Released - December 1970
Genre - Rock
Producer - John Fogerty
Selected Personnel - John Fogerty (Vocals/Guitar/Keyboards/Horns); Tom Fogerty (Guitar); Stu Cook (Bass); Doug Clifford (Drums)
Standout Track - Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
I tossed this over in my mind before deciding whether or not to include it. Most people will assert that Creedence peaked with Cosmo's Factory and never really achieved anything significant again. While it's certainly true that they never equalled that album's brilliance, it's an unfair slight on this album to say it's not even worthy of listening. It sees Creedence being more innovative and daring than anywhere else in their career, and contains a handful of their best songs. It's not solidly brilliant, but it's worth including purely to make the point that a band's output need not merely be judged by the standards of the majority. By the end of the Cosmo's Factory sessions, resentments were beginning to creep in from the rhythm section of Tom Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford about lead vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, keyboardist, producer and general nucleus John Fogerty. Tom, in particular, was growing resentful of his brother and had attempted to leave the band several times in the past. Pendulum would be the last time he was convinced by the others to stay.
For now, though, there was no change to the way the band organised itself. John Fogerty is still very much the centre of attention, this time even playing all the horn section parts himself as well as the guitars, keyboards, harmonica, saxophone, etc etc. Tom, Cook and Clifford are, as with the previous album, relegated to backing duties providing a fairly steady, unremarkable rhythmic anchor. But what has changed is John's own personal approach to songwriting - Cosmo's Factory had seen him start to introduce new textures to his arrangements via the inclusion of horns and keyboards, and here they're more prominent than ever. The Motown-style soul of "Chameleon" is built entirely around the sassy blaring of a horn section and the squawking of Fogerty's own sax, while "Born To Move" involves a jazzy organ solo in the style of Booker T. and the MGs, with whom Creedence had been working in the previous months. The songwriting style is also notably different - while there are more typical Creedence-style blues rockers and jams like the gritty howling of album opener "Pagan Baby," a number of these songs borrow from soul and psychedelia rather than sticking doggedly to the band's proven formula of southern-tinged blues rock.
Overall, it's fair to say that it's not an approach that's 100% successful. Though Fogerty's ambition is to be applauded, songs like "Chameleon" fail to convince quite so effortlessly as simpler classics like "Green River" had managed in the past. Still, if any album manages to find room for a song as powerful as the plaintive "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" Its cryptic lyrics have alternately been taken as a reference to Vietnam (because people in general seem convinced that everything John Fogerty writes is in some way connected to the general theme of "The Vietnam War is a bad thing"), or to the fading values of the 60s counterculture movement. Fogerty himself claimed it was just an exploration of the rising tensions within the band and the imminent departure of his brother Tom. Regardless, it's one of the most simply moving songs the band recorded, its resignedly upbeat melody barely managing to conceal the fear and the uncertainty that shrouds the whole thing. The other great highlight, besides the infectious opening chug of the brilliant "Pagan Baby" is the aforementioned flashy, pounding urgency of the jazz-inflected "Born To Move," the most danceable thing in the band's discography.
Sadly, as the album slows to its conclusion, things take a definite dip, with "Rude Awakeing #2" being a regrettable and ill-advised foray into the avant-garde world of Pink Floyd and the like, consisting of discordant tape loops and sound effects and nothing that even approaches a decent tune. It's not a style that a simple, back-to-basics band like Creedence is able to get away with, and it ends things on a sour note. Although "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" was another hit, Pendulum received a more muted response than Cosmo's Factory and it soon meant that Tom's latest departure couldn't be averted this time. Perhaps realising that his autocratic control of the band was increasingly moving them down a cul-de-sac, John insisted that the band write and produce the next album collaboratively, resulting in the disastrous and critically panned Mardi Gras, and the dissolution of the band. Under Fogerty's leadership they were one of the greatest rock bands of the era, but they were never destined to be a true democratic force. None of the band members' solo works ever matched the brilliance of their work with Creedence (even that of John Fogerty himself), but they left a legacy of such phenomenally brilliant, simple, unpretentious and straightforward rock music that their brevity can't be held against them.
Track Listing:
All songs written by John Fogerty.
1. Pagan Baby
2. Sailor's Lament
3. Chameleon
4. Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
5. (Wish I Could) Hideaway
6. Born To Move
7. Hey Tonight
8. It's Just A Thought
9. Molina
10. Rude Awakening #2
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