Concert Review - Creedence Clearwater Revisited

The "revisited" part means that what we have here is the half of the original CCR that wasn't John or Tom Fogerty. Junior-high students John Fogerty, Stu Cook (bass) and Doug Clifford (percussion) started out in the late 1950s as The Blue Velvets, an instrumental band that later started backing John's older brother Tom at frat-house gigs. The band soon recording a couple of songs for Fantasy Records, which renamed the group The Golliwogs. The final name change to CCR came when offered a chance to record a full album and the rest, as they say, is history. CCR disbanded in 1973 after much discord; Cook and Clifford formed the revisited edition in 1995 to promote some concerts by a friend and with no intention of actually playing for the public. They've been on the amusement-park circuit ever since.

Alas, last Saturday Southern Man wore the kids out at White Water that afternoon and they were too tired to venture out that evening, so he missed out on the Three Dog Night concert. However, he and his two girls did make it to the amusement park this evening. After an hour or so with yougest daughter (who again proved to be a serious ride repeater) he passed her off to her older sister and headed to the amiptheatre. Southern Man was a bit surprised to see that the crowd was considerably larger than that for Eddie Money a few weeks ago. And an enthusuastic bunch they were, too; we spent most of the show on our feet. Southern Man supposes that it should be no surprised that a group that's produced as many hits as CCR, even in "revisited" form, would attract a large audience. At any rate, they put on a fine (if brief) and enthusiastic performance. It's not often that Southern Man goes to a concert where he pretty much knows every word to every song but CCR had lots and lots and lots of hits that still get quite a bit of airplay today. And since Southern Man had his "best of" CDs playing for most of the afternoon, it all kind of ran together. But he had a fine time singing and clapping and prancing about with the other fortysomethings on his row. And ninety minutes of his daughters shackled together at the park didn't permanently traumatize either (although it seemed like it might for a while) and teenage son returned from his evening adventures in good spirits, so Southern Man counts the evening as a success.

It's a month before there's another concert at the amusement park that interests Southern Man, but starting in mid-July we get four great shows over a five-week period: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts , Pat Benetar, Kansas, and Hawk Nelson. The first two should be great shows. Southern Man has been a Kansas fan since high school but for some reason never managed to see them in concert during his younger days (four opportunities missed with their original lineup; he'll never forgive himself for that). And teenage son was a Hawk Nelson fan. Well, at least he had one of their CDs. Anyway, Southern Man is looking forward to all of these.