All together…Creedence Clearwater Revival had 65 total songs. It seems like more but that was it. Their recording career spanned from 1967 to 1972. They had 7 studio albums in that span which is incredible.
I looked back at photos of them during that time. They looked like a garage band that could have lived next door to you. They don’t look like what they really were…the hottest American band. You see pictures of The Beatles, Stones, Led Zeppelin, and The Who back then and there is a certain gloss about them…not with CCR. CCR didn’t look larger than life…they looked like our blue-collar neighbors from down the street. That is one of the reasons that I still like them so much.
From 1968 to 1972 they were constants in the charts. They didn’t take months to make an album…they just reeled them off. They pulled off a Beatles trick by having hit singles and critically acclaimed albums. That is not easy to do.
There is an anomaly about them that is puzzling. Their songs have become standards but never had a number 1 song. Well did I say never? It took 50 years but that was finally broken in 2021…they peaked at #1 in the US Rock Digital Sales and also the Canadian Digital Sales for Have You Ever Seen The Rain.
I have no conspiracy theory about them not having a number 1 in their time but personally, I always thought that being on Fantasy Records had something to do with it. If they would have been with Capitol, Columbia, or any other major record label…I believe that would have helped. Those labels had the money for huge advertising and had a connection to DJs and other clients to help. Don’t get me wrong… Fantasy Owner Saul Zaentz was making a lot of money but when it came to the band…he did not like letting it go. That contributed to the short career of CCR.
Anyway back to this song. It was on the great album Willy and the Poor Boys released in 1969. The album had the well-known hits Fortunate Son, Down On The Corner, The Midnight Special, and the fan favorite It Came Out of the Sky. The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard Album Charts, #2 in Canada, and #10 in the UK.
I would have loved to see these guys live. I want to thank one blogger named Jeff from Eclectic Music Lover for sharing his story of seeing Creedence live…that was his first concert. I will always be jealous of that. My first concert came years later and was REO…not a comparison there.
John Fogerty: “There were things going on in the country that upset me, but having grown up in the ‘hippie’ generation, there were a lot of things about my own generation that upset me as well. The song ‘Don’t Look Now’ was trying to address that. It wasn’t that I was a fence rider, it was just that some stuff was getting out of hand.”
Who will take the coal from the mine?Who will take the salt from the earth?Who’ll take a leaf and grow it to a tree?Don’t look now, it ain’t you or me.
Who will work the field with his hands?Who will put his back to the plough?Who’ll take the mountain and give it to the sea?Don’t look now, it ain’t you or me.
Don’t look now, someone’s done your starvin’;Don’t look now, someone’s done your prayin’ too.
Who will make the shoes for your feet?Who will make the clothes that you wear?Who’ll take the promise that you don’t have to keep?Don’t look now, it ain’t you or me.
Don’t look now, someone’s done your starvin’;Don’t look now, someone’s done your prayin’ too.
Who will take the coal from the mines?Who will take the salt from the earth?Who’ll take the promise that you don’t have to keep?Don’t look now, it ain’t you or me
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