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Concert, Los Angeles, USA, 1997
(By Jay Cocks and James Willwerth)
There is a secret at the heart of all John Fogerty's songs, an unbroken connection to the magic and mystery in
the American musical past that conjoins Delta blues and garage bands, urban riffs and pedal steel, folklore and
the Brill Building. You can find its point of fine convergence in the fierceness of Fogerty's singing, the grace of
his imagination, the implacable drive of his spirit. He can do what only the greatest American songwriters can:
make music that sounds, even when you first hear it, as if you've known it forever. Music that's more than
something you grew up with. Music that's a birthright.
But all this has come at a heavy price. Fogerty's wondrous new album, Blue Moon Swamp (Warner Bros.),
follows a decade of anger, frustration, fear and hard-won resolution. But you don't hear the turmoil that went into
the making of these songs. Instead you feel the confidence and ebullience of an artist renewed, covering the ground
at the height of his power, even if the album's 12 tunes work out, on average, to one every 10 months or so.
Ask him why the album took so long, and Fogerty, 52 this week, has an explanation as honest and ardent as his
lyrics: "The record was no f__ing good until now. There was no way I was going to make a record that was no good.
You keep going until you get it. Thirty years ago, I was part of a world-famous
Rock'n'Roll band. It's silly to think I'd
ever be there again. But the one thing I can control is that I can still make a full-fledged bad-ass record.
Can I do it in one year? I'll try. But if it takes five years, I'll do that."
That band he talks about was, of course, Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of the most successful of all American
rock groups and, hands down, one of the greatest. From roughly mid-1968 through 1972, Creedence had a string of
gold albums and Top 10 singles (Proud Mary, Lodi, Who'll Stop the Rain), almost all written by Fogerty. But the band
broke up in 1972, burned out and greatly ticked off that the lion's share of the attention was directed to Fogerty.
He rated all of it, and more. But Fogerty, on his own, seemed to be fighting demons. Adopting a fictitious band name,
he made an album in 1973 called Blue Ridge Rangers (Fantasy) on which he sang heavy doses of country, bluegrass
and R & B, and played every instrument. He released a superb solo album under his own name two years later but got
entangled in protracted legal bloodletting with the head of his former label, Saul Zaentz (who is also the much Oscared
producer of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and The English Patient). It's a fight that continues to this day.
"I haven't been paid properly in 17 years," Fogerty says. "That will give you a handle on why I was so angry." He didn't
record again for almost 10 years, and when he did, on 1985's smashing Centerfield (Warner Bros.), he got in some licks
at his adversary in a hard-driving tune called Zantz Kant Danz, with a chorus
that warned:
"Zantz can't dance/ But he'll steal your money/ Watch him or he'll rob you blind."
The ordeal left its mark in personal frustrations and creative stagnation. Fogerty's first marriage broke up in 1987.
He heard music in his head but couldn't reproduce it to his own satisfaction. As he worked on Blue Moon Swamp's
eerie A Hundred and Ten in the Shade, he thought the tune needed the insinuating underpinning of a bottleneck guitar.
Instead of hiring a player, Fogerty commenced to teach himself the technique and, after a year, "I got fairly proficient.
[Then] it became obvious that it was the wrong sound. It didn't match what was in my head. I finally realized it was the
Dobro sound I was hearing." So he taught himself to play Dobro, an acoustic instrument that is played slide guitar-style
on the lap. It turned out to be a 3 1/2-year undertaking. But he got it right that time.
He also got himself a new wife, Julie, now 37, a stepdaughter and two young sons, a "reconnection to the man who
wrote those songs" for Creedence that for years he refused to sing, and a new album that can stand with the best
he's ever done. He plays the Dobro on a tune for Julie--Joy of My Life, "the only love song I've ever written" and
a symbol of his revival. "I'd lost the ability to create," he says. "I've found it again. I call it the miracle."
Trying to dredge Blue Moon Swamp out of himself, Fogerty took several trips--"pilgrimages," he calls them --to the
Mississippi Delta. "I was chasing ghosts," he says. Perhaps it was those ghosts of Robert Johnson and all the other
blues men who drove off his demons, and produced a miracle that all of us can
share.
Concert, Gothenburg, Sweden,
November 11, 1997 (By Anders Carlsson)
He came to Gothenburg, this time as a "swamp-rock-expert", loaded with guitars and sucking
on a play list that make most of the rock worlds musicians thinking about their
future shows.
Heīs just a genuine guy from the west coast - California is his home. But, thatīs
not what you think when he
starts to play. No, his music shows steam along the country rock highway and lots of Mid West strings on
the Amtrak coach road that run through the US Country Western States. This is another revival for this guy
that started a band in the local school - Potola Jr. High, in the East Bay - San Francisco. The band, then,
was called "The Blue Velvets" and the year was 1959. Then "The Golliwogs" started
their career in 1964.
That band later became "Creedence Clearwater Revival", they broke up, JF run a steady
solo career through the 80īs "Centerfield",
vanished for about ten years (to the greater part of the public),
popped up, showing his best side spring 1997 with his new album "Blue
Moon Swamp", 12 genuine tracks of
blues rock, sprung out of the Mississippi delta.
With the power of a swamp alligator, JF play his music in Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg, Sweden. He belongs
to the group of artists that prefer a perfect musical craft knowledge instead of commercial self-assured
mambo-jambo. This manīs guitar play seems to get better and better every time
you hear him play. Nowadays
he handle most of the instruments on the market - fender guitars, mandolins, electric
sitars, lap steel and
dobroīs. Heīs become a guitar-riff-headmaster and it feels like the distance between his and Keith Richards
handling of the guitar, isnīt that great any more.
The band he brought along, looked like "background figures", with exception of
the drummer, Kenny Aronoff - the
most powerful drummer on the earth today.
At Scandinavium Arena you could feel the good old days return when songs like "Lodi", "Loookin out my back door",
and "Midnight Special" where roaring out and the audience, who already knew the
lyrics, sang along. You actually
notice JF get touched by the way the audience responded to the old hits and even
more when he finds out that
they also know the songs from both the "Centerfield" and "Blue Moon Swamp" albums by heart. He just stopped
singing and let the public take the lead singing part instead.
The first half hour of the show, you listen to classic hits like "I Put A Spell On You" and new ones like
"Bring It Down To Jelly Roll" from the album "Blue
Moon Swamp".
Things really hit the maximum stage of ecstasy when the band slow down to a more
acoustic set and Aronoff
changes to a drum set made more for clubs. He took the audience by surprise and
did show that he is good at
what heīs doing.
I believe JFīs music is good to listen to where ever you are but however you look
at it, maybe this music
get it credits in a club instead of a huge place like Scandinavium Arena. The five on stage did their job
and are worth more than just those standing ovations they got after 2.5 hours show. They managed to cope with
the size of the arena and it seemed like JF knew precisely what songs to play
for the Swedish audience
The drummer - Aronoff - seemed to enjoy the evening, laughing all the time behind the drum set.
JF`s drilling through the American music, searching for the genuine expression
in music, combined with the
great sense of putting the lyrics together, makes him a very interesting artist.
Even if there are no other shimmering light on stage, JF stands tall in his creased blue jeans. The man is
back and this show proves it ! One thingīs for sure - I want to see him again, and again,...... !
Concert, Gothenburg, Sweden,
September 5, 1998 (By Peter Greendale & Anders Carlsson)
Opening band " Foreplay " (Eva Andersson!) was Swedens own " Lizette Pålsson ".
SWEDEN & JOHN FOGERTY
There is a lot of talk about John Fogerty in Sweden right now and it was a pure
fan hysteria at the Scandinavium Arena last night, which was sold right out.
Sold out means over 11.500 spectators and fans who knew what was about to happen.
John Fogerty:
the artist who's music holds no age barriers.
. . . well known in Sweden before the "Blue
Moon Swamp" hit the record stores.
. . . remembered from his days as leader of "Creedence Clearwater Revival".
. . . has probably the best fan base per capita in the world in Sweden.
. . . remember, has been away from the record studio for about eleven years before
the "Blue Moon Swamp", and once
again, he stepped straight into our hearts and our homes.
. . . the album "Blue Moon Swamp" did sell in 4.2 million copies in Sweden only and
there are no more than 9,5 million people living in Sweden !!
Saturday night, more than 11.500 people came to hear his music and see him perform.
JF entered the stage and said " - It's good to be back ".
Over 11.500 fans cheered him on, almost all of them with their hands in the air.
JF of course has the crowd in the palm of his hand right from the start. Like a
teenage boys band, the group started the intro beat of " Born On the Bayou "
at 8.15 PM, as the curtain where pulled apart. "Green River", "Looking Out
My Back Door" and "Lodi" quickly followed, making the fans cheer, sing-a-long and scream out the lyrics.
JF and the band really showed that they love what they are doing. He gave it all to his fans. You could
feel that he was happy to be back in Sweden, no wonder, with such a welcome. He is genuine and he
shows no sign of resting on his laurels.
FROM THE SWAMP
JF uses every inch (cm) of the stage to communicate with his fans. In fact he
runs about
like a man 30 years younger than his 53 years. He looks good in his black pants, western
shirt and boots, looks really refresh and glad to be back in Sweden.
With his music straight from the heart of rockīn`roll, from the swamps of Louisiana,
he let all the alligators loose at the same time. Like a flash in the night, old songs from his
Creedence Clearwater Revival era roars from the stage mixed with his new solo songs.
It is a superb mix of old and new hits. He showed that he has one of the classic Rock'n'Roll
voices, up there with Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Little Richard.
But when he slows things down, the lights are dimmed and the stage becomes
smaller and more intimate with some sorts of " unplugged set ", the momentum slows
down and John goes into his " ballad " section of the show.
His ballads are not high point of the night. The songs performed in this section,
were a welcome relief to the crowd. " Working On A Building ", " Joy Of My Life ",
" Blue Moon Nights " were a rest from the rest of the rockin' night.
With a career of more than 30 years, he has a lot of aces still up his sleeve.
The second portion of the show, kicked off with " Centerfield " and " Down On
the Corner ".
GREAT MUSICIANS
John Fogerty selects only the best musicians for his band. The four on stage
were great and gave him the best possible support. It does matter if itīs
straight ahead Rock'n'Roll or country or ballads, they stand firm
behind their man.
I must say that I was very impressed with how John handled the guitar. He has
actually improved since I saw him last - in November 1997. He twists and turns the
stings and creates a sound that only he can do, sometimes aggressive, sometimes
with a gentle touch. On top of this, his voice is very special, as strong as ever, sharp
and powerful as a knife.
JF is able to relax and rely on the hits from the CCR era, or he can dip into his solo
career with equal effect on the crowd. He is also able to let the audience do
the vocal
chores such as with " Cottonfields ".
The top audience performance, was when he started the intro of " Cottonfield ",
the
crowd took over the singing totally. He hardly sang a full sentence and then the
Swedish
audience showed him that they are as good at singing his songs as he is.
It is amazing how good it works. The audience took the challenge and did not let
themselves down.
HIGHLIGHTS
The sensitive part the concert belonged to "Whoīll Stop the Rain", the nostalgic part "Up Around
the Bend", the timeless rock part, "Down On the Corner", the sing-a-long part to " Have You
Ever Seen the Rain". The one and only "Proud Mary", and then of course my favorite"
Travelin'
Band" closed the show.
ADULT Rock'n'Roll
JF on stage in 1998 is adult rockīn`roll at it's brilliant best. We will now have to wait for the next
time, as John told us that he would come back here any time that we want him to. John told us,
just before his last encore song, that next time the concert here will be twice as long ( 4 hours
and 30 minutes ???? ) as today. This is what John Fogerty promised the Swedish and European people
at Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg !
