Customer Reviews

Bayou Country (20 Bit Mastering)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nobody paid much attention to Bayou Country when it first came out in 1968...everyone was too enthralled with CCR's single release, Proud Mary. Somehow, one way or another, the album filtered into the top 40 dances and parties. If you have heard Proud Mary, and like it, and think you know the lyrics, you will never, ever, forget the opening chord to Born on the Bayou the first time you hear it. Dust, humidity, jungling forests, one- room shanties, coon dogs. Creedence doesn't invade this world- Creedence owns it, don't you know. Leon Russell did an album about ten years later called "Can a White Man Sing the Blues?', while this album, more to the point, says, "Can a white band STOMP the Blues?" If you have never heard Creedence before, which I guess is possible, though most of my generation (60's) wouldn't believe it, you will notice an edge to most of John Fogarty, the lead guitarist's, work, which takes the blues right to the edge of felonious mayhem. After "Born on the Bayou", the album eases back a little with the catchy "Bootleg", only to then rip the pistons and brakes off of "Graveyard Train". This is followed by "Good Golly Miss Molly", which had been popularized a few years before by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, but Creedence plays it with not quite the screaming intensity Ryder bought to it...Fogarty, you might say keeps the guts of it while still bringing acceptable respect to what by now can only be called rhythm and blues turf. "Penthouse Pauper" is the only disappointing cut, but when you place it with the rest of the album, even "Penthouse Pauper" shows a downbeat, yet still audible expectant potential for the last two classics, "Proud Mary" and "Keep on Chooglin'".
Since "Proud Mary" has probably been reviewed thousands of (white) times, I'll skip directly to "Keep on Chooglin'" The lyrics are what I would call just short of a budweiser challenge. It's about people's need to socialize, and to drink, and to further socialize about having to drink to socialize. In these days of Ozzy Osbourne that probably sounds pretty tame, but I have yet to hear anyone come up with a line to beat, "Here come Louie, works in a sewer Lord, he goin' chooglin' tonight."
And Fogarty's solos and riffs are sooo clean, sooo crisp, you forget that this is basically a three-bar boogie, played over and over again, like a demonstration of some professional hypnotist.
The music's grittiness is practically always due to Fogarty playing against the rest of the band, so let me finally mention the rest of the personnel, for any solo record hounds that still may be out there.
Tom Fogarty (John's brother), rhythm guitar;
Stu Cook, bass
Doug Clifford, drums.

CCR continued to firmly entrench their position in modern rock-pop music by permeating the radio airwaves with another exceptional album entitled Bayou Country. Their ready and waiting public accepted the album with open arms. It came complete with heavy doses of r & b and blues influenced rock that was tailor made for the top forty and a place in every album rack across the United States. While "Proud Mary" was finding a permanent home in the top forty and at every wedding (and it's still played often to this day), the sector of the public that revered the group for being more than just a hit machine could see the developing and growing talents of the group, including John Fogerty's ever growing presence as the front man.

Bayou Country offered the classic "Good Golly Miss Molly" with exceptional energy and exuberance. And in a totally different light than what people were accustomed to; the dark and brooding "Graveyard Train" came rollin' down the line into the deepest recesses of your mind. With over eight minutes of get-down-to-business no frills rock and roll, the group really hammered it home with a heavy-duty foundation of blues and some tastes of Bayou country to help drive it along. The end result was that a real rock classic had been born. I am not sure that many new it at the time though. If that wasn't enough to convince you that this group was much more than just a resident on the singles charts, "Keep On Chooglin' " clocked in at seven minutes and forty seconds. A virtual truckload of rock and roll boogie-woogie straight ahead music that would satisfy anyone's thirst and hunger for the ultimate jam filled with solid and lengthy sojourns on the electric guitar.

I have to wonder if anyone realized at the time of the release of this album just how talented this group was and how quickly all of the music was to become important to so many people. Of course now we realize the impact of what John Fogerty and the group made upon our musical history. We can now look upon what was accomplished (with each album) as stepping-stones to what was ahead. I can't help but feel that each and every CCR album made was a single entity that would then form a greater whole that we all now can see and enjoy.

Listen closely to all of the power and glory of the music that now seems light years away. It's readily available to bring you right back to that time frame in a heartbeat... with one flip of a switch. The wonders of technology give us more reasons to salute those that gave us so much joy back when the vinyl format was king.

A entire new generation has the opportunity to discover CCR and listen to their music like it has never been heard before. I hope that everyone has the opportunity to catch this rock n' roll train that has been chooglin' now for over thirty years. The remaster series really does shed new light upon the American musical institution known as CCR. It's a real treat for the ears and it will do your rock and roll heart good to give this CD a spin.

Keith Hannaleck August 7, 2000 MuzikMan's Sound Script

Creedence Clearwater Revival's second album, 1969's "Bayou Country" is by far the group's defining set. CCR's folklore world of bayous, hoodoos, and down home rock n' roll is brought to life with an amazing and inspiring power. The opening classic, 'Born on the Bayou' may be the band's defining track, narrating the view of a bayou-man, with Fogerty's vocals expressing senses of anger and scorn ("...son, don't let the man get ya, do what he done to me..."), but also adding the joys of the world Creedence created. At least three more songs here, 'Graveyard Train,' 'Bootleg,' and 'Penthouse Pauper' (the latter an unsung gem in CCR's repetoire) add to the tales and moods of "Bayou Country" with perfection. 'Keep on Chooglin' is a fast paced heart pumper, while 'Proud Mary' is the ultimate staple of rock, and let the critics know that CCR were destined to be rock and roll heroes. And of course, the standard cover song 'Good Golly Miss Molly' is well served. This re-issue comes with clear remastering. "Bayou Country" is indeed the definition of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

I grew up listening to the great sounds of CCR, collected all their singles and albums and am very pleased to see that some of their music is being put onto cd in such a great way. Sound and quality is first class.

Creedence Clearwater Revival's second album was another step forward for the band. It contained their first top ten hit, one of the most memorable singles in rock history, "Proud Mary". The song is pure American music and a classic rock song, with its imagery of life on the Mississippi River, shuffling beat and short concise timing. The band showed that it could easily move between three minute pop songs and extended jams like "Keep On Chooglin'" and "Graveyard Train", thus fitting into both the AM and FM radio formats of the late sixties and appealing to a wide range of listeners. The title track is a blistering song that coined the musical term that is most closely associated with the band, swamp rock, while "Penthouse Pauper" is an underrated gem. Bayou Country showed that CCR was on the verge of becoming one of the biggest and best bands in rock.

Now this one kind of eludes me. I'll grant that when it really shines at times, and I think the cover art is a significant improvement over that of the previous release. But the music? Eh... it does have two of the group's most important songs: "Born on the Bayou" is my favorite, an excellent swamp-rocker with an authentic "bayou" swamp sound - it literally sounds like John crawled out of some marsh in Louisiana, rather than California. The guitar tone and rough vocals make it a standout in Creedence's catalog. "Proud Mary" also rocks, a genuine fusion of gospel, pop, rock, blues, and soul with an ear-catching refrain and fine harmonies. A couple other nice tunes round the album out, most of them found on side one: the taut, angry pro-moonshine "Bootleg", and the infamous "Graveyard Train", a captivating nine-minute swamp-blues jam featuring a voodoo riff and murky harmonica. But there are three more songs on this album, and I'm not big on any of them. I guess that "Penthouse Pauper" has solid lyrics, but the melody and riff they work up to get it is forgettable and unoriginal. There's nothing particularly wrong with the song, but it sure isn't "Born on the Bayou". The other two songs pretty much annoy me. "Keep on Chooglin'" is popular among fans, but no me gusta "Keep on Chooglin'" just the same. The rhythmic structure of the chorus is pretty much the same as "Bootleg", the numerous guitar and harmonica solos are boring, and it's eight minutes long! Nobody can choogle for that long! By the way, while I've heard "choogling" is a dance, I'm willing to bet that here it's slang for "drinking" - the atmosphere certainly is "liquid". Anyway, it does the same thing as "Graveyard Train", only it's not even remotely interesting, unlike "Graveyard Train", which is excellently evil. It's certainly listenable (everything this group does, bar a few of the psychedelic songs on the debut and a majority of Mardi Gras, is), but it doesn't develop at all. Last is their cover of "Good Golly, Miss Molly". I can't give you anything on it. It's kind of bland. The record shows a lot of potential, but ultimately is defeated by Fogerty's insistence to release three albums in 1969. Now, if they were to have put out one album in that year consisting of the best material from those three albums... hey, you'd have me on board.

Creedence is great and I love there music. This album brings back great memories.