John Fogerty
The Long Road Home: The Ultimate John
Fogerty–Creedence Collection
(Fantasy)
First Appeared in The Music Box, October 2005, Volume 12, #10
Written by John Metzger
After the dissolution of Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1972, John Fogerty
wrestled with former bandmates Stu Cook and Doug Clifford as well as Fantasy
Records’ owner Saul Zaentz over the rights to the group’s name and its
catalogue. In recent years, however, Fogerty gradually has been making peace
with his past by repopulating his concerts with large chunks of his classic
material, and with the release of the aptly titled The Long Road Home he
finally has come full circle and achieved closure. Indeed, the newly minted,
25-track career retrospective, which commemorates his reunion with the Fantasy
label, not only contains all nine of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Top 10
singles, but it also culls some of the finer moments from his solo canon. Yet,
in its attempt to fuse together the entirety of Fogerty’s essential offerings,
the collection doesn’t cast a wide enough net. The expansive journeys through Suzie Q and I Heard It through the Grapevine, for example, are both
noticeably absent, and one could easily make the case that tunes like Cotton
Fields, Ramble Tamble, and Sugar-Sugar (in My Life) are
equally worthy of inclusion. In addition, the outing features several concert
cuts that are inferior to their studio counterparts. Regardless, The Long
Road Home succeeds in serving as a concise and remarkably effective romp
through Fogerty’s populist-minded songbook. After all, its contents are timeless
slices of rock ’n‘ roll history, and, thanks to the disturbing parallels between
the social and political environments of 1970 and 2005, tracks like Have You
Ever Seen the Rain?, Fortunate Son, and Who’ll Stop the Rain
now reverberate with tremendous meaning for another generation. 
The Long Road Home: The Ultimate John Fogerty–Creedence Collection is
available from Barnes & Noble. To order, Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005 The Music Box