Comments on: CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL – “Bad Moon Rising”

By: Waldo

Waldo — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:13:51 +0000

“Swamp Music” is what this was and I remember it very clearly being at the top. We used to have one of those things called a radiogram, a piece of furniture the size of Clapham Common containing a record player, a radio, escaped Great Train Robbers and everything else. For some reason I recall distinctly sitting next to this when BBR was number one. Like for many of you this is not my favourite CCR hit – “Up Around The Bend” is, I think, but for a song warning of impending doom, this isn’t half bad. Hardly “Eve Of Destruction”, of course, but what you gonna do?

By: wwolfe

wwolfe — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 18:21:33 +0000

I love the juxtaposition of “In the Year 2525″ with “Bad Moon Rising”: two apocalyptic songs, one pure cheese, the other really good. I think that says something about the times: lots of folks aspired to the Big Statement, a few of them succeeded, and the cheesy stuff might sell just as well as the good stuff. Something similar is true of every era, of course, but I think the urge to make the Big Statement ( or at least to give the appearance of doing so) was at its peak in this era.

By: Martin Skidmore

Martin Skidmore — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:21:14 +0000

I always wished I had the chorus line of this on some sort of ansaphone type push-button thing, so that when guests at my last home asked where the toilet was I could have John Fogerty intone (what I always thought sounded like) “There a bathroom on the right.”

I love Creedence, and would have marked this higher though, yeah, it’s not my favourite of theirs either.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 09:25:07 +0000

An interviewer once mentioned to Fogerty that the chorus line was frequently misheard as “There’s a bad moon on the Right.” Fogerty replied he was happy with that, since that was actually what he meant.

By: fivelongdays

fivelongdays — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:29:48 +0000

Does anyone know what kept it off number one in the US?

“Get Back” by The Beatles

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:24:37 +0000

american werewolf in london is a metaphor for vietnam! london = washington, lycanthropy = antiwar radicalism, when he sees him dead in the mirror = the spectre at the media feast of those who won’t be returning, beefeaters = the vietcong er er

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:06:33 +0000

I’ve always hated this one. Sorry, guys, that whole charoogle southern boogie thing just turns me off.

Catchy, though.

By: Ward Fowler

Ward Fowler — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 19:56:59 +0000

The subject of an advert ‘spoiling’ a song – or at the very least locking it into a set of possibly unwanted or unwarranted associations – came up recently w/ regard to ‘Something in the Air’. Well, when I hear this song now I ALWAYS think of the big transformation sequence in An American Werewolf in London – it’s an obvious but effective juxtaposition (and the film is full of ‘moon’ songs) but it does, for me, rob ‘Bad Moon Rising’ of some of its secondary, Viet Nam-era connotations (“looks like we’re in for stormy weather” etc etc), which is a bit of a shame.

By: GeorgeB

GeorgeB — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 18:34:10 +0000

This is a terrific song. Ok, John Fogerty and Creedence were great technicians and it does tick all the right boxes, maybe in a bloodless way – good intro, simple lyric, vocalist with the right kind of catch in his voice, sharp ending, right length (doesn’t outsay its welcome) – but I’ll still argue with anyone who considers it perfunctory and cold. Apocalyptic subject matter has rarely been put across so “jauntily”. Does anyone know what kept it off number one in the US? To be honest, I wouldn’t have minded this one being given a 9 or even a 10 – guess it’s up to the Archies now.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 17:26:17 +0000

Yeah it’s far from my favourite CCR, but I do think it’s a fine, tight record, and it always sounded good on that jukebox.

By: Doctor Casino

Doctor Casino — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 17:20:37 +0000

Ehhhh……. I hear what you’re saying, and I do dig its folksy apocalypse (“Hmm, my gitchy knee is acting up, reckon there’s trouble coming, young feller”) but it’s just never done all that much for me as a song. It plays well on houseboat parties, where you’re all just floating down the river and’t much care if the music is going anyplace either… but for a number one it seems weirdly without any moments of climax or shifts in the drama. The arrangement is too continuous, the texture turgid.

Much prefer “Green River,” for its more distinctive guitar activity cutting at angles through Fogerty’s twangy “Weaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllll,” and “Fortunate Son” for its fusion of hillbilly dirt farmer pride and contemporary political outrage.