#335: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (1970)

Zack: A few years ago, I convinced a friend of mine that what our 6 a.m. shift at the sporting goods store where I worked needed was a Johnny Cash Pandora station. This is one of the rare examples of a good decision made at that time. It turns out that Pandora has absolutely no idea what to do with that request, or at least it was perplexed then. It just kept playing Johnny Cash and Creedence Clearwater Revival, at about a 2:1 ratio, with almost no other artists appearing. Seriously, it went something like Cash-CCR-Cash-Cash-Dylan-CCR-Cash-Haggard-Cash-Cash-CCR. It was hilarious and sort of awesome. That’s probably the last time I ever thought about Creedence Clearwater Revival. We didn’t skip those songs, so I won’t say that I went into Cosmo’s Factory with any sort of animosity toward the band. But I think it would be fair to categorize my feelings as apathetic. I wasn’t expecting to love this album. But I totally did. A lot of songs started out in the “pretty good, four stars” category before ripping into an awesome guitar solo and winning me over to “WOW! FIVE STARS” fandom. CCR have a knack for finding the sweet spot before a cool jam session in the middle of a song becomes unbearably long. They never push the boundaries of your patience, always wrapping up at just the right time. I’m not going to make a CCR station or anything, but I suddenly feel much more positive about the skewed ratios on my Cash station for sure.

Favorite Tracks: Who’ll Stop the Rain; Run Through the Jungle; Up Around the Bend

Emily: I really didn't know anything about CCR before going into listening to Cosmo's Factory. I knew they were classic rock, and based on the early-70s release date I figured there'd be a little bit of country or blues going on among the guitar solos too. I wasn't entirely off base, but I was surprised by the '50s soul and rock & roll influences throughout the album. A couple songs were spot-on Little Richard (in fact, there was even a lawsuit about that similarity), but CCR fared much better when pairing the '50s elements with their own style of '70s blues-rock. This was best exemplified by their 11-minute-long, guitar-solo-filled take on I Heard It Through the Grapevine. That song makes classic Motown into classic rock, which is definitely a fusion I can get behind.

Favorite Tracks: I Heard it Through the Grapevine; Who'll Stop the Rain; Up Around the Bend