As you gotta know, Creedence had a shitload of hits. They were a machine, at least a couple on every LP. But their real worth is as an album band. Every album had a couple hits, a cover or three, and most had a long song or two. They churned those LPs at a dizzying pace, six LPs between 1968-'70. There were a shitload of deep cuts that were more interesting than the hits. To wit, these two from Bayou Country, their second LP (cover above). That record had as hits the title song and "Proud Mary", the latter I could do without hearing ever again. (I bought when I was twelve years old for shit sakes.) Two of my favorites on that LP are "Penthouse Pauper", as much for the lyrics as the music, and their thorough reworking of Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly". Fogerty's guitar tone on that one, already awesome, would be pushed into the stratosphere with some Davie Allan type fuzz. As it is, it's not far off from Nuggets-era garage rock, with the dumbing down of that riff. Compare it to the original below. Yeesh. But, "Proud Mary" my ass.
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Penthouse Pauper mp3 at Internet Archive
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at Internet Archive
Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly (streaming) at YouTube
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