Random Record Rewind:

Pendulum – Creedence Clearwater Revival [1970]

After five albums and 11 top 10 singles in two years [!!!] the boys in Creedence were getting a little torn and frayed. Inter-band bickering [mostly about John Fogerty dominating the songwriting and vocals and generally being a control freak – a claim which Jonh would substantiate in a 1997 interview but would add the caveat that he was the one with the vision and drive to make it all work] would lead older brother Tom Fogerty leaving the band after the release of Pendulum. But Pendulum does not really sound like a band on the verge of a breakup.

It has a couple of longer rockers. The opening cut Pagan Baby “choogles” along a chucky Fogerty riff then gets in to some typical CCR jamming. Stu Cook plays some really tasty bass on this one. The side 2 opener Born To Move chases a nice little descending riff and John adds some horn overdubs and a lot of organ including a kind of Traffic-y organ solo. Chameleon [more horns], Molina [yep more horns] and the single Hey Tonight rock pretty well. Have You Even Seen the Rain is a mix of Long As I Can See the Light and Who’ll Stop the Rain from Cosmo’s Factory.  It’s Just A Thought and [Wish I Could] Hideaway are both strangely [for Creedence] organ driven songs. Not bad just a little different.

It’s not the happiest Creedence album. It’s a little subdued and dark in places. And the closing cut Rude Awakening # 2 is just plain odd – Creedence should NOT do sound experiments ala the Beatles Revolution 9. Actually this is more musical the Revolution 9 but still… All in all I’d say it’s the most mature of the CCR albums. Not their most complete – still Cosmo’s Factory – but the least jangly of their records and one I think more people should check out.