Creedence Clearwater Revisited
In its relatively short existence (1968-’72) Creedence Clearwater Revival produced a huge cache of hits (“Born on the Bayou,” “Green River,” “Suzie Q,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain”) and included brothers Tom and John Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, with John Fogerty singing lead vocals, penning the bulk of the group’s material, and finding the most success as a solo artist after CCR disbanded in 1972. Cook and Clifford, childhood friends and the band’s bass player and drummer, respectively, began playing Creedence songs at private functions to much acclaim and, in 1995, took their act to the public as Creedence Clearwater Revisited. Along with Cook and Clifford, CC Revisited includes Steve Gunner, John Tristao and Tal Morris.
Atlantic City Weekly caught up with Clifford during a recent phone conversation prior to the band’s (not a cover band) Saturday, June 5, show at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City.
How does touring now, in your 60s, differ from the touring you did in your 20s?
The overall grind we were under back then was pressure to have records out all the time. ... We didn’t tour that much because we were either recording or rehearsing for albums. Now we’re a touring band.
You maintain an ambitious touring schedule. Has it been that way since you started?
We’ll usually start touring in January and take November and December off, but we got a bit of a late start this year and didn’t start until March this time. I had shoulder surgery and it turned out great. It’s actually improved my playing. I’m in better shape to play. We usually do about 75 to 80 shows per year.
How did you and Stu get to the point in 1995 where you wanted to tour around playing CCR’s music?
It was sort of fate. A friend of our lead singer, John Tristao, wanted to put on a concert up in the Spokane [Washington] area and ... that got us started and we were accepted by the public just tremendously.
Can you tell me a little about how the original Creedence was formed?
Absolutely. Stu and I started when we were 13, Tom [Fogerty, who passed away in 1990] was 17. We were an instrumental trio. Tom was in another really good band of older guys called Spider Web and the Insects and had the vision of a recording career. He wrote a bunch of songs and wanted to record them. He explained to the others what he wanted to do. They asked, “Are we getting paid?” He said no, he’ll be paying for studio sessions out of his own pocket. They asked, “Will there be chicks there?” He said no, it’s a recording studio. They said, “Naaa, we’d rather work on our cars.” So he came to us because he had seen us rehearsing, and Tom would occasionally sing for us in our instrumental trio. ... We recorded as Tom Fogerty and the Blue Velvets and that was the start of it. Tom included us in the dream and vision that he had, or I’m sure there would have been no Creedence.
Creedence Clearwater Revisited do “Fortunate Son”:
Don’t take this the wrong way, but some might call Creedence Clearwater Revisited a cover band with two original members in it.
It’s the Creedence of the new millennium. The Beach Boys only have one original member and that’s Mike Love, but they’re still the Beach Boys. A cover band is a band that does somebody else’s music without any original members. We have the entire rhythm section, which is the real feel for the music for sure. And that’s what we do. We have a great singer and great components. We go after it.
John Fogerty could live off the laurels from his Creedence Clearwater Revival days. The seminal group, which emerged out of San Francisco in 1968, was one of the greatest singles bands of its era. That’s impressive since that period was arguably the peak of rock ‘n’ roll with such brilliant acts as the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones racing up the charts.
There’s one important factor that’s keeping a one-night stand by a 50-year-old rock ‘n roll band from becoming just another nostalgic blast from the past this weekend. ..
"The whole point of a band is, first of all, to be able to play with conviction, and this [Creedence] catalog means so much to millions of people, especially to us."
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1. Reginald Yorke said... on Jun 2, 2010 at 03:25PM
“Actually, you are missing one member from the rhythm section (Tom). Creedence is not really Creedence without Fogerty (as the name CC Revisited indicates), but I believe (and not that my opinion matters) that you have every right to play the music that you helped create.”
2. BeOpinionated! said... on Jun 2, 2010 at 03:35PM
“You're right, and your opinion certainly matters!”
3. Jay T said... on Jun 3, 2010 at 06:57AM
“These guys rock the classics. See them if you can.”
4. MikeO said... on Jun 3, 2010 at 01:59PM
“Bruce Johnston is also a member of the Beach Boys touring band. While not an original member of the band, he has been part of the Beach Boys organization for decades.”