Confined to quarters after a minor medical procedure (I’m fine, thanks), I decided to spend the afternoon ripping some old albums.
The top shelf was easiest to search for goodies, so — for no apparent reason — I started with my old Creedence Clearwater Revival records.
Creedence was one of my earliest faves, but I long ago grew tired of hearing all their hit singles over and over. These days, I listen to the Creedence tunes less often heard.
Even though I pulled out those old Creedence albums, I had no intention of writing about them today. Until later, that is, after I got caught up on my blog reading. There, on LiveDaily.com, was news that two repackaged Creedence releases go on sale next week. I had no idea.
What Fantasy Records has done on “Creedence Covers the Classics” is pretty much what I did this afternoon: Mined the first five Creedence albums for songs you might dig.
They’ve grabbed all 12 covers from those albums. Well, sort of. You get edited takes on two songs that were long jams on the albums: “Suzie Q” (4:35 vs. 8:00-plus) and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (3:54 vs. almost 11 minutes). Which is a little curious, considering the 12 covers on the new CD run only 40 minutes.
Some of those covers are pretty good. Turns out I ripped seven of them this afternoon. Knowing they’re being re-released in this manner has sapped my enthusiasm for writing anything further about them.
Instead, here are a couple of less-often-heard goodies from Creedence. Both are written by John Fogerty and show his sly sense of humor.
“It Came Out Of The Sky,” Creedence Clearwater Revival, from “Willy and the Poor Boys,” 1969. In which a UFO lands south of Moline and the Establishment freaks out. Fogerty gleefully sticks it to The Man.
“Molina,” Creedence Clearwater Revival, from “Pendulum,” 1970. In which the mayor’s daughter is a wild child. That’s Fogerty on electric piano and sax. Don’t be fooled by the false ending, either.
AM, Then FM 
Take care of yourself!
I love “It Came from the Sky.” That line “Ronnie the Popular said it was a communist plot,” gets me every time.
I long ago tired of hearing the hits, but CCR’s catalogue boasts a raft of lesser-known songs (or at least songs that haven’t been played to death by radio).