Even if you don't know the name, you know the songs: "Down on the Corner," "Born on the Bayou," "Fortunate Son" — Creedence Clearwater Revival sported god-tier songwriting chops, and sold more than 50 million albums. So where are they now?
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Even if you don't know the name, you know the songs.
00:03Down on the Corner, Born on the Bayou, Fortunate Son,
00:06Creedence Clearwater Revival,
00:08Sported God Tier Songwriting Chops,
00:11and sold more than 50 million albums.
00:13So where are they now?
00:14Though the group started playing together in the early 1960s,
00:18once they reached a bigger audience circa 1968,
00:21the band's rise and fall spanned only four years.
00:25Louder reports that CCR fell apart because lead singer,
00:28guitarist, and songwriter John Fogarty
00:31took too much on himself.
00:33He kept up a blistering songwriting pace
00:35for fear of the band falling into irrelevancy
00:38and got possessive about creative control
00:41and their contract with Fantasy Records.
00:44There's all those terms that people have invented,
00:46but it's really just rock and roll music.
00:48John's brother, guitarist Tom Fogarty,
00:50got fed up and left the band,
00:52and John disbanded CCR in 1972.
00:56Bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Cosmo Clifford
00:59were released from their contracts.
01:01Fogarty, however, was not.
01:03Fantasy wanted Fogarty to complete his eight-album deal,
01:06so in 1973, Fogarty released The Blue Ridge Rangers,
01:11a covers record where Fogarty played every instrument.
01:14Afterward, he tried to get out of his contract
01:17by claiming Fantasy did a bad job at promoting the record.
01:20Fantasy sued him when he stopped writing songs,
01:23but Fogarty got a solo contract anyway.
01:25Things have remained relatively stable for Fogarty since then,
01:28if not nearly as successful.
01:30Fogarty has marched on, writing, performing,
01:33releasing 10 studio albums in the last 50 years,
01:36and selling about 5 million copies to date.
01:39Fogarty finally regained the rights
01:41to the CCR catalog in 2023.
01:44The 79-year-old told Forbes,
01:46"'I think right now I just feel relief
01:48that I don't have to keep struggling with it.'"
01:50Tragically, John's brother Tom
01:52died of HIV-related tuberculosis in 1990.
01:56Bassist Stu Cook has kept busy since CCR ended in 1972.
02:01In the 70s, Cook set up his own studio called The Factory
02:05and formed the Don Harrison Band,
02:08intending to serve as a producer.
02:10But rather than just produce for Harrison,
02:12he joined the band to play bass,
02:14along with former bandmate, drummer Doug Clifford.
02:17Cook also played in country rock band Southern Pacific,
02:20produced for Rocky Erickson, and more.
02:23In 1995, Cook teamed up once again with Clifford
02:26to form what amounted to a permanent tribute band,
02:29Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
02:31Legally, Cook and Clifford were able to use the name
02:34Creedence Clearwater Revival,
02:36but as Louder quotes Cook,
02:38"'We chose not to out of respect for the original band
02:41and to avoid unnecessary confusion with our fans.'"
02:44Creedence Clearwater Revisited
02:46hasn't exactly slowed down over the years.
02:49In fact, as their official website lists,
02:51they've got another tour scheduled for 2025.
02:54Doug Clifford kept busy in the years after CCR disbanded.
02:59Did you, when you first started, know what you were doing?
03:02Not at all, and I still don't.
03:04He released a solo album, Cosmo, that same year
03:07before joining the Don Harrison Band with Stu Cook.
03:10And later, Creedence Clearwater Revisited.
03:13As he told Psychedelic Baby Magazine,
03:15Clifford remains proud of his work
03:17in the original Creedence Band
03:18and counts Born on the Bayou as his favorite song of theirs,
03:22which is why Creedence Clearwater Revisited
03:24opens every concert with it.
03:26True to his nickname, Clifford also released
03:29a solo Spacey album in 2020 called Magic Window
03:32that, as his website says, he wrote in 1985,
03:36but kept in the vault until the COVID-19 pandemic
03:39gave him free time to finish it.
03:41He forgot about it in the intervening years,
03:43but decided to polish it and release it,
03:45saying, "'Music's always been a medicine
03:48and a meditation for me.
03:49It doesn't matter if I'm down or up.
03:51It works both ways.'"