of country covers, lovingly rendered
Further reading: Bad Moon Rising: The Unofficial Story Of Creedence Clearwater Revival (Hank Bordowitz, 1998); Up Around The Bend: The Oral History Of Creedence Clearwater Revival (Craig Werner, 1998); www.creedence-online.com
Download: Not currently legally available
Green River was CCR’s second album of 1969 and John Fogerty, their driven front-man, assumed even more power during its making – banning the rest of the band from the studio during the mix. Drummer Doug Clifford remembers: ‘It was like, “Turn in your key”. It was a lock-out. We were allowed back in for 10 minutes to do the “wah doo days” on The Night Time Is The Right Time!’
‘I just refused to let them be there because it was so disruptive,’ explains Fogerty. ‘It was a go-around I had with Tom for the whole three years we were Creedence. He kept saying, “My part’s not loud enough.” The truth is, I would write the song, and then the producer in me would take over and write the arrangement, and I would show everyone exactly how it went.’ Clifford recollects things differently. ‘The good news was that I was the only drummer in the band, and he was less stringent with me than with the other guys. All the groovy little things I put in got to stay.’ Such as the spine-tingling high-hat work at the end of the Mephistophelean swamp rock of Sinister Purpose? ‘That was pure instinct; it was just a natural process.’
The tension between the players is also manifest in the subject matter of several tracks. The titles shout for themselves – Commotion, Tombstone Shadow, Bad Moon Rising.
‘If there wasn’t a demon there John would invent one,’ bassist Stu Cook reckons, ‘which was great when he was writing!’ And in the writing Green River is almost faultless. From the churning, nostalgic country R&B of the title track to the Sun-era rockabilly bounce of Cross-Tie Walker, Fogerty assimilated his influences perfectly and the band did him proud.
‘The circumstances weren’t exactly pleasant,’ muses Clifford, ‘but we did a job. We laid down the basic tracks in two days or so, and then waited to hear the record!’
‘Some of the initial playback tapes sounded better than the final product,’ remembers Stu Cook, ‘but I suppose it was partly our fault for letting him get away with it.’ Despite these problems, the album represents the pinnacle of Creedence’s achievement, and thus one of the high points of late ’60s American rock. Fogerty agrees. ‘My favourite album is Green River. That’s the soul of where I live musically, the closest to what’s in my heart.’
Fairport Convention
Liege And Lief
The first British electric folk album.
Record label: Island (UK) A&M (US)
Produced: Joe Boyd
Recorded: Sound Techniques, London; June, October 4–November 1, 1969
Released: December 1969
Chart peaks: 17 (UK) None (US)
Personnel: Dave Swarbrick (v, mandolin, va); Sandy Denny (v, g); Richard Thompson (g); Ashley Hutchings (g, b, v); Simon Nicol (g, v); Dave Mattacks (d); John Wood (e)
Track listing: Come All Ye; Reynardine; Matty Groves; Farewell Farewell; The Deserter; The Lark In The Morning; Tam Lin; Crazy Man Michael
Running time: 36.33
Current CD: Island IMCD291 adds: Sir Patrick Spens; Quiet Joys Of Brotherhood
Further listening: For a similar excursion into folk rock check out Unhalfbricking (1969), or Fotheringay, the band formed by Sandy Denny following her departure
Further reading: Meet On The Ledge: A History Of Fairport Convention (Patrick Humphries, 1997)
Download: iTunes; HMV Digital
‘The thing is,’ said Dave Swarbrick in that informal, matey way he has of cutting right to the chase, ‘if you’re singing about a bloke having his head chopped off or a girl screwing her brother and having a baby and the brother cutting her guts open, stamping on the baby and killing his sister, that’s a fantastic story by anybody’s standards. Working with a storyline like that with acoustic instruments wouldn’t be half as potent as saying the same things electrically.’
Applying rock arrangements to traditional ballads so outraged folk purists when Fairport first tried it. It was bass player Ashley Hutchings, the Fairport member with the least folk credentials, who pushed hardest for the unequivocal move into traditional song, courting Sandy Denny and Dave Swarbrick for the band and driving even them to distraction with his obsessive fascination with the potential of folk song. It still didn’t sway everyone. Despite the contributions of Sandy and Swarb the folk world still regarded them as chancers, while rock fans frowned in confusion at their move away from more commercial West Coast roots. Rolling Stone dismissed the album as ‘boring’.
Even Richard Thompson later conceded that he felt it was artificial and contrived, yet Liege And Lief left an indelible mark on both the folk and rock worlds, providing a reference point for Steeleye Span, the Albion Band and many others to follow. The recording sessions were stormy, and rifts over the controversial new direction went so deep the group was in tatters even before the album was released. Hutchings and Denny both quit in the wake of quarrels in the studio. Denny had already had her fill singing ballads in folk clubs and was more interested in writing her own material. Hutchings was concerned his dream wouldn’t materialise with Fairport, especially with Thompson also keen to develop his own writing, and he resolved to form Steeleye Span with musicians more entrenched in the folk world. So Liege And Lief’s often thrilling amalgam of ancient and modern was both a beginning and an end.
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