четверг, 11 августа 2011 г.
Creedence Clearwater Revisited: Interview with Stu Cook
However, instead of inviting his former bandmates up on to the stage, Fogerty completely ignored the watching Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, and proceeded to run through a number of Creedence classics, accompanied by the house band and stars such as Bruce Springsteen and The Band's Robbie Robertson.
"The Hall of Fame kept saying, 'Oh yeah, you guys will get to play'," remembers Stu, with a world-weary sense of 'seen-it-all-before'. "Then we kept pressing them on what was going on and they said, 'Oh, they’ll just be a jam', and finally, when we get there, they go, 'Oh, didn’t anybody tell you? You’re not playing'."
Snubbed by an Old Friend
"We had a confrontation with John," he continues, "and he said, 'I don’t like you guys, I’m not gonna play with you guys, you left me twisting in the wind' - whatever the hell that means! To make the night about our feud, to bring our feud to the event, I thought that was just incredibly small.
It should have been about the band, celebrating the band, and taking the award, and leaving all the family stuff behind, as it were. You don’t take your laundry out and drag it around at an awards event, so, yeah, Doug and I felt extremely dissed.
Read This Next
From the Beatles to Madonna - The Stories Behind the Names
New Classic Rock Fall 2007
Oregon State Fair in Salem is Too Big to Miss!
We and our families just got up and walked out. I got into it with Robbie Robertson and Bruce Springsteen, and Bruce apologised. Robbie gave me some BS, just saying, 'Well, you know, that’s the way bands are'. It was just handled extremely poorly by the Hall of Fame, and by John.
Just to say, 'Hey, we had some worth, we were part of that'. To deny us the opportunity to share fully in the evening by refusing to play with us, that was fairly childish. That one incident may have led to the 'Revisted' project."
Creedence Clearwater Revisted
In the mid-1990s, Stu and Doug decided to assemble an able group of musicians, and take the songs of Creedence Clearwater Revival out on the road, something John Fogerty had previously refused to do.
"I had moved to a small mountain town up in the Sierra Nevadas, Lake Tahoe, and Doug and I were hanging out together," explains Stu. "He lived there for many years and we were hanging out, jamming every day, and we just started going, 'Hey, why don’t we get some guys that can play and see if we can get anybody to hire us?' That was back in 1995, I think, ’94, ’95. This is our 16th year."
Suite 101: What was John Fogerty's initial reaction?
"We invited him to join, he said no, and then he sued us over the use of the name, and ultimately, had to settle with us because he doesn’t control it. It’s a trademark and it’s controlled by the four members and the courts didn’t agree with him. It took us a lot of money and a lot of time, but finally we got to use the name again."
Suite 101: How has the band been received by the public?
"When we first started the 'Revisted' project, we were amazed at the number of young people that were interested in what we were doing and would come to see us perform. At first, we thought maybe they’d gotten lost, ended up at the wrong concert, but as it turns out, we have a solid three generations of fans now."
Suite 101: CC Rev has taken you to Latin America. Were you surprised at how popular you are down there?
"Creedence is pretty popular everywhere. When we first started going down to South America in the late ‘90s, we were really surprised at how many fans we had because the original band never toured south of the border. It was always so-called security issues, but that doesn’t bother us anymore.
Sometimes, we’ll finish a song and they’ll get into one of their soccer chants, and it’s hard to start the next song. It really shocked us to feel that much love from the fans – we had never experienced that in the original band and it’s really allowed us to more fully enjoy the music.
There’s not anywhere near the same kind of pressures as there was in the original band, so we’re really able to enjoy every bit of what we’re doing."
Suite 101: Do you think your friendship with Doug Clifford has been a vital element to your success?
"I’m sure that has a lot to do with it. We learned to play our instruments together and have been friends for 52 years now. We’re able to just take the best parts of our relationship on stage with us and we know that at this point in our lives, without sounding morbid, you never know when it's your last night to perform. So we try and savour every night, every song, every note."
Keeping the Music Alive
The popularity of the Creedence Clearwater Revival songbook has led to CCRev being in huge demand around the world, as the public continues to show its love for such timeless classics.
Despite the objections of the original band's defacto leader, John Fogerty, Stu and Doug have successfully made the tensions that drove CCR apart a thing of the past, deciding instead to just let the music do the talking.
"The Hall of Fame kept saying, 'Oh yeah, you guys will get to play'," remembers Stu, with a world-weary sense of 'seen-it-all-before'. "Then we kept pressing them on what was going on and they said, 'Oh, they’ll just be a jam', and finally, when we get there, they go, 'Oh, didn’t anybody tell you? You’re not playing'."
Snubbed by an Old Friend
"We had a confrontation with John," he continues, "and he said, 'I don’t like you guys, I’m not gonna play with you guys, you left me twisting in the wind' - whatever the hell that means! To make the night about our feud, to bring our feud to the event, I thought that was just incredibly small.
It should have been about the band, celebrating the band, and taking the award, and leaving all the family stuff behind, as it were. You don’t take your laundry out and drag it around at an awards event, so, yeah, Doug and I felt extremely dissed.
Read This Next
From the Beatles to Madonna - The Stories Behind the Names
New Classic Rock Fall 2007
Oregon State Fair in Salem is Too Big to Miss!
We and our families just got up and walked out. I got into it with Robbie Robertson and Bruce Springsteen, and Bruce apologised. Robbie gave me some BS, just saying, 'Well, you know, that’s the way bands are'. It was just handled extremely poorly by the Hall of Fame, and by John.
Just to say, 'Hey, we had some worth, we were part of that'. To deny us the opportunity to share fully in the evening by refusing to play with us, that was fairly childish. That one incident may have led to the 'Revisted' project."
Creedence Clearwater Revisted
In the mid-1990s, Stu and Doug decided to assemble an able group of musicians, and take the songs of Creedence Clearwater Revival out on the road, something John Fogerty had previously refused to do.
"I had moved to a small mountain town up in the Sierra Nevadas, Lake Tahoe, and Doug and I were hanging out together," explains Stu. "He lived there for many years and we were hanging out, jamming every day, and we just started going, 'Hey, why don’t we get some guys that can play and see if we can get anybody to hire us?' That was back in 1995, I think, ’94, ’95. This is our 16th year."
Suite 101: What was John Fogerty's initial reaction?
"We invited him to join, he said no, and then he sued us over the use of the name, and ultimately, had to settle with us because he doesn’t control it. It’s a trademark and it’s controlled by the four members and the courts didn’t agree with him. It took us a lot of money and a lot of time, but finally we got to use the name again."
Suite 101: How has the band been received by the public?
"When we first started the 'Revisted' project, we were amazed at the number of young people that were interested in what we were doing and would come to see us perform. At first, we thought maybe they’d gotten lost, ended up at the wrong concert, but as it turns out, we have a solid three generations of fans now."
Suite 101: CC Rev has taken you to Latin America. Were you surprised at how popular you are down there?
"Creedence is pretty popular everywhere. When we first started going down to South America in the late ‘90s, we were really surprised at how many fans we had because the original band never toured south of the border. It was always so-called security issues, but that doesn’t bother us anymore.
Sometimes, we’ll finish a song and they’ll get into one of their soccer chants, and it’s hard to start the next song. It really shocked us to feel that much love from the fans – we had never experienced that in the original band and it’s really allowed us to more fully enjoy the music.
There’s not anywhere near the same kind of pressures as there was in the original band, so we’re really able to enjoy every bit of what we’re doing."
Suite 101: Do you think your friendship with Doug Clifford has been a vital element to your success?
"I’m sure that has a lot to do with it. We learned to play our instruments together and have been friends for 52 years now. We’re able to just take the best parts of our relationship on stage with us and we know that at this point in our lives, without sounding morbid, you never know when it's your last night to perform. So we try and savour every night, every song, every note."
Keeping the Music Alive
The popularity of the Creedence Clearwater Revival songbook has led to CCRev being in huge demand around the world, as the public continues to show its love for such timeless classics.
Despite the objections of the original band's defacto leader, John Fogerty, Stu and Doug have successfully made the tensions that drove CCR apart a thing of the past, deciding instead to just let the music do the talking.
Biography
Creedence Clearwater Revival, frequently referred to as CCR or simply Creedence, was an American roots rock band, fronted by John Fogerty.
The band started out as The Blue Velvets, formed by John Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and Stu Cook in El Cerrito, California, United States in the late 1950s. They were an instrumental trio, however during the early ’60s they began backing Tom Fogerty, John’s older brother, for school dances at El Cerrito High School, on fraternity house gigs and in the recording studio. By the mid 1960s, the band signed a contract with Fantasy Records which was a local label based in San Francisco at that time. They were attracted to the label because Fantasy had released a national hit by Vince Guaraldi, “Cast Your Fate To The Wind”. Fantasy officials changed the group’s name to The Golliwogs, an apparent reference to a once-popular minstrel doll called a Golliwogg. Seven singles were released in the San Francisco Bay area, but none received national attention. (However, in 1975 Fantasy released Pre-Creedence, a compilation album of recordings by The Golliwogs).
Eventually John Fogerty took control of the group, writing most of their material and singing lead vocals. The band’s first album as Creedence Clearwater Revival was released in 1968. A cover of the Dale Hawkins Swamp Rock classic “Suzie Q.” became their first hit single (the song was later featured in the movie Apocalypse Now). As a result, Creedence Clearwater Revival is considered part of that distinctly American Swamp Rock music, exemplified again most prominently in their song “Born On The Bayou”.
By 1969, the band really began to find its voice; “Proud Mary” became their second hit single and also was a big hit for Ike and Tina Turner. It was followed by a series of successful songs, including “Bad Moon Rising”, “Green River”, “Down on the Corner”, “Travelin’ Band”, “Who’ll Stop the Rain?”, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”, “Up Around the Bend”, “Fortunate Son”, and “Lookin’ Out My Back Door.”
Due to John Fogerty’s success as writer, singer, and frontman, the other band members began to feel like they were being held back. His brother Tom left the band in 1971, to pursue an unsuccessful solo career. John Fogerty insisted that bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford share equal songwriting and vocal time on the band’s final album Mardi Gras in 1972. Many have speculated that Fogerty did this in anticipation of poor sales, in order to prove to brother Tom (and the rest of world) that his songwriting had always been the real commercial talent behind the band’s success. The album did indeed receive poor reviews and sales, and the group disbanded shortly afterwards.
John Fogerty bought himself out of his contract with Fantasy Records and eventually established a successful solo career.
In 1990, Tom Fogerty died of AIDS, which he contracted from a blood transfusion.
CCR was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. At the induction, Tom Fogerty’s widow brought the urn containing his ashes for a CCR “reunion,” but John Fogerty would not perform with his fellow bandmates.
Band members Doug Clifford and Stu Cook formed a band in 1995 with other musicians called Creedence Clearwater Revisited. They perform globally, only performing the original band’s classics. John Fogerty still has no communications with Cook and Clifford.
Creedence Clearwater Revival was somewhat unfashionable during the time they were active, because they concentrated on tightly-focused, well-crafted singles rather than long, loose album cuts. However within a few years of their breakup their legacy became secure as one of the great American rock bands, and they heavily influenced the entire genre of heartland rock.
Fogerty’s songs are considered classics of the rock form and have been covered by countless artists; “Fortunate Son” in particular is revived whenever America goes to war. A new live version of “Fortunate Son” by John Fogerty was recently released as part of his 2005 compilation album The Long Road Home which combines both his Creedence and solo hits.
The guitar solos on such songs as “Suzie Q”, “Heard it Through the Grapevine” and “I Put A Spell On You” are believed to be played by Steve Cropper of Booker T & the MGs.
John recently (2008) released a new album entitled Revival receiving a Grammy nomination.
CCR holds the record for the group with the most # 2 songs on the U.S. Charts yet amazingly they never had a # 1 hit.
Подписаться на:
Комментарии (Atom)