John Fogerty - John Fogerty's All-Stars, Chaplin Stage, Hollywood, CA, 5-31-1985

If you're a fan of John Fogerty, you need to hear this. Fogerty is the kind of guy who rarely plays any songs other than the ones on his albums. He might play the occasional cover song of a classic in concert, but that's about it. Except for this one concert in 1985, played in a studio in front of a small audience.

1985 was a very big year for Fogerty. Creedence Clearwater Revival broke up in 1972. Fogerty tried to have a solo career from 1973 to 1976, putting out two albums in that time (and one that never got released, which I've posted here). But his solo career never caught fire. Due to legal troubles with his record company, plus a lack of inspiration, he went into musical seclusion for nearly ten years, not playing in public or releasing any studio material in all that time. Then he released the "Centerfield" album in 1985, which was a big hit, selling over two million copies.

Given that success, it's not that big of a surprise that he managed to get an hour-long TV special promoting the new album later in 1985. But what's strange is that this special, which makes up this album, hardly promoted "Centerfield" at all. In it, he played a grand total of one song from the album, "Rock and Roll Girls." One! Instead, he played a variety of mostly obscure cover songs, most of which he's never played live before and never played since.

So this is practically a Fogerty covers album that hardly anyone knows about (nine covers plus the one song from the album), recorded at a time when he was at the peak of his musical powers, with his voice as good as it ever got.

There's only 29 minutes of music from the special, even though it was an hour-long show. That's because one has to deduct the time for commercials, plus the playing of the studio version of the song "Centerfield." On top of that, there are some lengthy talking sections between songs, but these were recorded elsewhere, generally outdoors, so I didn't consider including them.

However, the 29 minute length is rather short for an album, so I've added a couple of extra songs at the end. "Vanz Can't Dance" and "Knock on Wood" come from Fogerty's performance at 1985's Farm Aid, which was the very first Farm Aid benefit concert. Apparently, the only two concerts he did in 1985 were the TV special show plus Farm Aid.

At Farm Aid, he only played three songs. One of them, the hit "The Old Man Down the Road," was mostly played while the TV broadcast of the concert was on a commercial break. There is an audience recording of it, but the sound quality is poor, so I haven't included it. The sound of the other two songs is outstanding, at the same level as the 1985 TV special. And "Knock on Wood" is a real treat, because apparently this was the only time he's ever done the song in concert or on record.

The two extra songs make the album 37 minutes long, which sounds more like a full album to me.

01 Mary Don't You Weep (John Fogerty)
02 My Pretty Baby - Leave My Woman Alone (John Fogerty)
03 Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go (John Fogerty)
04 I Need Your Loving (John Fogerty)
05 I Confess (John Fogerty)
06 I'm a Man [Mannish Boy] (John Fogerty)
07 No Love in You (John Fogerty)
08 Rock and Roll Girls (John Fogerty)
09 My Toot Toot (John Fogerty)
10 Vanz Kant Danz (John Fogerty)
11 Knock On Wood (John Fogerty)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15218842/JohnFoge_1985_AllStrsChplinStageHllywoodCA__5-31-1985_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I took a couple of screenshots of Fogerty's 1985 TV special, which can be found on YouTube. One of them has Fogerty in the foreground with some other musicians behind him. The other is a baseball pennant with the name of the special written on it.