Travelin' Band - CCR at Royal Albert Hall

[Canard]

Travelin' Band: Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall

https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/81629046

I watched this yesterday on Netflix. It is a documentary which quickly outlines the early history of CCR (and there is a lot of it before success came to them) and finishes with their concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

It is interesting just how unexceptional CCR was, except for John Fogerty’s voice and writing skills.

They did not seem to have had problems with drugs and alcohol.

They weren’t radical. They weren’t conservative. They were only very obliquely political if they were political at all.

They don’t come off as either really bright or really dumb, just sort of normal.

They were unpretentious, refreshingly so.

They worked really hard and were very productive.

Musically they lived by the KISS principle. They were like a good bar band; it seems to have been a level of competency self-consciously aimed for. Up until Cosmos Factory, perhaps, they never recorded anything that they couldn’t play live as a four piece. KISS on steroids.

For record sales at the time they threatened The Beatles. They crossed boundaries. Rock radio stations played them. Black radio stations played them. I don’t think Country stations played them at first—their long hair would have prevented that—but every Country bar band I heard at the time had CCR tunes in their set lists. I played their tunes. The kid with the new guitar next door was playing their tunes. Everybody played their tunes.

The documentary avoids the ugliness of their later problems by stopping with the concert footage, a good place to stop, perhaps.

 

[Midnight Toker]

New CCR Documentary up on Netflix.

Watching it now...featuring never before seen concert footage and narration by Jeff Bridges. I'm about 20 min in and loving it!! (y) :giggle:

letstalkguild.com

 

[Rocky]

Reasonably good film. What's remarkable is how little of a stage show they had. Even on a big stage, they're all close together like they're playing at the Elks lodge.

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

If you're a fan of CCR, you need to read John Fogerty's autobiography. Pretty much they were a one man band where John did everything. The funny part is when the band mutinied on him because they thought they were the creative force. (They weren't!)

 

[Midnight Toker]

Reasonably good film. What's remarkable is how little of a stage show they had. Even on a big stage, they're all close together like they're playing at the Elks lodge.

I think that was a norm of the time. Even Led Zeppelin who played and filmed at the Royal Albert Hall just 3 months prior basically remained in a 15-20 ft box on stage. It wouldn't be until 1975 before they freely roamed an entire stage. Even Mick Jagger didn't roam stages in 70. If anything, it likely had to do w/ inadequate monitor systems of the time and bands generally kept tight just to hear themselves/each other.

 

[Rocky]

I think that was a norm of the time. Even Led Zeppelin who played and filmed at the Royal Albert Hall just 3 months prior basically remained in a 15-20 ft box on stage. It wouldn't be until 1975 before they freely roamed an entire stage. Even Mick Jagger didn't roam stages in 70. If anything, it likely had to do w/ inadequate monitor systems of the time and bands generally kept tight just to hear themselves/each other.

Sort of true. The Who and Hendrix certainly had some showmanship. CCR really isn't that kind of music, but you would think there might be more of an effort to connect.

 

[Prince of Darkness]

Directed by Bob Smeaton, who has built a very successful career making musical documentaries. A very good singer who never quite got the big breakthrough, he also tried his hand at acting before making the move to directing. I remember him appearing in some beer commercials that were very popular in the north east of England in the 1980s

 

[Canard]

Sort of true. The Who and Hendrix certainly had some showmanship. CCR really isn't that kind of music, but you would think there might be more of an effort to connect.

The Royal Albert Hall performance, while well filmed and well recorded, seems a little flat. The audience obviously enjoyed the show; they gave the band a 15 minute standing ovation. But their enthusiasm during the performance seems to have been reserved in its expression. For a band used to over-the-top venues like the Fillmore, it might have been off putting. Maybe the band weren't getting the audience energy to feed off. And the hall itself was a very formal setting. Forgerty doesn't really address the audience at all until the very last number.

The snippets of footage in the documentary from other European dates seem a bit energetic.

 

[Guildedagain]

It is interesting just how unexceptional CCR was, except for John Fogerty’s voice and writing skills.

They did not seem to have had problems with drugs and alcohol.

They weren’t radical. They weren’t conservative. They were only very obliquely political if they were political at all.

Fortunate Son is as political a statement as any.

Fantastically solid band, and Fogerty's ability to convey a Bayou vibe all the way from Frisco, a marketing genius.

If you were to leave a clip of a "Rock n' Roll Band" in a time capsule, this would be appropriate.



A master class in Rock n' Roll from what is a basically a Country band.



He wrote some provocative stuff, not unusual for the time period.

"Over on the mountain, thunder magic spoke
Let the people know my wisdom
Fill the land with smoke"

 

[richardp69]

One of my personal favorites. I've always considered them to be one of the best groups to come out of the USA.

 

[Canard]

Fortunate Son is as political a statement as any.

He wrote some provocative stuff, not unusual for the time period.

"Over on the mountain, thunder magic spoke
Let the people know my wisdom
Fill the land with smoke"

True if you can understand the lyrics as delivered in the songs.

But this is not really what I meant.

To the best of my knowledge, you don't find John Fogerty engaging in long winded muddled political pontification, say was sometimes the case for some other groups at the time.

 

[Guildedagain]

Probably a good thing, but he says plenty in song.

1959, Fogerty, Cook and Clifford formed The Blue Velvets, this is probably before that.

In 1962

 

[Rocky]

To the best of my knowledge, you don't find John Fogerty engaging in long winded muddled political pontification, say was sometimes the case for some other groups at the time.

I've heard people describe Creedence's songs about Viet Nam as being told from the soldier's point of view.

OTOH, Country Joe McDonald actually served in the Navy for three years.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Probably my fave CCR song, and they had a lot of great ones...
I always thought their bass player was the best musician in the band .

 

[Rocky]

probably my fave CCR song, and they had a lot of great ones...

I've never been to any of the Lodis (CA, AR, IL, IN, MI, MS, MN, MO, NE, NV, NJ, NY, OH, TX, VA, WI, all have at least one).

I think that's a good thing.

 

[DrumBob]

Creedence was simple, unpretentious, clearly not glamorous, and Everyman personified.

And they had great rock 'n roll songs, sold millions of records, inspired many musicians, and were wildly successful, after paying their dues for years.

 

[Guildedagain]

Creedence's songs about Viet Nam as being told from the soldier's point of view.

2 of the members had to take time away from the band to serve tours in Vietnam.

 

[Rocky]

2 of the members had to take time away from the band to serve tours in Vietnam.

A couple were in the reserves, but I don't think either were deployed.

 

[DrumBob]

A couple were in the reserves, but I don't think either were deployed.

This is correct. None of them ever went to Nam.

 

[West R Lee]

When I was in my late 20's maybe, the term was coined, "Progressive Country". I've really always considered Creedence the first progressive country band.

West