Creedence Clearwater Revisited Still Carrying On the Music and Defining Generations

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, a band named Creedence Clearwater Revival flooded the radio airwaves and entertained audiences worldwide, cranking out hit after hit with their unique blend of rock, country, and rhythm and blues.

CCR broke up in 1972, but the classic sound of that legendary group has been reborn through a reincarnation also known as CCR, now renamed Creedence Clearwater Revisited.

The band features the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rhythm section from the original CCR, Stu Cook on bass and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford on drums.



Creedence Clearwater Revisited L-R: Kurt Griffey, John Tristao, Stu Cook, Doug Clifford, and Steve Gunner. 

Creedence Clearwater Revival are best known for their classic hit songs “Proud Mary,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Green River,” “Down on the Corner,” “Fortunate Son,” and “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,” among many others.

Originally formed in Northern California in 1967, CCR featured lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford. Despite their San Francisco Bay Area origins, CCR portrayed a Southern rock style, with songs containing lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River, and other popular elements of Southern American life. Since the group disbanded more than 40 years ago, CCR has remained a staple of American classic rock radio.     

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cook’s early musical influences included artists like Ray Charles, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Ricky Nelson – all the early pioneers of rock and roll. San Francisco eventually became famous for the “Summer of Love” in the 1960s, but in the 1950s, the Bay Area had a very diverse culture and a great radio scene, where you could hear country music at night and rhythm and blues all day long.

“We had a lot of opportunities to explore out of pop radio,” Cook said. “Back in the ‘50s, there were small local labels that represented a lot of rhythm and blues artists, and a lot of small venues for people to experience the music live. It was a great place to get my musical education.”

That musical education led to the formation of a diverse band that incorporated a number of different styles into its repertoire. CCR’s influence can still be heard in many genres today, including southern rock, grunge, roots rock, and blues. “It’s just basic American music,” Cook said. “It’s blues-flavored but you have some country in there, and even a little Caribbean-flavored. We touched a lot of different bases with the Creedence sound.”

Many bands today still carry on the sound and influence of the original CCR in one genre or another, but it’s not really something that Cook or his bandmates consciously think about. “I’m not really listening for it, because the music of CCR to me is really the music of Chuck Berry, and all the people that we grew up listening to – with some Merle Haggard and some Buck Owens thrown in,” he said. “It’s drawn from all kinds of American music that came before us.”



Creedence Clearwater Revival L-R: Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and John Fogerty in 1968.

Creedence Clearwater Revival had tremendous success in a very short period of time. From 1969 to 1971, CCR had five Top Ten albums, and nine Top Ten singles, including five singles that reached No. 2 without ever scoring a No. 1 single, a record for an artist. They seemed to be one of those bands that was in the right place at the right time. America was in the midst of the Vietnam War and people needed music that defined that true American spirit. This among other things contributed to the band’s growing popularity, something that perhaps only fans from that era can attest to.

“I can’t really say for sure because I’m on the inside – that question is better asked of people on the outside,” Cook said. “I’m sure you’d get a thousand different answers; but for me the music was straight ahead, simple and honest. You could feel that it was from the heart rather than constructed. Fogerty wrote some great songs for the band, plus we had a ton of support from radio. AM radio, and then later FM radio took up the slack and got the music out to the audience and soon they became fans.”

Interestingly enough, many younger people may not realize that Creedence Clearwater Revival performed at the Woodstock Music Festival in August 1969. The band was to headline on Saturday night but did not get on stage until early Sunday morning. CCR was the first act to sign up for the concert, but unfortunately the band was not included in the documentary film that was made about the three-day music festival. John Fogerty was not happy with the band’s performance and did not want them included.

“I’ve listened to the recordings and the performances are quite good,” Cook said. “Not being in the movie was a big mistake because we were riding high at the time and it couldn’t have done anything but helped our career. But there is 15 minutes of audio and video on a bonus DVD for the 40^th anniversary reissue of Woodstock.”  

After CCR broke up in 1972, the members went their separate ways, as John Fogerty pursued a solo career and had success with his hit album “Centerfield” in 1985. Cook and Clifford then played in various bands, most notably the group Southern Pacific in the 1980s, where Cook was joined by Doobie Brothers John McFee and Keith Knudsen. Founding member Tom Fogerty, John’s older brother, passed away in 1990 at the age of 48.

The music of CCR seemed to be in the past, until the band’s classic sound was resurrected one day in 1995. Cook and Clifford were hanging out, living in a small Sierra Nevada town and found themselves with too much time on their hands, so they decided to put a band together.

“It just kind of came out of wanting to get back in the business,” Cook said. “We didn’t have an album, and we didn’t have a plan. We just sort of threw it out there and wanted to see if anybody cared.”

After they formed the band, Creedence Clearwater Revisited began touring, performing the old CCR songs for audiences worldwide. The band’s current lineup consists of Cook on bass and backing vocals, Clifford on drums and percussion, John Tristao on lead vocals, Steve Gunner on keyboards, guitar and backing vocals, and Kurt Griffey on lead guitar.

When Cook and the band first started playing live, they were quite surprised at how young the audience had become. Now 20 years later, there are more Creedence fans than ever – even more than when the original band was enjoying their brief successful run of hits back in the late 1960s.

“We’ve got three solid generations of fans now, and we’re working on a fourth,” Cook said. “It’s thrilling to see that so many young people enjoy listening to the music. When radio got broken up into different formats, the creation of classic rock really helped focus for the fans where to find the music. So that worked out great for us.”

Cook sees Creedence Clearwater Revisited for the most part as a live performance project and says the band really has no interest in going into the studio and adding to the great catalogue that is Creedence. “We’re trying to stick to our original premise, which is to take the music to the fans again and have some fun,” he said. “We just want to go out and play the music, have some fun, have successful concerts, a good time with our fans, and go to the next town and do it again.”

After refusing to relive the music of his past for many years, original lead singer John Fogerty began to perform the songs live that he had written for the band as well in 1997. Many times there are rifts in rock and roll bands and CCR is certainly no exception. A reunion is not likely to happen, but the various members have come to accept what they cannot change and are now looking to the future.

“Nobody has ever stopped John from singing the songs, and I’m still not stopping him – he can sing what he wants to sing,” Cook said. “What we’re trying to do is honor and celebrate the music of the band, and that means we have to go out there and play great every night. We hold ourselves to pretty high standards, so it’s up to us to do the job.”