANY band. But I never heard that “everybody in San Francisco hated them” or “all the hippies despised them.”
What you WILL hear everywhere is that the other members of CCR all hated Fogerty and vice versa. Fogerty was a superb songwriter and had about 98% of the band’s talent, but he’s also a surly, vindictive cuss who holds grudges a mighty long time.
Almost every CCR album contains at least one long, rambling jam track. **Shunpiker **quibbles that they didn’t write “Suzie Q” or “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” but if it matters, they did write “Keep on Chooglin’,” “Effigy,” “Ramble Tamble,” and the wildly experimental “Rude Awakening #2.” So it’s a misconception that Creedence’s output was nothing but two-minute-thirty, radio-ready ditties. They never abandoned that jammy side. Look at *Cosmo’s Factory, *with just two songs taking up almost half of its playing time. It’s just that those 2:30 radio-ready ditties were what they were *best *at, and what they are remembered for. I’d trade all of the epics listed above for one “Green River” or “Fortunate Son”–wouldn’t you?