Creedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival

(Fantasy) With "Keep on Chooglin'" from its 1969 LP Bayou Country, Creedence Clearwater Revival frontman John Fogerty coined the perfect term for his band's signature sound. Despite the fact that Fogerty & Co. were California natives and weren't born on the bayou, Fogerty crafted an ineffably Southern landscape, steeped in swamp imagery, and riding a gloriously ramshackle rhythm section that choogled like a southbound train headed for New Orleans. Then there was Fogerty's voice, a firecracker engine that mixed raw power with an inimitable down-home slur, so "burnin'" in "Proud Mary" became "boi-nin'." By collecting CCR's entire catalog and packaging the band's albums chronologically, this eponymous 6-CD box set finally sets one truth in stone: Fogerty was the driving creative force and heartbeat of the band. Fogerty's late older brother Tom, CCR's rhythm guitarist, and the rhythm section of bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford long complained about John Fogerty's all-encompassing role as primary songwriter, arranger, and producer, but the grooves don't lie. In one phenomenal creative burst from 1969-70, Fogerty was the catalyst for five classic albums that yielded a stunning parade of hit singles, ranging from the scathing Vietnam protest "Fortunate Son" and the foreboding "Bad Moon Rising" to the wistful touring lament "Lodi," the back-porch jug-band stomp of "Down on the Corner" -- and that's just scratching the surface of Fogerty's songbook. The studio-LP bookends of the set shine a light on the songwriting and vocal contributions of Fogerty's bandmates, inviting unflattering comparison to John Fogerty's artistic genius. The first disc collects the output of two pre-CCR bands, Tommy Fogerty & the Blue Velvets and the Golliwogs. The former finds Tom Fogerty helming the pedestrian boogie-woogie of "Come on Baby" and the watered-down doo-wop of "Oh My Love," while the latter is a mish-mash of unremarkable British Invasion knockoffs. By the time Tom Fogerty quit in 1970 and his younger brother gave in to the demands of the rhythm section on CCR's final album, 1972's Mardi Gras, the results were lackluster, save for the lone Fogerty original, "Someday Never Comes." Still, the core of this beautifully packaged and annotated set is testament to CCR's timeless choogle.