One of the great names of americana is back with new recordings of many of his classic songs.
When it comes to trying to identify the founding fathers of what we think of as americana, the name of John Fogerty must feature near the top of any list. Fogerty created a distinctive sound, fusing blues, country, pop, rockabilly, R&B, swamp boogie, and Southern rock & roll and combining that with powerful, resonant lyrics, telling stories of blue-collar America. It’s hardly surprising that Bruce Springsteen recently spoke on his behalf at the American Music Honours.
He’s a Grammy winner, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and a Songwriters Hall of Famer. He’s even in the Baseball Hall of Fame for his song ‘Centrefield’, which is played regularly at stadiums across the USA, so an album under the title of “Legacy” would seem very fitting indeed. And what an album it is, released by Concorde Records, it’s 20 tracks in total and, as the saying goes, it’s “all killer, no filler”! The album includes all the classic songs from his years in CCR, ‘Proud Mary’, ‘Bad Moon Rising’, ‘Born on the Bayou’, etc, etc. It’s a perfect greatest hits package, and if you don’t have any John Fogerty/CCR recordings, then this is a 10/10 package.
That’s the positive stuff. The big question is, who is going to buy this? Are there any fans of americana, rock, even pop that don’t have some CCR somewhere in their collection? There are already greatest hits packages out there for CCR, so what does “Legacy” offer that’s different? The answer is “Not a lot”. Intriguingly, the full title of the album is “Legacy: the Creedence Clearwater Revival years. John’s version”, and that suggests there might be something different about these tracks. This is John Fogerty re-recording all these tracks, backed by his sons, Shane and Tyler Fogerty, and the suggestion is that they are different to the way they were recorded with the original band, that Fogerty has a different take to offer on his classic songs. However, the reality is that the original Creedence Clearwater Revival recordings were also John’s versions, and there probably hasn’t ever been a recording of a John Fogerty song, that involved Fogerty himself, that wasn’t his version. Fogerty wrote and arranged all the major CCR songs and has always had a very clear vision of what he wanted his songs to sound like.
This is a man who, by his own admission, would go back into the studio after recording was supposedly finished, and replace his bandmates’ parts with his own versions, including the drum tracks. Fogerty always had to be in control, again, by his own admission (his autobiography, “Fortunate Son”, makes for fascinating reading). So what we get on what is a very good album, is John Fogerty’s version of a bunch of classic CCR songs that sound almost exactly like the CCR versions of those same songs. Any differences are very subtle, a slight change of tempo here, the guitar a little more forward in the mix there. The production does sound fresher and brighter, but you would expect that with modern technology and over 50 years between the original recordings and this new set. Fogerty himself is in fine voice, particularly given that he turned 80 back in May, and his guitar playing is as strong as ever, and if he’s trying to reach a new audience, then this may well be the record to do that. He has been particularly active this year, with a keynote speech at SXSW, and headlining sets at New Orleans JazzFest, Glastonbury, and the Hollywood Bowl. He has collaborated with Eric Church on a new version of his song, ‘Up Around The Bend’, to create a new NASCAR anthem, and worked with the German electronic duo, The Outliers, for a new version of ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’ (neither of which deviates significantly from the CCR recordings). He is probably more active now than he has been for many years and it’s great to see such an iconic figure engaging with new audiences in this way.
It would have been nice to hear something a little different from John Fogerty at this point in his career. Maybe a stripped down, acoustic approach to some of his classic songs, or some new material working with more contemporary artists but, as another saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and Fogerty’s fine set of great songs is definitely not broke – and they are his songs, so he can play them as he pleases. He has unquestionably left a legacy of great songs, and if you don’t have any previous recordings from Fogerty or CCR, you should grab this with both hands. For those of us already familiar with all these tracks, can we have something different now, please?
I think you may be referring to this rather excellent album .
It’s called Wrote a song for everyone.
Hi Steve – I have a copy of ‘Wrote A Song For Everyone’. Personally, I found it patchy. Some of the collaborations work well, but some seem much less successful to me.
I thought you might have. But any album with him and Bob Seger together was worth buying.
Don‘t agree with the Statement of Mr. Bayles! Why stripped down versions? Why?
Not sure it was a statement so much as an opinion, but you’re always welcome to disagree with anything I write.
Yes, John has been promising fans new material since his last “new” album Revival back in 2007. As for the reviewer’s suggestions about acoustic or duet versions of John’s classics, see the albums Fogerty’s Factory or Wrote a Song for Everyone respectively. If his wife comes up with another way to scrounge more coin from old material, you can be sure John will implement it!
I thought the idea was that he would be able to make a little money out of his compositions, having been robbed for years by the recording company.
He’s actually had ownership of his older songs since 2023, when he finally managed to buy back the rights. So he has been earning from the publishing since then. But he did get badly ripped off in the early years, as did many of his contemporaries.
John Fogerty has spent over half a century fighting for ownership of his songs. A couple of years ago, he finally won back the publishing rights to his music—a long-awaited victory. This album, featuring re-recordings of his classic Creedence Clearwater Revival hits, is a celebration of that hard-fought reclaiming of his work. Given the significance of this moment, it’s only natural that he would choose to revisit these songs rather than release something new.
It’s a fair point. But for most of us who have followed his music, we already have these songs, and often in multiple forms, so it would be nice to hear something new. As I said in my review, these are great songs. They’re also (finally) his songs and he can now do what he wants with them and I think it’s great that he’s reaching out to a new audience, but it would also be nice to hear some new material.