This is a track from the album Cosmo's Factory. The beginning and end of this song are random choogling in the customary Creedence Clearwater Revival style. But the middle part is awesome beyond words: it's an extended instrumental break based on a simple chord sequence - C, G, D, and A minor - and there's something in the way that these chords are joined together that somehow resonates deeply for me. (When I heard this for the first time, I nearly burst into tears when I heard the lead guitar solo that is added on top of it.) The chord sequence is so powerful that I can get a burst of that feeling when I play the chords myself and I'm not much of a guitarist.
Creedence Clearwater Revival were from El Cerrito, California, which is in the San Francisco Bay area. They formed in 1959 as Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets, featuring brothers Tom and John Fogerty on guitar, Stuart Cook on bass, and Doug Clifford on drums. In 1964, when they were signed to Fantasy Records, the label's co-owner named them The Golliwogs. Under this name, they released singles between 1964 and 1967 without success.
In 1968, they renamed themselves Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Fogerty took over complete control of the band, writing and singing all of their songs. Between 1968 and 1971, they placed nine songs in the Top 10 in the Billboard Hot 100, including five songs that reached #2; they never reached #1. Creative disputes between the band members caused them to disband by 1972.
Fantasy Records retained legal control of CCR's recordings and were so zealous about enforcing this control that they sued John Fogerty over his solo release of "The Old Man Down The Road", claiming that it was a rewrite of Fogerty's 1970 song for CCR, "Run Through The Jungle". A jury ruled that Fogerty could not be sued for plagiarizing himself.
John Fogerty regained the legal rights to his CCR songs in 2023, when he bought the rights from Concord Records, which had itself bought Fantasy Records. He has had an extensive solo career, including one song, "Centerfield", which has embedded itself into American culture. Tom Fogerty passed away in 1990 from a complication of AIDS, contracted from a tainted blood transfusion he received while undergoing back surgery. Clifford and Cook formed Creedence Clearwater Revisited in 1995 and have toured around the world performing CCR songs.
Created August 31, 2026.