Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Green River”

John Fogerty Copyright 1969 Jondora Music

In 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival accomplished the unthinkable: releasing three career-defining albums in a single year. At the heart of this creative explosion was “Green River,” a track that reached #2 on the charts and perfectly encapsulated the band’s “swamp rock” aesthetic. Let’s dive deep into the mastermind of John Fogerty, revealing how he his Rickenbacker and a solid-state Kustom amp to create the raw guitar tone that created an indelible riff. We also look at the locked-in rhythm section of Stu Cook and Doug Clifford and the driving force that Fogerty famously dubbed “chooglin’.”

Beyond the music, this episode uncovers the nostalgic and sociopolitical layers of the lyrics. While the song evokes the bayous of Louisiana, its true origins lie in Fogerty’s childhood memories of Putah Creek in California… and a lime-flavored soda pop. We’ll look at how the smoldering world of 1969—marked by the Vietnam War and recent political assassinations—crept into Fogerty’s writing, transforming a childhood reminiscence into a plea for a simpler time. Whether you are a recording nerd interested in the studio minutia, or a casual fan of great rock, this episode offers a comprehensive look at a timeless American masterpiece.


Words & Music by John Fogerty Copyright 1969 Jondora Music

TRANSCRIPT:

Come on home to the “I’m in Love With That Song” podcast, one of the Pantheon family of podcasts. My name is Brad Page and on each edition of this show, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together, listening for all those special elements, those magic moments that make it a great song. We don’t get into music theory on this show; we focus on the arrangements, the performances, and the production that make the song work. So, you don’t need to be a musician to enjoy this show; this is a podcast for every music fan.

As we’ve done in our last couple of episodes, we’re revisiting a band that we featured on this show once before. It’s been about four years since we discussed Creedence Clearwater Revival—I can’t believe it was that long ago, actually. So, let’s return to this classic American band and explore how a group from San Francisco was able to capture the swamp rock atmosphere of the American Deep South. This is one of my favorite Creedence Clearwater Revival tracks; this is “Green River”.

[Audio Clip: “Green River”]

Back on that previous episode where we explored “Run Through the Jungle”—and if you haven’t heard that episode, go back and listen to it, it’s a good one—on that episode, we covered the early history of Creedence, so I’m not going to go over that again. We’ll pick things up in 1969. Many people consider 1969 to be the peak year for Creedence Clearwater Revival. In the span of this single year, the band released three career-defining albums: Bayou Country in January, Green River in August, and Willy and the Poor Boys in November.

John Fogerty, the mastermind behind Creedence, was always afraid that the audience would forget about the band if they weren’t inundating the airwaves with a steady stream of hit singles. “Green River” was the song that kicked off the album of the same name: side one, track one. It was released as a single in July ’69, a month before the album came out. It was written by John Fogerty and performed by Fogerty on lead guitar and lead vocal, his brother Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar, Stu Cook on bass, and Doug Clifford on drums. It was recorded at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, produced by John Fogerty and engineered by Russ Gary.

The song opens with John Fogerty’s electric guitar riff. An acoustic guitar joins about halfway through before the drums and the bass kick in. Okay, first, let’s not bury the lead. Let’s take a look at Fogerty’s guitar part. It’s the crux of the song. It’s based around an E7 chord, and you don’t need to know anything about the theory behind it. Just know that the key of E, it’s the ultimate guitar key, and Fogerty works it for all its worth, hanging on this chord for extended periods. Playing in E allows him to include an open-string drone, which is often referred to as a pedal tone. That’s a term originated by pipe organ players who would use their feet to hold down low notes using pedals. But in a more general sense, it refers to a note that’s held or repeated while other notes are played over the top. In this case, Fogerty plays a pattern of notes that slowly descends while the E is sustained underneath.

[Audio Clip: Guitar Riff]

You’ll notice that that guitar is placed primarily in the right channel, and his guitar tone is pretty raw. There’s almost a brittle edge to it. I wouldn’t call it a warm tone, which is what many guitarists go for. I would chalk up that tone mostly due to the guitar amp that was used. John Fogerty preferred amps made by the Kustom company—that’s Kustom with a K—specifically, the K200A model. Kustom amps are distinctive due to their Naugahyde tuck-and-roll upholstery. But what’s important to the sound here is that these were solid-state amplifiers, not amps that use tubes, which were and still are preferred by most guitarists over solid-state amps. Tube amps have a natural compression that happens when you hit them with a loud sound; it’s a very pleasing tone. Solid-state amplifiers don’t do that. They have a much faster transient response and respond instantly with a harder, uncompressed sound. That is where the sharp, raspy tone comes from.

Now, as to which guitar Fogerty was playing, I’ve seen conflicting reports. Some sources say it’s a Gibson Les Paul Custom or a Gibson ES-175. You can find photos of Fogerty playing both of those models during this time period. But Fogerty also played a Rickenbacker 325—that’s the same model that John Lennon used to play—and I think Fogerty himself has said that that was the guitar he used here. So, I’m going to take his word for it, and that sounds right to me.

As far as the acoustic guitar, that was a Gibson J-200, which I assume was played by his brother Tom Fogerty. The acoustic is recorded a little “boomy”, not a lot of high end, and is mixed towards the left channel, so each guitar has its own space in the mix. The acoustic guitar is also just hanging on that E chord.

[Audio Clip: Guitars together]

You can also hear there’s a tambourine overdubbed there. So, after establishing the riff by playing it a few times, they launch into the first verse.

[Audio Clip: First Verse]

So, that first verse really sets the tone for where we’re going here. “Well, take me back down where the cool water flows, let me remember the things that I love.” So, it’s about a yearning for a return to a place and a time long past. And then he reminisces about some of these things: stopping at the log where the catfish bite, walking along the river road at night, and those barefoot girls dancing in the moonlight.

So, it’s a trip down memory lane, but it’s more than that. You might say it’s a longing for a more innocent time. That line about the dancing barefoot girls is interesting because it sort of speaks to an early sexual awareness, just starting to discover those feelings right before things get complicated. I think that’s a key element of this song: the desire for a life less complicated.

[Audio Clip: Verse continues]

You’ll notice the vocals have that classic slap-back echo on them, right out of the Sun Records playbook, like an old Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis record. Another interesting note for you recording studio nerds out there: John Fogerty is singing into a Shure SM56 microphone. That was a relatively inexpensive mic; essentially, it’s a Shure SM57 but with an integrated pistol-grip stand mount. These are decent microphones for recording snare drums and guitar amps, but almost never used in the studio to record lead vocals. This mic was chosen by engineer Russ Gary, but why he chose this particular mic, I don’t really know. He said that this was the only time he ever used this mic for Fogerty’s vocal, so it was definitely an oddball choice. But it works.

With the second verse, you can imagine Fogerty reminiscing about his favorite swimming hole.

[Audio Clip: Second Verse]

There’s a nice little doubled guitar part that’s added in there. So, that verse is the first mention of Green River. There is no actual place named Green River, at least not as articulated in this song. One of Fogerty’s tendencies as a songwriter—you could call it a quirk or a stroke of genius, depending on how you look at it—but he was always evoking the sights and sounds of the South: New Orleans, the Mississippi River, the bayou. But Fogerty was a California boy, born and raised. He might have made you envision someplace in the South, but his actual childhood memory here is of Putah Creek near the town of Winters, California.

So, where did the name Green River come from? Well, Putah Creek doesn’t exactly sound as charming as Green River, and it’s not as easy to sing. So, Fogerty looked back to another childhood memory, this one of drinking one of his favorite beverages. Richard C. Jones, who owned a sweet shop, created Green River, a lime-flavored soft drink or soda pop, in Davenport, Iowa, in 1916. In 1919, he sold the formula to a Chicago brewing company who would switch to making soda during Prohibition. Eventually, other bottlers began to sell the flavor, but by the 1990s, it had all but disappeared. Though you can still buy bottles of Green River today, you’ll have to seek it out.

That verse is followed by one of those guitar and vocal moments that is so uniquely a John Fogerty signature. Then that leads us right into a short guitar solo.

[Audio Clip: Guitar Solo]

We haven’t really talked about the other guys in the band, so let’s touch on them for a moment. Doug Clifford on drums and Stu Cook on bass in particular were the engine that drives this track forward. Neither of them is playing anything complex, and neither is Tom Fogerty on rhythm guitar, but they are all locked in together. At the center of the Creedence Clearwater Revival sound is that rhythm that’s often described as “chooglin'”. Fogerty wrote a song called “Keep On Chooglin’”; he may have invented that term, I don’t know. It’s hard to describe, but you know it when you hear it, and you’ll hear it on virtually every Creedence track. Let’s hear this rhythm section “choogle.”

[Audio Clip: Isolated Rhythm Section]

And that brings us to the final verse. A little bit of a shift in lyrical tone here. Let’s listen to the vocal track first.

[Audio Clip: Isolated Vocals]

All right, let’s look at these lyrics a little closer. First, he mentions Cody’s Camp. This was an actual place, a cabin near Putah Creek that was supposedly owned by a relative of Buffalo Bill Cody. Then he sings about flat-car riders and cross-tie walkers. These are men traveling by train unlawfully—what they used to call hoboes. Here we have Fogerty as a young boy among the drifters and the outsiders. And then Old Cody Junior must be the guy who owns that cabin, takes young John aside and warns him, “You’re going to find the world is smoldering, and if you get lost, come on home to Green River.”

The shadow of the grown-up world is creeping into this childhood memory. And thinking back to 1969, when this song was released, the Vietnam War was raging, and it was only a year out from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. The world was indeed smoldering. And really, looking around at our world now, when is the world ever not smoldering? But he ends the song with the plea or the reassurance that if you get lost, come on home to Green River. Now, let’s hear that final verse.

[Audio Clip: Final Verse and Outro]

Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Green River”.

“Green River” climbed the charts and reached number two. It was poised to hit number one, but it was kept out of the number one spot by “Sugar, Sugar”, a bubblegum pop song by a fake band, The Archies. Oh, the indignities! Creedence has the distinction of being the band with the most songs to reach number two without ever having a number one chart-topper. The Green River album also featured “Bad Moon Rising”, another hit that reached number two. It’s interesting to compare these two songs because while “Bad Moon Rising” juxtaposes some pretty dark lyrics with a really jaunty up-tempo beat, “Green River” sounds dark and moody even though its lyrics are more upbeat. But these are the quirks that make the music of CCR so memorable and endlessly fascinating, and it’s why these songs still stand out today.

Hope you enjoyed this episode. The “I’m in Love With That Song” podcast will return with another new episode in just about two weeks. All of our previous episodes are available on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, so if you missed any of them—and there are over 200 episodes now—or you just want to re-listen to an episode, you’ll find them all right there. And make sure you follow the show so that you never miss an episode.

Thanks for coming along for the ride; I really appreciate it. If you want to help the show out, the best thing you can do is to tell someone about it. Talk it up, share it with your friends and family, because recommendations from people like you are the best advertising I could ever ask for. So, thank you. I will meet you back here on the Pantheon Podcast Network for our next episode. Until then, get back down where the cool water flows, watch out for those barefoot girls dancing in the moonlight… and come on home to Green River.

RESOURCES & REFERENCES:

Bands & Artists:

Studios & Production:

Gear & Technical:

References & History:

Sources & Citations:

  • Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music (Sonic analysis).
  • Mix Online, “Classic Tracks: Fortunate Son/Green River” (Detailed recording logs, Russ Gary interview, gear specifics).
  • Wikipedia/Rolling Stone (2012 Interview, geography of the song).
  • Louder Sound/Classic Rock (Historical context, album imagery).
  • Louder Sound (John Fogerty interview, 1969 productivity).

Foghat – “Fool For The City”

Words & Music by Lonesome Dave Peverett Copyright 1975 Kohaw Music o/b/o Knee Trembler Music (ASCAP) c/o The Bicycle Music Company

In this episode, we’ll explore the story and sonic architecture behind Foghat’s 1975 arena rock anthem, “Fool for the City“. Tracing the band’s roots back to British blues rockers Savoy Brown, we dive into how Foghat solidified their heavy boogie sound and retreated to a remote studio in Vermont to record their breakthrough platinum album. And we’ll take a tour through the song’s isolated instrumental tracks, uncovering the characteristically dry 1970’s drum mix, producer Nick Jameson’s funky bass contributions, the one-of-a-kind voice of Lonesome Dave Peverett, and Rod Price’s classic guitar work.

Words & Music by Lonesome Dave Peverett Copyright 1975 Kohaw Music o/b/o Knee Trembler Music (ASCAP) c/o The Bicycle Music Company

TRANSCRIPT:

Hello once again, and welcome back to the “I’m in Love With That Song” podcast, beamed directly into your earholes courtesy of the Pantheon Podcast Network. As always, I’m your host, Brad Page, and each edition of this podcast, I pick a song from my library of favorites, and we explore it together, trying to get a better understanding of what makes a song work. Why do I love this song? We limit the technical jargon here and keep the music theory to a minimum. This is a show for anyone who loves music. You don’t have to be a musical expert to enjoy this show.

On this episode, we’ll continue our exploration of bands that have been featured on this podcast once before, as we revisit Foghat, one of the bands that defined the sound of 1970s arena rock. This time, we’re going straight to their most popular studio album and digging into the title cut. That’s right– this is Foghat with “Fool for the City”.

Back on episode 78, we explored Foghat’s take on “Honey Hush”. I did a quick overview of their career on that show, but it’s been a while, so let’s go over those details again.

By the mid to late 1960s, it seemed like London was overrun by young British musicians obsessed with American blues; Muddy Waters, Big Bill Broonzy, Howlin’ Wolf… these British kids couldn’t get enough of this music, whether it was Delta Blues or Chicago Blues or anything in between. Sure, there was an element of fetishization about it, but these kids genuinely loved this music, and they appreciated it a lot more than American white kids did at this time.

One of the premier British blues bands was Savoy Brown, led by guitarist Kim Simmons. Savoy Brown seemed to churn through members, but for a time, the band settled around six members. Along with Simmons were Chris Youlden on vocals, Bob Hall on piano, Tony Stevens on bass, Roger Earl on drums, and Lonesome Dave Peverett on rhythm guitar and occasional vocals.

This lineup of Savoy Brown released a handful of albums: Blue Matter and A Step Further both came out in 1969, and then Raw Sienna in 1970. At that point, Chris Youlden and Bob Hall had left the band, and Lonesome Dave took over the lead vocals for their next album Looking In.

After that album, Lonesome Dave Peverett, Roger Earl, and Tony Stevens all left the band to start their own group. Simmons was pushing the band in a jazzier direction, while the rest of the guys wanted to pursue a heavier boogie sound. “Boogie” was a straightforward, visceral sound, with the swing of the blues melded with the aggression of rock. Things came to a head in December 1970, when Simmons fired Stevens and put additional demands on Peverett and Earl. They decided to quit, and the three of them got together to start their own group.

What they needed now was a new lead guitarist, and they found just the guy in Rod Price. Price had been playing with Black Cat Bones, and his brilliant slide guitar playing earned him the nickname the bottle. His addition to the band transformed their sound. His searing slide guitar leads delivered the sound that gave the band its heavy edge.
So, the band had their lead guitarist and their sound nailed down. Now all they needed was a name. It was Peverett who provided Foghat.

The name Foghat was a meaningless word that Peverett made up during a game of Scrabble he played with his brother when they were kids. I guess the word stuck around, but it literally doesn’t mean anything.

The band met with quite a few record labels but found no takers until they met with Albert Grossman, who signed them to his Bearsville record label. Soon, they would relocate to New York.

They released their first album, self-titled, in 1972. It was produced by Dave Edmunds and featured their version of Muddy Waters’ “I Just Want to Make Love to You”, which became a staple of their live shows. It set the template for the Foghat sound. Take a classic blues tune, ramp it up, crank up the guitars, and belt out the vocals in Lonesome Dave’s distinctive style.

Three more albums followed, and though a big hit eluded them, the band built an audience, focusing on the US, growing a fan base through relentless touring. But that pace was grueling, and it took its toll. By 1975, Tony Stevens had enough and left the band. Now they were missing a bass player just as they were about to record their most ambitious album to date.

Nick Jameson had produced their previous album, Rock and Roll Outlaws, and he was lined up to produce this new record. Rather than audition a bunch of new bass players, the band turned to Nick Jameson and asked him to play bass on the album.  Nick was a guitarist and a keyboard player, but not an experienced bass player, but he took on the job and became their de facto bassist for this new album.

The band decided to decamp to a small studio in Vermont called Suntreader. Located in Sharon, Vermont, it was about as removed from the city as you could get. This allowed the band to focus on the music, but you gotta wonder how that influenced this title cut.

“Fool for the City” was written by Dave Peverett. It’s performed by Peverett on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Rod Price on lead and slide guitar, Roger Earl on drums, and Nick Jameson on bass. It was produced by Jameson.

The song begins with a quick flam, probably on a floor tom, and then we’re into the opening riff.

The first thing I notice on this track is that the drums are pretty dry. I’m not really hearing any reverb. That’s pretty standard for a 1970s recording. It wasn’t until the 1980s that they started putting tons of reverb on the drums to the point where the drum sounds got kind of ridiculous, at least in my opinion. But this dry drum sound is pretty typical of the 1970s. Let’s bring up the drums and listen to that for a bit.

Now let’s go back and play the intro through to the first verse.

That first verse pretty much lays out the thesis for this song. Not a lot of subtext here. “The country sure is pretty, but I’ll leave it all behind.” Let’s bring up that vocal track by Lonesome Dave Peverett.

There’s the chorus, classic gang vocals on the chorus there, and definitely plenty of reverb on the vocals. Let’s bring that up in the mix.

Now, before they start the second verse, there’s a short bit with some harmonized guitar parts. Let’s bring that forward a bit.

I like that because it serves as a transition from the chorus to the verse, and it gives you something new to keep things fresh.

Let’s go back and hear just the instrumental track for the verse to hear what’s going on underneath the vocals.

And back to the chorus.

And that brings us to the bridge. There are two distinct parts to the bridge. Let’s tackle the first part.

First, we’ll hear the instrumental track without the vocals. Like most of the song, there are at least two guitars panned left and right, but in this section, there’s another guitar in there right in the middle. It sounds like there’s some phasing or flanging on that guitar as well.

Okay, let’s hear that with the vocals now.

The vocals are doubled there. Another thing that I’m noticing is that the vocals are mixed pretty low throughout this song. Sometimes the guitars almost drown them out. Dave Peverett has a great voice, but Foghat was definitely a guitar band.

Let’s move on to the second part of the bridge, and things get funky here. It was Nick Jameson who came up with this idea, and it really adds a whole new element to the song.

All right, let’s dissect this part. First, let’s just hear Dave’s vocal. It’s pretty much a spoken word part.

And now the instrumental parts. Some interesting things happening here. There’s an acoustic guitar playing that country blues riff. It’s the first time we’ve heard an acoustic guitar in this song. And Nick Jameson is playing some slap bass that’s kind of a counterpart to that acoustic guitar. I like the way those two play off of each other. And then there are some electric guitars that come up in the left and right channel, both with an envelope filter or auto-wah effect on them. It’s a very specific kind of sound. All these parts work together in a pretty interesting way. Let’s hear all of that.

And that leads right into a guitar solo, giving Rod Price a moment to shine. Rod was mostly known for his slide playing, but he’s not using any slide here.

Now, listen to how Rod Price incorporates some of the vocal melody into his solo here. And they’ve also added some backing vocals, but they’re doing something different than what they do during the other choruses. It’s all kind of clever.

And that leads right into a reprise of the bridge.

This time around, Lonesome Dave uses more of his singing voice than the spoken word. Let’s hear that in the final mix and listen to Jameson’s funky bass part here.

That time around, there’s no acoustic guitar part there, which leaves room for Jameson’s bass to really jump out of the mix. And notice how the band builds up out of that section into these final choruses. It’s a really nice way to create some excitement leading into the finale.

As Dave Peverett ad-libs his vocals over the top, Nick Jameson’s bass and Roger Earl’s drums get a little more frantic, busier, driving the song to its conclusion.

And now Rod Price has overdubbed some more guitar licks, adding even more energy to the track.

Foghat – “Fool for the City”

Besides the title cut, the album also includes “Slow Ride”, their biggest hit. The album would become their first platinum album. And in 1977, they released their live album, Foghat Live, which would become their biggest-selling album.

But by 1979, trends changed and new sounds were capturing the attention of the general public, and Foghat fell out of fashion. They continued to release albums into the 1980s with diminishing returns.

Rod Price left the band in 1980, and they continued on for a while with a guitarist named Erik Cartwright, but they eventually split around 1984. There were a number of reunions with various lineups, but I don’t think anything captured the highlights of their 1970s peak.

Lonesome Dave Peverett, one of the most distinctive singers of his era, died in February 2000 from kidney cancer. He was 56. Rod Price was living in Wilton, New Hampshire, not far from where I lived, when he suffered a heart attack and fell down a flight of stairs. He was 57.

But at the time of this recording, Nick Jameson and Roger Earl are still with us, and Earl still tours with a version of Foghat.

Thanks for joining me for this edition of the “I’m in Love With That Song” podcast. I will be back in two weeks with another new episode. If for some unexplainable reason you just can’t bear to wait two weeks, you can relisten to all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com.

You can support the show by going to oldglory.com and buying some merch from your favorite artists. They even have a Fool for the City T-shirt that you can buy. And if you use our discount code, lovethatsong, you’ll save 15% and you’ll be helping to support this show. That’s oldglory.com with the discount code, lovethatsong.

Thank you for being part of this show here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, where fans belong. Now let’s turn up the volume and crank up “Fool for the City” by Foghat.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

  • Foghat: Visit their Official Website for current tour dates, official merchandise, and their latest music releases.
  • Savoy Brown: The Official Savoy Brown Website features news and details on founder Kim Simmonds’ autobiography, which chronicles his six-decade journey in blues-rock.
  • Muddy Waters: The Muddy Waters Foundation is dedicated to preserving the history of the blues and supporting emerging blues musicians.
  • Howlin’ Wolf: The Howlin’ Wolf Memorial Site offers detailed biographical insights, rare photographs, and stories covering his incredible life and legacy.
  • Lonesome Dave Peverett: His Concord Music Publishing profile highlights his massive impact as the founding member of Foghat and the writer behind defining hits like “Slow Ride” and “Fool For The City”.
  • Nick Jameson: His Discogs Profile outlines his eclectic and prolific career as a producer, engineer, voice actor, and multi-instrumentalist.
  • Rod Price obituary: https://www.the-independent.com/news/obituaries/rod-price-530402.html

Record Labels & Studios:

  • Bearsville Records: You can explore the ongoing legacy of Albert Grossman’s iconic label and its artists at the Bearsville Center. For a complete visual history of their original album art, catalog numbers, and tracklists, the Bearsville Discogs page is an invaluable database.
  • Suntreader Studios: The Suntreader Studios Discogs page catalogs the various releases cut at this remote Sharon, Vermont location, including Foghat’s platinum milestone.

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Podcast Network: Pantheon Podcast Network