Maps of Music

Green River (1969)

Where the lyrics of Green River take you, and where it was really made.

Creedence released three studio albums in 1969 alone, and Green River sits in the middle of that run.

Key places

Test session at Wally Heider Studios (1969)

Recording site Soapbox West — In March 1969, before the album sessions, the band held a test session at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco and recorded three instrumental tracks. The point is set at city-center level, so the exact studio building is not fixed. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Green River: third studio album by the American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Released in August 1969 on Fantasy Records; the second of three albums the band released that year
• Preceded by Bayou Country (January 1969), followed by Willy and the Poor Boys (October 1969)
• Producers: John Fogerty and Saul Zaentz
• John Fogerty on lead vocals, lead guitar, piano, keyboards and harmonica; Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar; Stu Cook on bass; Doug Clifford on drums

Background

• Bayou Country (January 1969) featured the breakout single 'Proud Mary', which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100
• Fogerty produced, arranged and wrote the songs, and was the driving creative force behind the band
• The band avoided acid-inspired free-form jams and chose tightly structured roots music with a rockabilly edge

Recording

• In March 1969, before recording the album, the band held a test session at the recently built Wally Heider Studios
• The test session recorded three instrumental tracks; two of them, 'Broken Spoke Shuffle' and 'Glory Be', are on the 2008 remastered CD
• The recording sessions for the album lasted until June 1969

Cover

• Cover art and photography by Basul Parik; art direction by Larissa Collins

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) was an American rock band formed in El Cerrito, California, in 1968.
• The members had played together since 1959, first as the Blue Velvets and later as the Golliwogs.
• Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz bought the label in 1967 and offered the band a chance to record an album.

Members

• John Fogerty: lead vocals, lead guitar, primary songwriter.
• Tom Fogerty: rhythm guitar, quit at the end of 1970 and died in 1990.
• Stu Cook: bass.
• Doug Clifford: drums.

Career

• Between 1969 and 1971 the band had 14 consecutive top-10 singles and five consecutive top-10 albums in the United States.
• Green River (1969) and Cosmo's Factory (1970) both topped the Billboard 200.
• The band performed at Woodstock in 1969.
• The band disbanded acrimoniously in 1972 amid lawsuits and disputes over business and artistic control.
• Cook and Clifford performed as Creedence Clearwater Revisited from 1995 to 2020.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone: called it a great album, saying the band was creating the most vivid American rock since Music from Big Pink
• AllMusic: gave 5 stars out of 5; Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Green River represents the full flower of the classic sound first explored on Bayou Country

Reappraisal

• John Fogerty has said many times that Green River is his favorite Creedence album
• Fogerty has called the title track his favorite Creedence-era song, citing its Sun Records feel

Records

• Certified Gold by the RIAA on December 16, 1970
• Certified triple Platinum by the RIAA on December 13, 1990
• Sold 5,360,000 copies worldwide according to the French article
• Ranked No. 95 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list (2003)
• Featured in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Fogerty said he had never visited Lodi, California, before writing the song 'Lodi' and picked the name for its sound.
• The title 'Green River' comes from a creek near Winters, California, where he spent childhood summers, and from a green lime soda syrup label.
• 'Bad Moon Rising' was inspired by a hurricane scene in the 1941 film The Devil and Daniel Webster.
• 'Bad Moon Rising' was used in John Landis's film An American Werewolf in London.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

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