Creedence Clearwater Revival

(Fantasy)

Face it, you know these chooglers by heart. Flick the radio dial and you’ll likely hear three of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s multitudinous hit singles. In fact, after 45 years, “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” and “Fortunate Son” practically come encoded in newborns’ DNA. This 6-CD box, containing all seven studio albums, a live LP, plus another disc’s worth of live songs and 25 pre-CCR singles/demos, constitutes everything the Bay Area quartet recorded. Even casual fanatics can trace the development of Stu Cook, Doug Clifford, and the Fogerty brothers over a lifespan shorter than the Beatles’, starting with their Fifties-derivative garage rock and charming roots. It’s also a reminder that not every great CCR tune came out as a 45, “Effigy,” “Someday Never Comes,” “Walk on the Water,” “Long as I Can See the Light,” and “Wrote a Song for Everyone” matching up to better-known earworms. Packaged like one of John Fogerty’s Kustom amplifiers, Creedence Clearwater Revival includes a booklet featuring album-by-album essays and a cool piece on the band’s formative years by historian Alec Palao.

This article appears in December 20 • 2013.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.