Creedence Clearwater - Creedence Gold • CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

two or three spots on "Suzie Q.," their "big" number (over eight minutes long), he has no complementation from the other members of the group. He's no Albert King, but he plays a fine guitar at times. His singing on "Ninety-Nine and a Half" is beautiful. But even on that track, whenever it's suspended between riffs, the unimaginative drumming kills it. The whole record is unimaginative, poorly produced and a great waste of John Fogerty's talents.

"I Put A Spell On You" bears only a cursory resemblance to Alan Price's version, but maybe it's unfair to compare them with someone so polished and well-established. Even Eric Burdon casts a heavier "Spell."

"I'd rather hear an old man coughing than listen to their (CCR's) rhythm section," says San Francisco jazzman Paul deBarros.

But Fogerty's versatility keeps sneaking through. He even comes on with a little Jeff Beck-ish feedback on "Porterville." He's really the only redeeming quality on the record, and even he gets buried beneath the mediocre non-arrangements and un-inventiveness of the other members of the group.

I've heard them in person (they played free one day on campus in Berkeley), and they sounded much better than they do on their album. They should release "Ninety-Nine and a Half" as a single: I think it would tear up the Top-40 crowd and sell a million. Fogerty's a gas but Creedence Clearwater's Revival may not be worth it. (RS 14)

BARRY GIFFORD

CCR sketched the parameters of an eccentric hybrid of country soul/acid-dazed hippie/rockabilly roots rock here: a form all their own, never to be successfully copied or even attempted. The super-psyche chicken strut of "Suzie Q" is the one everybody uses in their Vietnam movie soundtrack but it's the shuddering hard gospel of "Ninety-Nine And A Half" that's the real draw.