Creedence Clearwater Revival Green River CD

Creedence Clearwater Revival: John Fogerty (vocals, guitar); Tom Fogerty (guitar); Stu Cook (bass); Doug Clifford (drums).
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
If anything, CCR's third album Green River represents the full flower of their classic sound initially essayed on its predecessor, Bayou Country. One of the differences between the two albums is that Green River is tighter, with none of the five-minute-plus jams that filled out both their debut and Bayou Country, but the true key to its success is a peak in John Fogerty's creativity. Although CCR had at least one cover on each album, they relied on Fogerty to crank out new material every month. He was writing so frequently that the craft became second-nature and he laid his emotions and fears bare, perhaps unintentionally. Perhaps that's why Green River has fear, anger, dread, and weariness creeping on the edges of gleeful music. This was a band that played rock & roll so joyously that they masked the, well, "sinister" undercurrents in Fogerty's songs. "Bad Moon Rising" has the famous line "Hope you've got your things together/Hope you're quite prepared to die," but that was only the most obvious indication of Fogerty's gloom. Consider all the other dark touches: the "Sinister purpose knocking at your door"; the chaos of "Commotion"; the threat of death in "Tombstone Shadow"; you only return to the idyllic "Green River" once you get lost and realize the "world is smolderin'." Even the ballads have a strong melancholy undercurrent, highlighted by "Lodi," where Fogerty imagines himself stuck playing in dead-end towns for the rest of his life. Not the typical thoughts of a newly famous rock & roller, but certainly an indication of Fogerty's inner tumult. For all its darkness, Green River is ultimately welcoming music, since the band rocks hard and bright and the melancholy feels comforting, not alienating. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Creedence Clearwater Revival were part of a second wave of San Francisco groups, but unlike their geographical contemporaries, the quartet offered a disciplined music, indebted to '50s rock & roll and southern "swamp" styles. Leader, singer and songwriter John Fogerty possesses one of rock's most distinctive voices, his hoarse, urgent intonation matched by his group's mathematically precise drive. GREEN RIVER, their third album, includes two million-selling singles, the bluesy title track and "Bad Moon Rising," both of which encapsulate the Creedence metier. Remaining selections exhibit a similar economy, crammed with punchy hooklines, tight playing, and incisive lyrics, which take inspiration from traditional styles but in the process create something unique.Rolling Stone (p.74) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "The band's most sustained achievement....['Bad Moon Rising'] wraps a blithe rockabilly swing around a soothsayer's ominous vision of oncoming apocalypse."
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.118) - Ranked #95 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...A tightly wrapped package of blistering guitar, road-house-rhythm snap and John Fogerty's backwoods howl..."
Rolling Stone (10/18/69, p.38) - "...[CCR] is one of the most exciting and satisfying bands around....their distinctive driving sound, when fused with Fogerty's vocals, results in something so fine....[GREEN RIVER] is a great album..."