The Four Members of Creedence Clearwater Revival Invented The Swamp Rock Genre

more like Swamp Rock invented CCR

 

The "San Francisco Bayou" ...

 

Didnt the other thread get killed off (thankfully). Is this its bastard son?

And, no, they didnt invent anything. They borrowed and with Johns unique vocals brought a sliver of the pure sound that was invented by so many others ages before. Nothing wrong with that nor does it lesson CCRs viability or worth.

 

I'm a big CCR fan, but I think it's probably fairer to say that swamp rock was a journalistic term applied to them and, in particular, Tony Joe White also. They both became popular around the same time in 68/69. Swamp music was popular long before that with artists like Slim Harpo.

Fogerty himself talked in 68 of "the whole swamp bayou myth" in 68 around the time that Born on the Bayou, Proud Mary and Keep on Chooglin' were fermenting. He's also talked of Dale Hawkins Suzie Q from 57 as the record he chose to define the Creedence sound - their cover version was on the CCR debut - and said that "all the really great records or people who made them came from Memphis or Louisiana or somewhere along the Mississippi River in between". He's frequently cited influences like Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters and Carl Perkins.

Sure, Creedence had a unique sound. (So did Tony Joe White, listen to Polk Salad Annie). But I think swamp rock is just a term applied to them - four guys from California who had a thing about the South. It would be just as easy, and just as unfair, to say Tony Joe invented it. Funnily enough, they toured the Uk together back in the day !

 

I think that the achievement of CCR is that they took several different earlier influences and artists (from blues, country and early rock and roll) and created a unique sound, applied to many excellent original compositions. They performed these compositions with a lot of energy, and were really good at getting vital studio performances recorded.

I think that if CCR incorporated some of the sound of Slim Harpo, and some journalists called it swamp rock, that is about 1 % of their achievement. To call CCR "swamp rock" is like saying that the Rolling Stones are a "blues slide guitar band". It may be part of it, but the overall achievement of the group is so much greater.

 

And then he would repeatedly say to his bandmates:

What...are you doin'...in my swamp?!

 

"You know that nes Sooooound you're lookin' fo?"

First time I heard that track was in the movie Get Shorty. Immediately fell in love w/ it. How can anyone not love it?

 

Let's not overlook this. Saul Zaentz might have been a snake, but he gave them access to people who knew how to make great-sounding records. CCR benefited from that a ton.

 

A snake in the swamp ...

 

Zanz stuck in the swamp:

 

Surprised 'Rocky Raccoon' has not yet been cited as the beginning of the genre.

 

That was "Rabies Rock"; not "Swamp Rock".

 

I always belived the whole "swamp rock" thing as it applies to CCR was due to the actual sound of the records - the engineering.

So Russ Gary really invented swamp rock. Or not.

 

I think the word "invent" is rarity in world of music...

Most often, genres tend to evolve or spawn off other genres... starts with building onto what's present.

 

Which would many years later inspire this classic

 

Yeah, 1957, I'm not sure CCR added anything really to the stew that was already in that record. Spiced it up maybe, but if there's any sound and style called "swamp rock," which I'm not sure there is, it was at least a decade old before CCR arrived. Which is not to take anything away from the band's brilliant body of work. But invented a swamp rock genre? C'mon! And really, swamp rock, wouldn't that be more for a New Orleans sound. Like Frogman Henry or something?

 

CCR? Them flannel wearing hippie faux working-class posers ain't no swamp rockers. This here feller rocked the swamp, son!

Now get!

 

How could we forget it? It is, however, but one of the many influences upon the many splendored swamp rock tapestry of Creedence.

 

If the musicologists at Rolling Stone weren't concerned with the swamp rock genre, they would have stopped employing the term in 1975 when disco was all the rage. Instead, thanks to Rolling Stone, our realization of swamp rock continues as part of the rock 'n roll zeitgeist that the magazine is a key player in.

 

I believe the correct expression is ' now git'

 

I don't know if CCR invented swamp rock or not, but I'm still amazed 4 white boys from California could create that sound.

 

Reading Fogerty's inspired me to listen to those guys in their Pre-Creedence incarnations from the box set. They seemed more influenced by Them and primitive R+B than anything, sometimes resembling a fairly accomplished punk band that could also sing pretty well. There didn't seem to be much transition to what they became, other than an early version of Walk on Water. "Susie Q" was actually a' production' in the sense Fogerty mapped out its 'movements' and judiciously applied effects. Still pretty spooky and potent performance, but also very calculated. There doesn't seem to be a lot of precedence for them (or him) finding that sound or that approach. Perhaps subconsciously or intuitively he wanted to distinguish Creedence from the somewhat indulgent San Francisco bands.