John Fogerty – The Long Road Home In Concert (DTS)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B Extras: C- Concert: B
Creedence
Clearwater Revival was one of the hottest American Rock Bands in their time
from 1968 – 1972, but then they disappeared and the question was, what happened
to them? They were on a huge roll,
including 5 #2 hits, ironic since they never had a #1 single. Their albums also sold strongly and a few of
those were #1s, but when the band broke up, it turned out to be more bitter
than anyone thought as John Fogerty was joined on stage by other famous
musicians at their 1983 Rock-N-Roll Hall Of Fame induction while the remaining
band members watched and/or left.
Brother
Tom had left the band in 1971 for a failed solo career before the band disbanded
and passed away in 1990, but John first went solo in 1973 as the pretend band
The Blue Ridge Rangers and had more success.
In 1975, he went out on his won name and had a Top 30 hit with Rockin' All Over The World, then made
the big comeback in 1985 with his huge hit album Centerfield and The Old Man
Down The Road announced his permanent return to solo performing after a
long hiatus. The Long Road Home In Concert is a recent concert (September 15,
2005) that shows he continues to be the heart and soul that made his original
band work and now that Fantasy Records has new owners, he has completed one of
the roughest round-trips in music history.
The songs performed here are:
- Travelin' Band
- Green River
- Who'll Stop The Rain
- Blue Moon Nights
- Lodi
- Lookin' Out My Backdoor
- Hot Rod Heart
- Rambunctious Boy
- She's Got Baggage
- Born On The Bayou
- Bootleg
- Run Through The Jungle
- Déjà Vu
- Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
- Tombstone Shadow
- Keep On Chooglin'
- Sweet Hitch Hiker
- Hey Tonight
- Down On The Corner
- Center Field
- Up Around The Bend
- The Old Man Down The Road
- Fortunate Son
- Bad Moon Rising
- Rockin' All Over The World
- Proud Mary
Unlike
most rockers from his time, Fogerty still has the energy and power of his
convictions. Most rockers today have no
conviction to begin with and while Fogerty is authentic Rock and Southern Rock,
a legacy The Eagles and harder-core bands continued, it reminds us that the
very ultra-conservative forces CCR and Fogerty were against have done their
best to hijack their Southern ground in profound ways. People like that do not like the John
Fogertys and Don Henleys of the world, because they never sell out and
everything about the fun, excitement and power of this concert attests to that
for Fogerty. The title more than
indicates he realizes it every bit too.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is one of the soft-side digital High
Definition concert transfers we have seen, though the color is still not
bad. The shooting is livelier than the
stillborn type we have been seeing. Even
better, the sound is not bad in Dolby Digital 5.1 and much better in DTS 5.1,
making it a DVD release worthy of all the SACD’s Fantasy Records issued of his
former band. If you particularly like
the 2-channel The Concert SACD,
you’ll find this an interesting and worthy companion piece. The only extra is a three-minutes-long Bonus
Exclusive Video of the politically-charged "Déjà Vu All Over Again".
This is one of the best concert discs we have seen this year, and with
the plethora of such releases, that is impressive.
- Nicholas Sheffo
