The BLUE MOON SWAMP TOUR
TV SHOWS REVIEWS
by River Rising Members

 

  • FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF FOGERTY AT "STORYTELLERS"
    By Joe Hannigan: " Excellent showcase of John. Random thoughts:
    Very cool to see the Fairfield FOUR (all 5 of 'em) singing 110 in the Shade.(Now I have an idea who's singing what part; esp that guy singing bass!)
    "Joy Of My Life" seemed a tad too fast and that wonderful bounce seemed lost.Oh well; it was still amazing to see JCF playing dobro so well. Looks like those hrs spent learning the part paid off.
    A minor quibble is the absence of the "Ballpark/Roller rink" organ in "Centerfield." To me, that really helps make the song. I always enjoyed the deliberate tie-in with the theme of the song and what one hears at a traditional ball park. That, and some missing lead riffs left me wanting for more. (yeah, I'm keyboard player...)
    And, I noticed there was little to no bass guitar in most of the mix. It's in there SOMEWHERE, but I had to really crank it on my mixer to hear it in the studio....
    The only time it's noticeable is in "Bayou" but that's only cause the guitar and bass are the ONLY things in the mix, other than JCF's voice....
    Well, ya can't have EVERYTHING, I guess. A great show, all in all.

    By ALEX: " The show started with Looking out my back door. Just John on acoustic guitar. Then tells about writing the song for his 3 year old son back in 1970. Then John tells about opening a letter from the government which was his honorable discharge he did a couple of cartwheels and went in an wrote proud Mary. Then Lodi and Bad Moon Risin' John jokes about people singin' it back to him as There's a BATHROOM ON THE RIGHT. Then JCF talks about Nam and Not liking the goverment but still lovin America so he wrote Who'll stop the rain? All the above songs was UNPLUGGED. And it was all great.
    John tells about playin at Avalon Ballroom as an opening act with only a 10 min. sound check. JCF screwing around playing crazy Rock The sound guy or stage manager unplugged John and told him "you'll never make it." John told him "give us a year pal." The song John was screwing around with turn out to be Born on the Bayou witch John Played joined by Bob on bass. Then JCF tells about going to the local Drug Store that had a soda counter and one of the flavor was green river with a picture of the sun and a river on the bottle. John said that would be a great name for a song. Then played it. Then he tells us about one of the 3 best songs he ever wrote. 110 in the shade and talks about the Fairfield 4 +1. Joy of my Life is next. Same story we already know except he tells us about his step daughter. Then he ends with a story about Yankee Stadium and does Centerfield. Over all very good except for some crapy editing.

  • JOHN FOGERTY ON SAT 1
    From Reinhold Schuttkowski, Germany: Just got back from my TV where John performed on the "Thomas-Gottschalk-Haus-Party" on private TV-station SAT 1. Before he appeared there was a contest where you could win a French car by answering the question "Which song was done by CCR, Lookin´out my Backdoor or Hotel California?" The car was won, of course! Then they showed a piece of the "Lookin´out my backdoor"-video from 1970 (just some seconds) and then John and a band appeared (I wonder who the others were, no clue about that, maybe Aronoff &Co. ?) and played WIAH. I was very surprised that John was singing live and not playback as musicians usually do on TV-shows like that. But on the other hand: with such a voice and talent you can show the others that there´s absolutely no need for a playback. And they really rocked the house! The talkmaster mentioned the Hamburg concert and told John that CCR had always been his favorite band (believe it or not) and that he loved his new CD. Then John took his acoustic guitar and did some encores: Bad moon rising and Proud Mary. The crowd cheered and everyone was happy. John promised to come back (at least he nodded to Gottschalk´s question if he´d come back when the autumn tour was rolling). Wish I´d been there- but there will be an opportunity to see him live in autumn. That´s the most positive news for today for me!

    From Philip Brady, Ireland: Just watched the tape of Gottschalk Haus Party which is a copy of Noel Edmond's House Party which is shown on the BBC.
    The backing band consisted of Rhythm, Bass and Drums and sounded O.K. except that the boys were very wooden and didn't seem to be that sure of themselves.
    Animal Aronoff and Co. it certainly wasn't but it was a reasonable substitute, I wonder exactly who was playing "live' because the song just faded out.
    Now the bit when John played solo with an acoustic and responded with snatches of BMR and PM I could take. What made me cringe was the sight of the show's host sort of prancing around right next to John while he played, and the cut aways to several bikini clad bimbos.
    John should have done a Jimi Hendrix with the guitar on Mr Gottschalk's head.

    From Rainer S. Mueller, Germany: First of all it was good to see JC again after all these years. But the band certainly did not play live. They used a playback for the band and John did live vocals and maybe live guitar playing. Kenny Aronoff was not present. The guy who took the drum seat looked like he could be Bob Fogerty. I have never seen him but there was a big similarity to John's looks.
    The acoustic versions of "Bad moon rising" and "Proud Mary" were only the first verse and the chorus. If I am not mistaken John mixed up the words to "Bad moon rising". I wonder how he felt when he did the segments from the old songs with the TV show host dancing like a puppet on a string next to him and a bunch of children doing some kind of German line dancing to the rhythm of the audience clapping along.
    The TV show John was on is one of these shows you usually try to avoid when hopping through channels but probably a lot of people watch it, so maybe it helps to increase sales. But there are shows on German TV that would fit better to John's music (and which are popular too), where they show more respect to artists and do not use them as some kind of circus act.

 

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