Fantasy 8402
Producer: John C. Fogerty
Track listing: Ramble Tamble / Before You Accuse Me / Travelin’ Band / Ooby Dooby / Lookin’ Out My Back Door / Run Through the Jungle / Up Around the Bend / My Baby Left Me / Who’ll Stop the Rain / I Heard It Through the Grapevine / Long as I Can See the Light
August 22, 1970
9 weeks
Following the success of Green River, Creedence Clearwater Revival scored another double-sided hit single. “Down on the Corner” climbed to number three, while the flipside “Fortunate Son” reached number 14 in November 1969. Both songs were included on Willy and the Poorboys, the band’s fourth album, which peaked at number three in January 1970.
CCR previewed its next album with more double-sided hits. In March 1970, “Travelin’ Band,” backed with “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” became the band’s fourth number two single in March 1970.”Up Around the Bend,” featuring “Run Through the Jungle” as its flipside, reached number four. All four tracks were included on CCR’s fifth album, Cosmo’s Factory, released in July 1970.
“What I was trying to achieve at that point was to make an album that served as the culmination of Creedence’s growth or output,” says singer-songwriter John Fogerty. “It was supposed to be one more grand moment of that phase before moving on.”
Put simply, Fogerty felt it was time for Creedence to change. “It was the middle of 1970 and I was a very hard-driven AM radio commercial animal,” he says. “I thought we had done a lot of similar stuff. I didn’t want to bore anybody or start repeating myself.”
The title of the album referred to the band’s Berkeley, California, rehearsal space in drummer Doug Clifford’s backyard. Clifford’s interest in ecology and nature earned him the nickname “Cosmo” back in his college days. The band’s space became known as “the factory” after Clifford complained about the cramped and smoky conditions of the rehearsal space, but admitted that it “beat working at a factory.”
By 1970, Fogerty had become a spokesman for the common man. “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” a subtle allegory about the Vietnam War, was one of his finest moments. “Protest songs were always kind of done with a real loud approach vocally and a harmonica, a la Bob Dylan,” says Fogerty. “I really wanted to do a song about the times, but I didn’t want to be so obvious. I wanted to say what I wanted to say and come to people in layers, so they were absorbing the beauty of it and enjoying the song, before it ever occurred to them what it was actually about.”
Elsewhere, CCR stuck to basic rock ‘n’ roll themes in tracks such as “Travelin’ Band,” which was meant as a tribute to rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Little Richard. CCR may have done too good a job. In October 1971, Fogerty and his publishing company were sued by the owner of Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly,” but the suit was later dropped.
Creedence also took time to stretch out on Cosmo’s Factory, as the band known for its three-minute hit singles included two unusually long songs on the album. Opener “Ramble Tamble” clocked in at seven minutes and nine seconds, while the band’s cover of the R&B classic “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” ran over 11 minutes. “We used to jam out on that when we played it in the clubs and people loved it,” Clifford says. “It was a nice, long dance track.”
Cosmo’s Factory became CCR’s second Number One album in its fifth week on the chart. By September, the group had yet another number two single with “Lookin’ Out My Back Door,” but the tensions between the Fogerty brothers were increasing. By January 1971, Tom left the group, which continued as a trio until late 1972. John Fogerty would find success again during his solo career.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of August 22, 1970
1. Cosmo’s Factory, Creedence Clearwater Revival
2. Woodstock, Soundtrack
3. Blood, Sweat & Tears 3, Blood, Sweat & Tears
4. Live at Leeds, The Who
5. John Barleycorn Must Die, Traffic