summer album of the week 07/04/09
creedence clearwater revival: cosmo's factory (released june 1970)
This was the first album I ever bought. By the time I had saved up the funds to pay the exorbitant $3.47 price tag, Cosmo’s Factory was already on its third hit single. The more progressive radio stations of the time, though, had moved on to the band’s swampy, 11 minute reworking of the Motown hit I Heard It Through the Grapevine. John Fogerty and CCR hit on all cylinders with this one. Who’ll Stop the Rain and Lookin’ Out My Back Door were pure homespun fancy, Run Through the Jungle and the killer non-single album opener Ramble Tamble embraced psychedelia and Long As I Can See the Light was so full of gospel fire that Cosmo’s Factory nearly broke into the R&B Top 10. Through it all, Fogerty’s boogeyman-on-holiday voice led the charge. A complete classic.
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.