Creedence Clearwater Revival - Mardi Gras - Alternate Version (1972-1973)

Today, I got a comment that four bonus tracks I'd put on the 1976 unreleased John Fogerty album "Hoodoo" were missed. I checked, and this is true. When I was redoing all the links a few months ago, those were gone from that album because I'd moved them in my music collection. I could have just put them back, but I thought about it, and figured out something better to do with them.

Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) had a great run of albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but they ended on a bum note with the 1972 album "Mardi Gras." They broke up shortly after that album was released, and it's not hard to understand why if you listen to the album. At the time, Rolling Stone Magazine even called it the worst album ever released by a major rock act. I think I've made a much better alternate version. 

But before I get to that, let me explain why the officially released version is considered so bad. John Fogerty was the clear leader of CCR, writing all the songs, singing them, and producing them. He even did things like the backing vocals on the recordings. But as the band's fame grew, the other three band members - rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty (John's brother), bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford - chafed under John Fogerty's musical domination of the band.

In late 1970, the other band members told John Fogerty they wanted more creative involvement. John said no. His brother Tom then left the band in early 1971 for a solo career (which wasn't that successful). Then what happened next is disputed. John claims the remaining two band members, Cook and Clifford, demanded they be given more creative control, and he was forced to agree or break up the band. However, Cook and Clifford claim John demanded that they each write and sing an equal portion of songs on the next album.

Personally, although John was known to be controlling and stubborn, I believe his side of the story. The evidence is right there in the lyrics of the "Mardi Gras" song "Take It like a Friend," written by Cook:

If maybe you'd move over, gave someone else a chance to try their luck
Instead, you run up closer, tryin' to grab a page before they close the book

Clearly, the whole song, and that bit in particular, is about Cook (and Clifford) wanting more creative involvement in the band, with John resisting and being controlling.

But in any case, when "Mardi Gras" came out, the album was basically divided into songs written and sung by Fogerty, Cook, and Clifford. Fogerty's songs were of a high standard, as usual, including two hit singles, while Cook's and Clifford's were... well... not so good. Neither of them were blessed with great singing voices, and their songs were generally subpar. 

That said, while John Fogerty was put in a tough spot of giving them more creative control or breaking up the band, he was kind of an ass to put the album out like that and watch it fall on its face. But tensions were high, and everyone involved made mistakes. In retrospect, it probably would have been better for everyone involved if John had just let the band break up before recording "Mardi Gras." As it was, the break up was so painful that John never truly reconciled with Cook, Clifford, or even his brother Tom.

From what I understand, the real villain in the story is Saul Zaentz, the owner of their record company. Before getting famous, CCR had signed a very bad record deal, forcing the band to release albums quickly (the released three in 1969 alone!) while getting only a small percentage of royalties. By 1971, CCR wanted to renegotiate their contract in light of the band's massive success. But Zaentz played the game of divide and conquer, flattering Cook and Clifford that they could be solo stars, and promising to give them solo record deals. In that way, Zaentz stopped the band from presenting a united front in their financial battle against him. But in so doing, he killed the goose that laid the golden eggs, by helping to break the band up entirely. (Needless to say, the promised solo album deals never happened.)

Anyway, let me get to what's on this alternate album. The official "Mardi Gras" album is short, only 28 minutes long. I cut it down even more by getting rid of nearly all the songs written and/or sung by Cook or Clifford: "Take It like a Friend," "Need Someone to Hold," "Tearin' Up the Country," "Sail Away," and "Door to Door." The only one I kept is "What Are You Gonna Do," written and sung by Clifford, who at least was a better singer than Cook.

As for the Fogerty songs, "Someday Never Comes" and "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" were hit singles, so those were no-brainers to keep. "Hello Mary Lou" is a serviceable cover of a Gene Pitney song sung by Fogerty, so that was good enough to keep. "Lookin' for a Reason" is a rather weak and generic Fogerty song, but it's still a Fogerty song, so I kept it. Besides, the lyrics are interesting in that they're his take on the slow collapse of the band.

If that was the entire album, it would only be 15 minutes long, which would be way too short. But remember those four bonus tracks I mentioned at the beginning of this write-up? In 1973, Fogerty released the album "The Blue Ridge Rangers." It consisted entirely of covers of country songs, and all the instruments and vocals were done by Fogerty alone. That's a separate thing entirely, so I didn't include any songs from that. 

However, still in 1973, Fogerty released two stand-alone singles containing original songs on the A- and B-sides. Those are the four bonus tracks I'd put on "Hoodoo" that I'm moving here. True, they're not CCR, but they're a better fit chronologically on a 1972 album than a 1976 album. Besides, they sound exactly like CCR songs. They're also really good songs, even though both singles stiffed. I'm sure they would have done much better if they'd been released under the CCR name.

But that's not all I included. Remember, John's brother Tom left CCR in 1971 to pursue a solo career. Unlike Cook and Clifford, he had singing talent and songwriting talent, although he struggled mightily to come up with enough good songs to fill entire albums. His first two albums, released in 1972, didn't have any stand out tracks, in my opinion. But I've included two from this third album, the songs "Joyful Resurrection" and "Mystic Isle Avalon," and one song from his fourth album, "What Did I Know." For all three of the songs, he was backed by Cook and Clifford, so one could argue that those were still CCR songs, just led by Tom instead of John. "Mystic Isle Avalon" even has some guitar parts by John. He recorded his parts separately from the others, but still, it was the one and only time after CCR broke up that all four original band members played on the same song.

For all three of those Tom songs, it's pretty easy to think they're CCR songs sung by John. Being brothers, they had very similar voices. (Tom died in 1990, which is why I use the past tense.) Plus, while lots of Tom's solo stuff was done in different styles, these three songs clearly were done in the general CCR style.

So there you have it. Admittedly, this album is pretty far removed from the official version of "Mardi Gras." But that album needed serious help. Also, this is a fitting place to put those four songs Fogerty only put out on singles. (By the way, to this day they still haven't been re-released as bonus tracks or anything like that, although Fogerty did perform one of them, "Comin' Down the Road," on a live album.)

This album is 36 minutes long, not including the bonus track.

01 Someday Never Comes (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
02 Lookin' for a Reason (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
03 What Are You Gonna Do (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
04 Hello Mary Lou (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
05 Sweet Hitch-Hiker (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
06 Joyful Resurrection (Tom Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival)
07 Mystic Isle Avalon (Tom Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival)
08 You Don't Owe Me (John Fogerty)
09 Back in the Hills (John Fogerty)
10 Comin' Down the Road (John Fogerty)
11 Ricochet [Instrumental] (John Fogerty)
12 What Did I Know (Tom Fogerty & Creedence Clearwater Revival)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16025208/CreedCR_1972_MrdiGrsAltrnatVrsion_atse.zip.html

"Mardi Gras" has such a bad reputation that merely looking at the official album cover gave me bad vibes. So I decided to make a new one using the same general style. I kept the circular shape of the band's name, and the font colors. "Mardi Gras" had been written in small letters on a tambourine in the original. I kept the lettering but enlarged the words greatly and made them black. Then I took a photo of the three remaining band members from late 1971 and put it in the center of the cover, over a picture of a girl holding the tambourine.