ON SONGWRITING
and “ Effigy ”). “ The length of a recorded song was dictated by 78s ,” Fogerty observes of that early vinyl-cylinder format . “ Back in the 40s , you couldn ’ t get much more than three minutes on a record . By the rock & roll era , that had even been chomped down to two-and-a-half minutes or less , because so many of the DJs would do their talking over the intro and the fade out . But I admired the idea that you could be very concise musically .”
As much as Fogerty likes to wind out on his guitar , he acknowledges that it can be a little too much sometimes . “ I remember going to one show at Winterland ; and I don ’ t remember which group it was , but I got there by the time they started their set . They started the first song , and the guitar player began to play a solo . His solo went on for the whole 45-minute set , and then they were done . I kinda went , ‘ What ?!’ That affected me – like , ‘ Get me outta here !’ I thought it was boring .” Lesson learned : serve the song first . Then add the sweetening later .
After CCR disbanded in October , 1972 , Fogerty tried his hand at a few half-hearted solo efforts ; but didn ’ t hit his stride until his fully realized oneman effort , Centerfield , 1985 . Guitar played a prominent role in the video for the lead single , “ The Old Man Down the Road .” In a single extended shot , the camera follows the trail and travails of a super long and winding guitar cord before it finally reaches Fogerty in the middle of a road as he jams furiously on a red Stratocaster . “ Oh , well , that took a while ,” Fogerty says with a laugh . “ First , I was going to do it as a lark . The band had broken up and I thought , ‘ I ’ m just going to go into the studio and record a bunch of songs real fast and play all the instruments myself .’ Well , I did that but it really wasn ’ t very good . Some songs were better than others . A lot of them made up the first Blue Ridge Rangers album [ 1973 ]. My playing wasn ’ t real good , though . It was sort of [ pauses ]… quick , you know ?”
Realizing he needed to refine his skill set even further , Fogerty dug in . And as the old saying goes , good things come to those who wait . “ To get good enough to actually play every instrument convincingly took me until the middle-80s . Suddenly , at the end of ’ 83 and the beginning of ’ 84 , I could see and feel that this guy , who would
… but he had grown up with the idea that a great song was a worthy thing that doesn ’ t just happen “ casually .”
58 DIGITAL EDITION
AUG / SEPT