Green River

Green River is the third studio album by American rock and roll band Creedence Clearwater Revival, released in August 1969. It was the second of three albums they released in that year, the first one being Bayou Country (their second release overall) which was released in January.

In January 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival released their second studio album Bayou Country and released their breakout single “Proud Mary” backed with “Born on the Bayou”, which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Producer and primary songwriter John Fogerty was the driving creative force behind CCR, which would record three albums in 1969 alone. The band’s single-mindedness and work ethic drew the ire of some other San Francisco-based bands, with drummer Doug Clifford recalling to Jeb Wright of Goldmine in 2013, “We went to see the local bands and they were so stoned they weren’t even in tune and they were really terrible…We made a pact on the floor of the Fillmore, right then, where we would do no drugs or alcohol. We decided to get high on the music, or get out of the business.” Going against the grain at the times, Creedence eschewed the acid-inspired free-form jams favored by many rock bands for tightly-structured roots music with an unmistakable rockabilly edge. “I didn’t like the idea of those acid-rock, 45-minute guitar solos,” Fogerty explained to Uncut’s David Cavanagh in 2012. “I thought music should get to the point a little more quickly than that.” Their musical discipline, coupled with Fogerty’s prolific songwriting, would catapult the band to super-stardom.