Creedence Clearwater Revival - Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall

by Kevin Wierzbicki

This live recording from 1970 took on a sort of mythical status as it was lost for 50 years and nobody really thought that it would ever be found and released. But miracles do happen and the concert is now available for the first time ever. The show begins with the funky swamp rock of "Born on the Bayou" and moves on to the hit "Green River" where singer John Fogarty's notoriously unintelligible lyrics on the song are a bit easier to understand than they are on the studio recording. Run-throughs of the bluesy "Tombstone Shadow," manic "Travelin' Band" and the protest song "Fortunate Son" fill up the first half of the program; the brief and punchy deep album track "Commotion" and the 1920's chestnut "Midnight Special" lead into big hits "Bad Moon Rising" and the song that many fans were no doubt waiting to hear, "Proud Mary." The set ends with a take on Nappy Brown's "The Night Time is the Right Time," the Little Richard-associated "Good Golly Miss Molly" and a lengthy version of the harmonica-driven deep album cut "Keep on Chooglin'." Many bands today expand on the sound that CCR popularized back in the day but at the time of this show no one else was doing it and the Brits in attendance at this London show must have realized they were seeing something truly special.

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