Bad Moon Rising: The Unauthorized History of Creedence Clearwater Revival - Softcover

Bordowitz, Hank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155652661X ISBN 13: 9781556526619

Verlag: A Cappella Books, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

Rightly called the saddest story in rock 'n' roll history, this Creedence biography—newly updated with stories from band members, producers, business associates, close friends, and families—recounts the tragic and triumphant tale of one of America’s most beloved bands. Hailed as the great American rock band from 1968 to 1971, Creedence Clearwater Revival captured the imaginations of a generation with classic hits like “Proud Mary,” “Down on the Corner,” “Green River,” “Born on the Bayou,” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain.” Mounting tensions among bandmates over vibrant guitarist and lead vocalist John Fogerty’s creative control led to the band's demise. Tracing the lives of four musicians who redefined an American roots-rock sound with unequaled passion and power, this music biography exposes the bitter end and abandoned talent of a band left crippled by debt and dissension.

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Hank Bordowitz is a veteran music journalist, a former recording artist, and a music business consultant. He is the author of seven critically acclaimed books, including Billy Joel, Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business, Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright, and Turning Points of Rock and Roll.

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Bad Moon Rising

The Unauthorized History of Creedence Clearwater Revival

By Hank Bordowitz

Chicago Review Press Incorporated

Copyright © 1998 Hank Bordowitz
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-55652-661-9

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
Introduction: "The Saddest Story in Rock and Roll", 
Part One — Blue Velvet Golliwogs: 1958-1967, 
1 "I Was the Leader Already", 
2 "I Had the Money to Pay for the Sessions", 
3 "Cast Your Fate to the Wind", 
4 "He Had a Sound", 
Part Two — We're Creedence Clearwater Revival: 1967-1972, 
5 "We Knew Saul Mostly as a Friend", 
6 "We Were in the Right Place at the Right Time", 
7 "I, for One, Didn't Want to Go Back to the Car Wash", 
8 "No Substitute for Plain Old Talent", 
9 "Four Individuals Who Make Up a Fifth Person", 
10 "Richard Nixon Is a Great Inspiration", 
11 "A Very Healthy, Positive Organization", 
12 "That's Why I Do This", 
13 "John and Tom Were at Odds", 
14 "The Night of the Generals", 
15 "We're Going to Retire Tom's Number", 
16 "Better as a Trio", 
17 "You Do Yours and I'll Do Mine", 
18 "The Success Became a Nightmare", 
Part Three — Put Us in Coach: 1972-1987, 
19 "He Wanted to Play All the Positions", 
20 "A Death Grip on My Ankle", 
21 "It Just Didn't Ring My Bell", 
22 "Depositions in the City", 
23 "That Makes Me Choke", 
24 "A Nice Metaphor for My Comeback Album", 
25 "All I Did Was Write a Song about a Pig", 
26 "Devious Perfidy", 
27 "There They Are, Screwing Me Again", 
Part Four — "The Only Way We Talk to John Is Through Our Lawyers": 1988-2007, 
28 "A Divorce That Never Heals", 
29 "Don't Let Him Go Without Saying Good-bye", 
30 "Down to the Crossroads, to Get the Scent Back", 
31 "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ... Was a Really Ugly Event", 
32 "Fogerty Hijacked the Whole Creedence Thing", 
33 "We're Not Doing This to Hurt Him", 
34 "When Are You Going to Play Something Where You Actually Earn Money?", 
35 "I Get More Amazed by the Weirdness of It All", 
36 "Oh John, I Saw Your Commercial", 
37 "I'm Not Angry", 
38 "Deja Vu All Over Again", 
39 "Flying Pigs and Frozen Hell", 
40 "I Was His Biggest Fan", 
Discography, 
Notes, 
Bibliography, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

"I WAS THE LEADER ALREADY"

In 1958 rock music had passed its infancy — it was more like a toddler — but it still was not reputable. Not many high schools had even one rock band, let alone junior highs. Especially not in a quiet, working-class suburb like El Cerrito, California. Only a twenty-mile drive from the corner of Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco, only perhaps ten miles from the University of California Berkeley, culturally those towns might have existed on another planet. During the '50s through today, El Cerrito epitomizes the quiet suburb.

Jeff Fogerty, son of Creedence rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, still lives a couple of towns away. He asserts, "El Cerrito is like the most un-hip place to be in the Bay Area. It's this little, small, sleepy town two towns north of Berkeley." Even so, the '50s wrought changes on the former Spanish settlement like the decade changed nearly everything in America. Classic old adobe houses gave way to more modern homes. Old sounds gave way to new.

When John Fogerty was thirteen years old, in 1958, he got the yen to form a rock band. Most parents and even a lot of kids found rock and roll distasteful. Certainly, in Eisenhower's rosy-cheeked, apple-pie America, healthy adolescents had better things to pursue — especially in El Cerrito. Fogerty, however, had entertained the idea of forming a band for close to five years. "I envisioned being exactly what I am now since I was eight," he recalled in 1986. "I remember as early as 1953, when I was about eight years old, that I was going to name my group Johnny Corvette and the Corvettes. I had already made my choice: I was thinking about making a career out of music. Of course, I was Johnny Corvette. Somehow I was the leader already."

It started when his eldest brother, Jim, turned him on to R&B, like Ray Charles. "Around 1953, I started to notice rhythm and blues songs by Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and things like that," he told Jim Delahant in 1969. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Fogerty commented to the LA Times's Robert Hilburn, "My idols were guys who were really gritty and who were real rockers. I wanted to live up to what they did."

He recalled walking around as early as the fifth grade with a blues band playing in his head. He would sing all the parts, grunting for the drums, developing mental images of how the music would sound.

His resolve solidified when he first heard Carl Perkins. "Carl Perkins," Fogerty says, "was the first one ever to make me think about being a musician and singer. Elvis was a star, Carl was a musician. I wanted to be more like Carl."

Born on May 28, 1945, John fell smack in the middle of the five Fogerty boys. His oldest brother, Jim, was on a track that would eventually lead to work as an accountant. His immediate older sibling, Tom, had already started to make a name for himself locally as a singer when John made the momentous discovery of the power of rock and roll. Dan, about four years younger than John, eventually would own a chain of pizzerias. The youngest Fogerty sibling, Bob, took many of the photographs for his brothers' records and promotional material. He wound up in the role of John's personal manager.

Growing up in this large family could not have been easy. John's father, Gayland Robert Fogerty, worked in the print shop of the Berkeley Gazette. He had trouble with alcohol, and perhaps other mental disorders as well. He left home around 1953, fairly soon after Bob's birth, about the time John was eight.

Tom recalled, "We come from a strict middle class, middle income background. We got a pretty fair deal, I guess. Our parents divorced when I was eleven. Hell, everybody I knew came from a 'broken home.'"

"My grandfather and grandmother either divorced or separated because my grandfather was drinking pretty heavily at that point," Tom's son Jeff adds. "So she raised all five boys by herself. Eventually she became a full-time teacher."

The divorce left Lucile Fogerty to care for five growing boys spanning sixteen years in age. She worked as a store clerk while studying for her teaching degree. Then she taught handicapped children.

Things got pretty thin at times around the Fogerty house. Their father, Gayland, often missed child-support payments. "I come from what they are calling a dysfunctional family," John recalled. "I did use a lot of energy on that subject. I did hate my father. I always wished it had been better."

"Most of my struggles were mental," he said in 1970. "My old man wasn't around when I wanted an old man. My mother was a teacher who was supposedly making a good living. She really didn't get involved in my life. When she would, we finally got to the point where I said, 'Don't get involved with me. I don't want you any more. I've been doing it on my own for so long. Leave me alone.' Until a week before our first hit record, it was right there in the back of my mind, I may never get out."

John's musical life began to replace the family life he was missing: "I was always ashamed. I never brought my friends home. My room was in the basement — cement floor, cement walls. I just...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: A Cappella Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 155652661X
• ISBN 13: 9781556526619
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 400
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchbär; info@buchbaer.de; ; Weberstr. 67; Osnabrück; 49084; Deutschland