I can't believe I left out maybe the iconic Creedence song, "Proud Mary."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ROalKnVZfU&feature=relatedUnlike so many rock songs that were interpreted as being about drugs and weren't, this one didn't seem to be about drugs and was.
One of my oldest friends, the best man in my wedding, played in a country rock band back in the day. He was a keyboardist and backing vocalist and could play everything from the Grateful Dead to Stevie Wonder. ("Bertha" was one of their showstoppers and later the name of one of his dogs.) The kind of natural musician who hears a song once and it goes straight into long term memory. He said at the time that every wedding band in the world knew two songs for sure: "Proud Mary" and "Smoke on the Water." "Celebrate" had not yet hit the wedding reception scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V72qQhm12K8The best version of "Bertha" I have heard is on the Europe 72 CD, which is serious desert island music. I suspect that's the version Phil and his bandmates in Farmingdale were inspired by. The front man was a school administrative honcho in Southern California the last I heard in the alumni magazine. The bassist and drummer both went on to musical careers in recorded bands. Phil is the dining critic of the Chicago Tribune. He says it may not be the writer's gig he imagined but 95% of the Trib staff would kill for his job. Don't tell anyone he ate pizza and cheeseburgers like the rest of us back then ;-) None of us had much money. I don't think it did us any harm.
Another Deadhead is Randy Brown. I asked him once how many Dead shows he had seen. He said he didn't know, then "Not enough." There was a Microsoft event and then he was off to chase another tour.
>>An old friend advised me to stop posting musical posts and videos. Whoops.
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>>This band isn't necessarily his type of highbrow music anyway. A classic, "Bad Moon Rising," insinuated my sleep. Credence Clearwater Revival were a scruffy band from a scruffy Northern California suburb near Oakland. The scene at the time was blissed out and psychedelic. If was in San Francisco. They were not that. They were nothing kids from a nothing community south of Oakland and they saw a chance. Fortunately, they had music in them.
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>>Depending on how you feel about the Grateful Dead, CCR were the best American band of rock's golden era. About four chords. But they nailed every one of them and had an emotional pipeline to in-between American kids of the late 1960s.
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>One of my all time favorites.
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>>Here is a poor quality sample. Note the number of views.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4-yugdZUt0>>
>>Here is IMO their best song, "Bad Moon Rising." Sorry, audio and photo only.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BmEGm-mraE>>
>>Unlike modern iconography, the band leader, songwriter, lead guitarist, and visionary John Fogerty is the guy on the right. He is now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but will probably never be completely comfortable with that.
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>>My favorite Credence song is "Lodi" --
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ol2fMIafOs>>
>>I like the Spanish subtitles.
