John Fogerty: Wrote A Song For Everyone

Singalonga John reaps few surprises.

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Fogerty’s impressive catalogue of Creedence Clearwater Revival hits from the 60s and 70s still dominate the set-lists of his modern-day gigs, but inviting famous friends to help him give the songs a fresh coat of paint doesn’t, for the most part, make any real impact.

The innate simplicity of, say, Fortunate Son and Born On The Bayou means there’s little Foo Fighters or Kid Rock respectively can add to the streamlined perfection of the originals. However, My Morning Jacket bring an ethereal hue to the sober testifying of Long As I Can See The Light, and there’s a pleasing bluegrass lilt to Keith Urban’s contribution to the solo Fogerty track Almost Saturday Night.

Of the two new songs, Mystic Highway bounces along on a barnyard stomp before segueing into a trippy psych-out, while the brooding Train Of Fools touches base with the redneck rock of early Steve Earle.

Terry Staunton was a senior editor at NME for ten years before joined the founding editorial team of Uncut. Now freelance, specialising in music, film and television, his work has appeared in Classic Rock, The Times, Vox, Jack, Record Collector, Creem, The Village Voice, Hot Press, Sour Mash, Get Rhythm, Uncut DVD, When Saturday Comes, DVD World, Radio Times and on the website Music365.