In his excellent article ‘The hoodoo roots of blues music’, Dr. A mojo hand is a lucky charm for hoodoo believers, a little cloth bag filled with roots, herbs and minerals – also know as gris-gis (which happens to be the name of Dr.
He wrote: “I’m goin’ down in New Orleans, hmm // Get me a mojo hand.” Very similar, but even more famous was Got My Mojo Workin’: “Going down to Louisiana to get me a mojo hand”. In 1950, bluesman Muddy Waters released a single called Lousiana Blues on Chess.
CCR BORN ON THE BAYOU SERIES
Generally, hoodoo is a series of magical beliefs and practices among people of West-African descent in the Southern States. I was getting some of that imagery from Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters.” “Hoodoo is a magical, mystical, spiritual, non-defined apparition, like a ghost or a shadow, not necessarily evil, but certainly other-worldly. In the Rick Clark interview, Fogerty explains: Right, what is hoodoo? It sounds like voodoo, but it’s not quite the same. Voodoo (or Vodou) is a religion while hoodoo can be labeled folk magic. Kitts writes, “Formed from reading but mostly music and films like Swamp Water, one of his favorites, with its images of swamps, quicksand, moonshiners, alligators, snakes, human skulls and crucifixes.”Ī scene from ‘The Defiant Ones’ (Stanley Kramer, 1958), starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis, an escape filmĬome to think of it, a great way to ‘feel’ the bayou is by watching Jim Jarmush’ black-and-white cult classic ‘Down by Law’, starring Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni and John Lurie as cellmates and later escapees in the swamps of Louisiana. The South seems to have made a strong impact on the young Fogerty. I think I hooked into all of that stuff because of the music first.”
CCR BORN ON THE BAYOU MOVIE
Another old movie that was a favorite of mine was called Swamp Fever, believe it or not. The movie The Defiant Ones was very Southern. “I gravitated towards movies that were Southern in nature. In 1997, he told Rick Clark (as quoted in ‘ Bad Moon Rising: The Unauthorized History of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘): Interestingly, movies played a big part in Fogerty’s love for the South. Bayous are often associated with the southeastern part of the United States.” They are usually found in flat areas where water collects in pools. “A bayou is a slow-moving creek or a swampy section of a river or a lake. Fogerty has said Born on the Bayou is about a ‘mythical childhood’.īut what exactly is a bayou? According to National Geographic:
But, as any CCR fan will tell you, John and his elder brother Tom were born and raised in Berkeley, California. With Fogerty’s biting raspy drawl, its edgy, ripply guitar sound and references to New Orleans and the infamous bayou, Born on the Bayou feels like a genuine return to Fogerty’s birthplace.
The opening track of ‘Bayou Country’ is probably the song that links CCR to the American South the most. But as soon as I opened the lid on the latter, I realized I was knee-deep in the alligator-filled swamps of Louisiana. Agnew, 39th VP of the United States) and the ‘chasing down the hoodoo’ line in Born on the Bayou. Stuff like the ‘Mars tax’ in It Came Out of the Sky ( an episode involving Spiro T. Rolling Stone ranked them 82nd on its Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.Okay, so first I was going to assemble an ABC of exotic words or references – exotic for me, as a non-native European – in the Creedence repertoire. Creedence Clearwater Revival's music is still a staple of US radio airplay the band has sold 26 million albums in the United States alone. Fogerty's ongoing disagreements with Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz created further protracted court battles, and John Fogerty refused to perform with the two other surviving members at CCR's 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tom Fogerty had officially left the previous year, and John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in subsequent lawsuits among the former bandmates. The group disbanded acrimoniously in late 1972 after four years of chart-topping success. The band performed at the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Upstate New York. These members had played together since 1959, first as The Blue Velvets, then as The Golliwogs. Creedence Clearwater Revival (often referred to as Creedence or CCR) was an American rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s which consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, his brother rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford.