Cosmo's Factory [Import]

Creedence Clearwater Revival | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Fantasy
• ASIN: B000000XCH
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,222 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

If, as many contend, Creedence Clearwater Revival was the foremost singles rock band of its time, Cosmo's Factory is the ultimate end-of-the-'60s singles album. Indeed, seven of the album's 11 tracks turn up on Chronicle, CCR's best hits collection. That said, Cosmo's is really a must-own in its entirety. No other album so adeptly laces together the various strands of the CCR sound. John Fogerty's ready-for-AM-radio knack surfaces in "Lookin' Out My Back Door" and "Up Around the Bend." His sober side is in evidence on "Who'll Stop the Rain" and "Long As I Can See the Light." And no white group of its time could cover black music with as much natural flair; check out the 11-minute cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" for proof. The band broke up two albums after the release of this, their apex LP, but Cosmo's Factory cemented CCR's standing as a great American band. --Steven Stolder

Product Description

Special 20bit K2 Japanese limited edition issue of the album classic in a deluxe, miniaturized LP sleeve replica of the original vinyl album artwork. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Creedence Clearwater Revival Photos --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHEN THE MUSIC STILL MATTERED, April 29, 2004

By 

Crabby Apple Mick Lee (INDIANAPOLIS, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmo's Factory (Audio CD)

Given their legendary status today it is difficult to believe that Creedence Clearwater Revival was widely regarded as a rather "light weight" band in its time. Some of rock's more celebrated tastemakers even turned up their noses and pronounced Creedence Clearwater Revival a bubblegum act. "After all, what are their little pop songs compared with Jimi Hendrix? The Beatles? Jefferson Airplane?" As time has gone by, Creedence Clearwater Revival has stood with the best of them. Unfortunately, like most of the great 1960's rock bands, Creedence Clearwater Revival would not survive long into the next decade. The Beatles were no more by the spring of 1970. Hendrix would die in the Fall of the same year. Jim Morrison died in the early Summer of 1971. And Creedence Clearwater Revival disintegrated by 1972. In spite of the fact that for years all of the band members lurked in obscurity (John Fogerty deliberately so), with the release of their very first greatest hits compilation, Creedence Gold, their stature has only grown and their song catalogue has traveled well over the years.

Unlike most, Creedence Clearwater Revival has been served very well by the various "best of" packages that have been issued over the years. So why bother with the original albums? Individual cases can be made for the others; but Cosmo Factory is one of the greatest rock albums made. With its kind of cheesy cover it is easy to misjudge Cosmos Factory as a piece of junk. But appearances are deceiving. Inside are eleven cuts which have burned their way into the modern American songbook.

"Run Through The Jungle" and "Up Around The Bend" were put out over the radio as a pair and were the first songs the public heard off the album. The radio DJ at the time explained that the record company was trying to find out which song the public liked so that they could issue a single. As it turned out both were popular which aided the sales of the album itself. This started a cascade "hits" from Cosmos Factory-five from one album in all. The remaining six cuts began to have lives of their own on the fledgling FM album rock stations all over the country.

"Travelin' Band" was wildly popular. "Lookin' Out My Back Door" was so universally appealing that country music quickly adopted the song as one of its own. "Who'll Stop The Rain" became almost transcendental as 1970 saw one of the most terrible and traumatic periods of the Vietnam War. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" struck us as particularly cool running at over eleven minutes-revamped as it was into the swamp rock idiom. Even kids who weren't drawn to Motown loved the song.

"Ramble Tamble" was basically built around a single riff; but what a hell of a riff it is. We tend to regard "Before You Accuse Me". "Ooby Dooby" and "My Baby Left Me" as mere covers and album fillers. Long time listening, however, shows this assessment underestimates their appeal and warmth. Their use anticipated by a few years the revival of 1950's era rock in the 1970's. Finally, "Long As I Can See The Light" has grown to be a sentimental favorite although it has never been a "hit" on the popular charts or the FM play list.

Cosmos Factory caught sense of the time. It looked back to the uneasy recent past, picking up what it could, and moved forward to a bright but uncharted and uncertain future. Looking back, no one could have told you what was to happen. The Vietnam War ended with nothing anyone on any side of the controversy could be proud of. Race relations went on to become more angry and bitter. The much-touted "Age Of Aquarius" was found to be an empty promise. Musically, the "Next Beatles" never came. Indeed, the music of the 1970's was a subject of deep disappointment at the time. (Although assessments for the music of that era have grown more positive.) It turns out that some of the surest footing into the "future to be" is found on this album. God bless ya, boys.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Screw the "Singles Rock" review. This Album Kicks Ass!!, July 18, 2003

By 

James Dmochowski (Lansing, Mich) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cosmo's Factory (Audio CD)

Amazon.com reviewers have no idea what they're talking about. Yes, this album has many popular singles on it, but that's not all. Every single song on this album is amazing and this is by far Creedence Clearwater Revival's best album. I was never really excited by any CCR album as I was excited with this one.
It combines every good quality of CCR on to one wonderful album. It has the extended/jam tracks that are essential to any southern rock album, in my opinion. "Ramble Tamble" is a 7-minute rocker that just makes want to get up and start playing air guitar. While most people dispose of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" as excessive or filler, I find it to be one of the best songs on the album. CCR adapted the song as well as any other artist could have. Surprisingly, John Fogerty puts about a pretty damn good 7 minute guitar solo, proving that he is one of the most underrated guitar players of the seventies.
Also included on this album are the fifties covers/sounding tunes that Fogerty loves so much. "My Baby Left Me" and "Ooby Dooby" are both fifties covers, but are still both awesome. In fact I've come to like the 50's type songs CCR does as well as any of their other stuff because of the ones they do on this album. Truly great.
Of course, there are the wonderfully written and catchy pop-like southern rock (for lack of a better style name) songs that Fogerty and CCR are most famous for. For example "Travelin' Band" which is perhaps my favorite CCR song ever, "Who'll Stop the Rain" which is as catchy as any XTC song, though totally different, "Up Around the Bend" which is catchy in a way only John Fogerty can achieve, "Lookin' Out My Back Door" a tale of a Southern home in a Southern city which is of course another gem, and "Long As I Can See the Light", a good way to end this amazing album on a high, but slow, note.
I cannot stress enough how good this album is. It is up there with such amazing southern rock albums as "Allman Brothers Live At the FIllmore East" and "Pronounced Leh-nerd Skeh-nerd", and may be even more impressive than those two. No matter who you are, you have to have this album!!!!!! Though amazon.com was incorrect in simply calling it a singles album, they were completely justified in rating it an ESSENTIAL ALBUM. Buy it NOW

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My FAVORITE CCR album!, February 19, 2000

By 

Henry R. Kujawa ("The Forbidden Zone" (Camden, NJ)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cosmo's Factory (Audio CD)

CCR's 5th album must have been the PEAK of their run; so many great, inspired songs here! After the sprawling borderline-progressive opener "Ramble Tamble" it's almost a greatest hits album! "Travelin' Band" (on my short list of "loudest songs ever recorded" and the current show-closer-- what could POSSIBLY come after it?), "Ooby Dooby", "Lookin' Out My Back Door" (definitely a Buck Owens fan), "Run Through The Jungle", "Up Around The Bend", "Who'll Stop The Rain" (remember when BOTH sides of a 45 were "A"-side material?), "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" (a version that stands well against Marvin Gaye's AND Gladys Knight's-- isn't it amazing that at 11:05 it doesn't seem "too long"? ) and "Long as I Can See the Light". WOW!