Creedence Clearwater Revival After CCR
 It was around this time that tensions began to grow. The incessant touring and heavy recording schedules were starting to take their toll on the band. The band's leader, John Fogerty, gradually took total control of the group, determining what songs they would record, how the other three band members would play and where they would tour. This arrangement began to grate on the other members of CCR, particularly Tom Fogerty, who had shared singer and songwriter duties with his younger brother prior to the band hitting the big time, but who was now relegated to the role of rhythm guitarist.
Other bones of contention included John's sudden decision, in the midst of one of their tours, to refuse to do encores. Also, a series of business decisions made by John (in the band's name) rankled his bandmates, many of which he would come to regret and often find himself in court attempting to undo.
The Cosmo's Factory sessions had seen the stirrings of tensions within the foursome, but there would be no open dissension between them until the recording of their next LP, Pendulum, which was released in time for Christmas in 1970. Now the other three members of the group, particularly Tom Fogerty, wanted more of a say in both the musical and business decisions of the band. John resisted, feeling that opening up every decision to a democratic process would lead to arguments, delays, bruised egos, and ultimately a diluting of the group's essence.
Pendulum was another success, spawning a Top 10 hit in Have You Ever Seen the Rain?. But now no amount of success could defuse the differences between the Fogerty brothers. In February 1971, with Pendulum still high on the charts, Tom Fogerty left Creedence Clearwater Revival and launched a solo career. His only charting release was 1972's Tom Fogerty (which peaked at #180). Opting not to replace him, CCR continued as a trio.
The band did not release an album in 1971 but did put out a Top 10 single, Sweet Hitch-Hiker, and toured both in the U.S. and in Europe. In spite of their continuing commercial success, relations between the remaining band members continued to deteriorate.
Cook and Clifford were hit with a bombshell by Fogerty later that year when he informed them that, for their next LP, the band would adhere to a new democratic formula, and each of the members would be responsible for a third of the record. Cook and Clifford, who had only wanted more of a voice in the business decisions, not the onus of having to write and sing on at least six songs between them, resisted this arrangement. However, Fogerty insisted that they either accept his terms, or he would quit the band, so they reluctantly agreed. The writing was on the wall for CCR's eventual demise during the recording sessions that followed, when John would refuse to contribute anything other than rhythm guitar playing to the songs written by Clifford and Cook. Fogerty's two bandmates felt that after years of them supporting every musical concept he wanted to pursue, it was a particularly cold slap in the face that he was all but abandoning them in the studio now.
The album, released in April 1972 as Mardi Gras, did indeed receive poor reviews and suffer comparatively weak sales, with the tracks by Cook and Clifford often cited as the primary reason. John's earlier single, Sweet Hitch-Hiker, was included on the album but his other offering, Someday Never Comes, failed to break into the US Top 20, the worst showing of any CCR A-Side 45 since 1968.
By this point, John was not only at odds with his bandmates, but he had also come to see the group's relationship with Fantasy Records as onerous, feeling that label owner Zaentz had reneged on promises made to better compensate CCR. Stu Cook (who has a degree in Business) claimed that because of poor judgment on their part, CCR had to abide by the worst record deal of any major American recording artist.
Just after the album's release, the group embarked on a spring tour which would ultimately be their last. Hecklers reportedly pelted the band with coins at their final concert, on May 22, in Denver. On October 16, Fantasy Records officially announced that Creedence Clearwater Revival had disbanded.
|
