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"Your Best Bet For An Instant Creedence Collection! "

Written By: M. McKay

There are certain bands from rock's past where buying a box set of this size is the best thing to do in order to truly expierence the band's greatness. Just like buying "The Complete Studio Recordings" by either Led Zeppelin or The Doors, or "Those Were The Days" by Cream, you simply can't go wrong. This six-CD set gives you EVERYTHING by CCR, and I do mean EVERYTHING! The sound quality is fantastic (the 20-bit K2 coding system was created by none other than JVC, Victor Co. of Japan, the folks who KNOW what good sound is supposed to sound like, to semi-borrow a phrase from an old salsa commercial). CCR's albums have been recently reissued individually with bonus tracks, but featuring the same remastering as this box set, so I recommend this set from 2001 more. And it has dropped significally in price since it's first release! So what are you waiting for? There's no need to go into how great each CCR album is, and even their last hodge-podge effort "Mardi Gras" is worth SOME merit. What you might be wondering about is the first disc in this set that features tracks from the group's first two incarnations as Tommy Fogerty and The Blue Velvets and then The Golliwogs. So let me review that disc seeing as though it will be the most "mysterious" of the entire set.

Disc one is hit and miss, plain and simple. In all honesty, alot of it is pretty dull stuff but THERE ARE some real gems amongst the haystack. For the Tommy Fogerty and The Blue Velvets section, the band's second and final single "Have You Ever Been Lonely" b/w "Bonita" is fine for 1962 and the better of the two singles they released. The former sounding not unlike a Ricky Nelson tune. They became The Golliwogs in 1964 as The British Invasion hit and like every other band of the time tried to immitate the sounds comming from across the Atlantic. The first track they released with their new monikier, "Don't Tell Me No Lies," sounds like it came straight off of "Meet The Beatles." It's catchy and succeeds on it's own. The band's Nov. 1965 single "Brown Eyed Girl" is where John Fogerty's trademark voice finally comes into being. And no, this is not the WELL KNOWN Van Morrison hit. If that was the case that means that either John or Tom wrote it and they recorded it first as The Golliwogs and that's not the case here. Pretty much all of the previously unissued songs (tracks 16-20) aren't worth a second listen in my opinion, with "Try Try Try" being the exception. The band's best single was "Fight Fire" b/w "Fragile Child" in 1966! Both songs are great, with the former being a maraca driven groovy rocker and the latter being much more poppy and 12-string chimmy like The Byrds. You won't be able to get either song out of your head and the band should've had a deserved national hit with this single. From that point, The Golliwogs got better and better. The pre-CCR version of "Walk On The Water" (titled "Walk-ING On The Water") is the band's first attempt at psychedelia released in the fall of 1966. Very unique for it's time lyrically, it's nowhere near the epic closer it would become for CCR's debut album, but it's still very good. It's flip side, "You Better Get It Before It Gets You," starts out as a slow R&B number before it suddenly shifts into an uptempo rocker that saves it from utter mediocrity. "Tell Me" is a catchy upbeat R&B infused number that, with it's flip side being a re-recorded version of their earlier "You Can't Be True," was almost a June 1967 single that for some reason got cancelled! The Golliwogs last single in Oct. 1967 was half Golliwogs/half Creedence. The single's A-side being "Porterville," which would appear on CCR's first album, it's B-side being the even BETTER and CATCHIER R&B rocker "Call It Pretending." Thus ends John, Tom, Stu, and Doug's apprenticeship as The Golliwogs and the begining of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The first album is a killer debut and slightly removed from the trademark CCR sound as it is more in a psychedelic/acid rock/ballroom jam vein (a promo film for "I Put A Spell On You," filmed probally in late 1968, is about as psychedelic as you can get!). The band's sound finally gells on their second release, "Bayou Country," in January of 1969 with the runaway hit single "Proud Mary" and the exhaustive jam of "Keep On Chooglin." From that point on, CCR had the King Midas touch and released their string of mighty classics that endure to this day, just like The Beatles.

You might find it annoying that their last album as a four-piece band, "Pendelum," has it's last two tracks on disc five instead of disc four! That problem can be remedied if you have a multi-disc CD player. "45 Revolutions Per Minute" is a two sided promo single the band issued in Oct. of 1970 and is quite funny! Very out of character for the band and something you might expect from Frank Zappa and The Mothers Of Invention but not CCR! The single isn't a song but rather a fake interview/spoken word montage piece with layered sound effects and tape manipulations (sped up, slowed down, backwards, etc.). It takes a swipe at the supposedly hip DJs of the era who would try and interview artists about their music and act like they actually understood where the band members were comming from with their particular sound and style. It's a fun piece and you might listen to it more than once!

As for the rest of this box set, "Mardi Gras," "The Concert," and "Live In Europe," I have separate reviews for. It's my personal opinion that "Live In Europe" could've been left off this set seeing as though it's even less inspired sounding than "The Concert." Only "Keep On Chooglin" is the real highlight of the European concert whereas the rest sounds muddy and unfocused. But don't let that discourage you from getting this set, it's KILLER! Just like it says on the back of the box, "THIS IS AMERICAN MUSIC 101!"

"What more could you ask for"

Written By: R. Scott

great recordings, everything from CCR that u could want along with some really good live recordings.

"Creedence boxed set"

Written By: Linda Shinsky

Wonderful set nicely packaged box. Birthday gift for an old schooler who was totally delighted. Price was well worth it! Shimming was prompt!

"CCR must have set!"

Written By: R. Boling

This box set is a truly must have for anyone who appreicates music. It has it all from the studio to Live sets, from the beging to the end just everyting and then some. The box set itself is a very sturdy well built and pleasing to the eye with a printed faux wood veneer finish. The individual CD books are very solid and well put together. The included lititature is well detailed and very organized. The remastered recordings themselves sound really good not as good as the CCR SACD's but hey this whole collection cost just a little more one of the SACD's and you get so much more. For

"Pretty Much All The Creedence There Is."

Written By: Rick Holly

I just got this box set. I have all of my old Creedence vinyl albums including the briefly released Golliwogs vinyl LP, several Creedence compilations and a few of the individual album titles on CD, so it took me awhile to justify buying this box set. First off let me say I am very glad I did. I am a huge fan of Creedence and as a musician/guitar player since the late 60's, John Fogarty has long been one of my greatest influences.He plays consise, no nonsense leads and writes great stright ahead songs.No fluff, no effects, just perfectly paced rock and roll. Creedence as a band was just about the most perfect "bar band" that ever exsisted (and I mean that as a huge compliment).Every note is perfectly in place.As an example, think about how many times you have heard really good bands try to do a Creedence song and how they usually fail to get that "Creedence" feel. They are one of the few bands that you "must" play note for note or it just doesn't work. There was magic in that combination of musicians that made the songs flow with just the right amount of energy. A band whose songs are easy to play, but hard to get the right feel and flow on. A song like "Proud Mary" has only become a cliche because it has been butchered by thousands of bar bands (and Ike and Tina).
Now about this set. The bottom line is that it's all here. The Blue Velvets stuff, the Golliwogs stuff, The released concert albums and even that one off venture into strangeness, the "45 RPM" promo only single they released. Unlike the Creedence compliation CD's (of which there are many)this stuff is clean and mastered well. If you are a real Creedence fan don't miss this set. It is very nice.