The Concert for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Compact Disc, 1996 - John Fogerty Performance

Features -
Rolling Stone Magazine Report
Booklet Notes
Review of John Fogerty performance
Born on the Bayou Sound Sample

From Rolling Stone Magazine - Sept. 5, 1996

"It was a bold ideal and a glorious success: a single evening of music paying fit tribute to nearly half a century of rock & roll. Performed before a stadium crowd in Cleveland on Sept. 2, 1995, the seven-hour Concert for the Rock Hall of Fame -celebrating the hall's opening- united several generations of musicians to honor rock's long, unruly history.

"The show defined rock & roll broadly, both in terms of the artists represented and the types of material they performed. Funksters mingled with AOR mainstays; R&B chestnuts followed bruising punk-rock-anthems; classic-rock-gods hung with Gen-X upstarts. In short, it was rock & roll family picnic, to borrow Iggy Pop's wry characterization of the hall itself. And given how dysfunctional that family can sometimes be, the event came off with remarkable smoothness and flair.

"Now comes this double CD to commemorate the first anniversary of that event, and it's a splendid souvenir. The 28-song set, like the Hall of Fame itself,,captures both the majesty and sweat of essential rock & roll at its tumultuous finest. There's a surprise or two, of course, but for the most part, the predictably great acts, obviously inspired by the occasion, are as spectacular as you'd hope they'd be.

"Backed by the incomparable Booker T. and the MG's, the house band for much of the evening, John Fogerty torches "Born on the Bayou" and "Fortunate Son". Not to be overshadowed, Booker T. steps out to ignite his signature instrumental "Green Onions," with guitarist Steve Cropper unleashing an electrifying lead. Booker T.'s performance gets to the heart of what this concert was about: taking music you know intimately and making it fiercely new.

[...]

"Build a museum, set it on fire: These discs compellingly embody the tension at the heart of rock & roll, a music that has always lunged for the essence of the moment while creating a legacy that will not die.

ANTONY DE CURTISS"

The Concert for the Hall of Fame CD Booklet

The CD set has a 24 pages booklet titled "a LONG NIGHT'S journey into ROCK: one fan's notes from the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" by David Wild, Senior Editor, Rolling Stone dated December 16, 1995. This is what it says on John Fogerty.

"Great rock and roll -like all great art- is timeless. John Fogerty -inducted into the Hall in 1993 along with the other members of Creedence Clearwater Revival- proved this when he hit the stage with fellow Sixties giants Booker T & The MG's ("the best band in the world" Fogerty told the crowd) for stunning, potent renditions of two of his most lasting Creedence compositions, "Born On The Bayou" and "Fortunate Son." A man who performs live all too rarely, Fogerty is here advised to find himself a travelin' band and hit the road quick." [David Wild, 1995]

The house band with whom Fogerty performed was Booker T & The MG's: Booker T Jones on keyboards, Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass, Steve Cropper on guitar, and since original Booker T's drummer died, Jim Keltner on drums. This band was also joined during the evening by music director G.E. Smith on guitar, Lenny Pickett on Saxophone and the Memphis Horns and Andrew Love on tenor sax.

The CD: "The Concert For The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame"- Various Artists
Columbia Records - C2K 67477 - (p)1996

Born on the Bayou - Sample Audio WAV file, 280Kb.

Copyright John Fogerty - Jondora Music (BMI)
Columbia Records C2K 67477

REVIEW

by Javier Diaz - Santiago, Chile

Twenty years of nearly unbroken seclusion does wonders for a late sixties Rock Superstar. He can even make a nice version of himself like twenty years before. Of course the first John Fogerty solo live recording ever - albeit too short, just two songs - commercially available in full stereo, no gimmicks spared, is in itself a major event. Which of necessity leaves us with mixed feelings. Here's a man that -in Peter Fonda's words - shows enormous integrity for his work but - to many others - has evidenced little concern for his fans over the years, reenacting his former persona on a most ceremonial stage. At a time when rock singers must drastically reduce their vocal range in the high notes, John Fogerty has no qualms about hitting them and hitting them hard, like he were running from a past rapidly catching on him. Which might perfectly be the case. Surely he wasn't fleeing drummer Jim Keltner, who had the affront and the temerity to assume two all-time Rock classics as if he had never heard them before. Undoubtedly he neither felt chased out by Donald "Duck" Dunn's slightly ill-placed funkiest bass playing behind him. And Booker T's splendid organ job - no substitute for Tom's rhythm guitar, but you cannot have it both ways, though - was no threat to hide from at all.

As it were, the urgency in the vocals couldn't mask the sad reality of a lesson learned and performed by rote, of the chords becoming a chore, of the lyrics having stopped rushing straight from the guts like in the old times, of this being another tiresome drill. A flawless rendition on its own, it looks nevertheless like a pale cover of the unbelievable John Fogerty Veterans Concert some eight years before.
Javier Diaz