Authenticity, Commercialism And The Big Lebowski - A Tale Of Two American Bands

"I hate the fuckin' Eagles". I hate that fuckin' quote. Sure, the scene made me chuckle when I saw The Big Lebowski during its cinematic run, but still. It's glib as fuck, and more than a little bit of shooting fish in the barrel. I get it- the Indian guy loves the Eagles, har har. He loves corporate pap more associated with Middle America Hardi-fuckin'-har. Oh, also: All those Johnny Come Latelies who love the Big Lebowski and quote the movie? Where the fuck were you when that movie ran in theatres? Not out in droves, that's for sure.Me and my buddy Alex quoted that movie right after we saw it, bot unlike all those other goofs who saw it on home video later and decided to turn it into a cult movie. But that glib "I hate the fuckin' Eagles"? Fuck that. 

Of course, the Dude not only hates the fuckin' Eagles, he loves himself some Creedence Clearwater Revival, worrying whether the cops will not only find his stolen car, but also the Creedence tapes that were in it. Eagles = bad, CCR = good, we get it, Dude. If you've been reading along on this blog, you know that in the last months I featured both the Eagles and CCR on this blog. So, I got to thinking, which then meant I got to writing which, if all goes well, means you get to reading. Sorry 'bout that. But what better way to start off the new year than with [strokes goatee, adopts Philip Seymour Hoffman-as-Lester Bangs voice from "Almost Famous"] a, ahem, a think piece. 

While the Dude didn't expand on his reasons for hating on the Eagles, there are usually three things brought up, directly or indirectly about them: that they were boring and made boring music, that they were soulless commercial merchants, interested in filling their pockets without giving a damn about the music, and that they were inauthentic, country rock fakers turned stadium rock fakers. Now, compare that to CCR: a band beloved by all, the heart of American rock'n'roll. An authentic, American original band playing authentic American music. The Dude loves them, and who wouldn't? 

Let's get the first things out of the way: Nothing to say about the boring thing. Personal taste, friendo. You find 'em boring? Your loss, or not. But it's the other two arguments, all so neatly wrapped up in the 'I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man' quote that interest me for a hot minute or two. 

You sure you guys are from Los Angeles? 

I mentioned this is my write-up to Desperado: The Eagles began to introduce themselves as being "from Los Angeles", but none of them were. They were implants from as far east as Detroit, and as rural as Scottsbluff, Nebraska. But you know who is from California? Namely, from El Cerrito in the Bay area? Why, CCR of course. And who wouldn't remember such classics written by John Fogerty as "Born On The Bayou" and "Proud Mary" proudly presenting himself as...from the Deep South. Imagine for a second, if you wheel, the faces of Booker T & the MG's when Fogerty, that white boy from suburban California came into Muscle Shoals. Last I checked there weren't many bayous in El Cerrito. Funny thing, though...you know who has rarely if ever being accused of cultural appropriation, or of faking it? John Fogerty and the boys, that's who. 

Let's look at that whole sell out thing for a sec. Did you ever wonder why CCR threw out an average of two albums by year - and a full three in the calendar year of 1969? John Fogerty was somewhat paranoid about the idea that the moment his band would drop out of the charts, it would be the beginning of the end, the band falling almost immediately into oblivion and being forgotten. The solution: Throw out product, product and more product: single after single, album after album. Funny thing, though: You know which band - despite flooding the market with product as if there was no tomorrow - was rarely if never accused of only being in it for the money? Why, its lil' ol' John Fogerty and his band of merry men. 

Hey, you guys sure you were born on the bayou? 

As you have seen here, I love both bands dearly, so this isn't about who's better at what they respectively do, nor about who is keeping it real or faking things, or who was in it for the money to which degree. It's about how the cultural depiction of these two bands have taken such a different turn despite things not being what they seem to be. Now, to be fair: any Eagles-related acticity from 1994 onwards deserves scorn for its mercenary, in it for the money approach: the corporate events, the pushing concert tickets first over the hundred dollar limit, the endless 'final' tours, etc. And let's not get started on the other CCR. 

But yeah, maybe the Dude didn't say it best when he elevated CCR and dismissed the Eagles in one full swoop? Maybe both bands deserve their place as some of the best music their era had to offer? Maybe the discussions about realness and fakeness in rock'n'roll are as real or fake as their subjects? Life is stranger than fiction they say, but it is also a lot more complicated, than that fiction's punch lines. So fuck that lazy-ass Big Lebowski quote, listen to the great rock'n'roll from CCR and the great country rock of early Eagles side by side peacefully...I think we can all abide...unless you are a nihilist and don't believe in anything...but that's a whole different altogether...

Creedence Clearwater Revival : An American Band

It's probably not quite right to say that Creedence Clearcater Revival are underrated. They are very much appreciated by everyone, and everyone that hears one of their tunes can probably sing or whistle along and would agree that that is a very fine tune. Therein lies the problem me thinks. If CCR aren't underrated they are somehat taken for granted. Almost everyone likes their music just fine, but when the discussion turns to great American bands, how often does the name Creedence Clearwater Revival come up? Not very often I fear. The very fact that their monster hits were monster hits that still play on classic rock stations everywhere gives them, at least in some quarters, the reputation that they were somehow bubblegum rock'n'rollers, not, you know, serious artists.

And John Fogerty, for better and worse, the head, voice and main hand of the ensemble wouldn't have liked it any other way. CCR is the rare band that didn't search out critical approval, that never went for the 'serious album statement' or really any album statement at all. For Fogerty, and CCR, albums were what they were: You collect the hits, a couple of album tracks, then fill out the rest with a couple of well-chosen covers. Bam. That makes for good to very good albums, but arguably not a great one, at least not the kind of venerated great album that shows up in Greatest Albums Of All Time list, though Green River, their most consistent album, should probably be a candidate for such a list. As a matter of fact, I'd say that their run between 1969 and early 1971 is one of the best runs in American music history. Five albums, tons of great songs on them, and oll that in a little more than two years. I'm not sure who has a better hit rate in such a short time. 

The idea to post some CCR came while I was working on the Bluegrass Chartbusters series (and boy has that one ballooned out of proportions since last we mentioned them...) and I realized that I put a CCR cover on almost all volumes, not only because the covers were very good, but also because of how great these songs really are. For this little compilation, I kept things simple: I stuck with the best songs which most of the time also were the biggest songs. No need to try and go for the deepest deep cut and sell that as a lost classic. Sure, there were some contenders that could have been on here, like "Pagan Baby", or "Effigy", or "Cross-Tie Walker", or half a dozen others, But considering my 80 minute time limit, there were tough choices to be made. Hey, you still get 27 great CCR numbers, programmed for maximum listening pleasure, or so I hope. I didn't want to sequence chronologically ( as the Chronicles - the name oliges - did), so I sequenced - say it with me, kids - for feel and flow, making sure that the uptempo ravers would be buffered by a midtempo number from time to time. 

As you will see from my track selection, I am not a huge fan of the band's first two albums. Their eponymous (suck it, Ed!) debut album was really a product of its time, coming out in 1968 and sounding like it with its long, relatively aimless jams that are prevalent on these albums. CCR were never particularly interested in aligning themselves with the other San Fran rock bands, but they soon realized that the long jam was not only en vogue, but could also serve to fill out time when material was scant, a trick they repeatedly used when an album had to be made in the usual record time and Fogerty hadn't come up with enough numbers. I mean, I like Cosmo's Factory just fine, but the only reason "Ramble Tamble" is seven minutes and "I Heard It Though The Grapevine" a mind-numbing eleven is to reach vinyl album running time. 

So the debut is represented by a single number, or rather: half one. I liked the song portion of "Walk On The Water", but that part is a very concide (and indicative of the future) 1:45 minutes long, then has a jam section attached that stretches it out to almost five minutes, uselessly I might add. The jam isn't even particularly well integrated, it is literally just tacked on at the end. Not here, though, on the first of two 'An American Band edits'. The second is "Born On The Bayou" from sophopore effort Bayou Country, were the band was starting to come into its own but hadn't shaken off the kind-of sludgy jam band stuff from the beginnings quite yet. So I mercilessly cut the song down for an imaginary single version of "Bayou" with both of the mid-song instrumental sections either completely or mostly gone and the song clocking in at a breezy three and a half minutes instead of a slovenly five and a half...

You might have guessed by now, but yeah, I largely prefer Fogerty's sub-three minute 'get in, get the job done, get out' songs. And boy, did he have a great number of those, and aren't they all swell. With a band like Creedence Clearwater Revival you can really talk about a 27-track comp that is 'all killer no filler'. Just top notch stuff, even on some of the slightly lesser-known numbers I included like "Don't Look Now", "Sinister Purpose" or "Molina". Speaking of sinister purpose: One of the interesting - and not that often discussed - aspects of Fogerty's songwriting in CCR is how dark and scary it is. The music is often upbeat and bouncy, but the sentiments aren't: Fogerty is often evoking fear and paranoia in songs whose titles say it all: "Tombstone Shadow", "Sinister Purpose", "Gloomy", "Bad Moon Rising". 

Just take the latter song, the newly-minted opening number here. When you sing and tap along you tend to forget how dark and ominous the lyrics really are: "Hope you got your things together / I hope that you're quite prepared to die / looks like we're in for nasty weather / one eye is taken for an eye". Fire and brimstone from doomsday preacher John Fogerty, set to one of the bounciest beats to accompany the apocalypse you'll ever hear. Total masterpiece of course...And just as easily Fogerty could be goofy and cute in the whimsical fancy of "Lookin' Out My Backdoor" or serve up realer-than-real Sun single imitations on "Don't Look Now" and others.

So, because you can never have enough CCR in your life, here's a generous serving of some of the best from one of the best of the American rock bands...