John Fogerty - "Centerfield" & "Eye of the Zombie" C/D?

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I haven't seen any mention of these two solo albums on ILM, so I'm wondering if they're worth the money. "Old Man Down The Road" is a decent "Run Through the Jungle" rewrite (that video was as strange as R.E.M. kudzu in 1985), and the title song of "Zombie" is weird synth-pop with chooglin' undercurrents.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I always loved "Old Man Down the Road" (mostly because of the creepy video). There's one fleeting scene where the guitar chord runs underneath what looks like a wedding dress than quickly moves away. It turns out to be something that looks like a ghost strangling a nun.....or the grim reaper....or something. Always loved that.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

"Violence is Golden" is the most ridiculous song ever recorded, almost worth checking out once, if only for the 'this is the CCR guy? wtf' factor

― dave q (listerine), Thursday, 24 March 2005 15:56 (twenty-one years ago)

LOVE that title.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the bluegrass-inspired vocal melody of "Rock & Roll Girls."

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

*gives milo a cookie*

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

How different is "Centerfield" from the CCR catalogue? Is it an essential purchase?

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, my old granddad (a CCR fan even well into his 70s, no kidding!) liked it fine, but I was mostly underwhelmed. "Old Man" was the only really enjoyable song off Centrefield, and indeed that was largely due to the single-tracking-shot video. The intro to "Centrefield" itself, with standard '80s synth-handclaps over a modified "La Bamba" guitar part, was a major personal annoyance. The guy takes the trouble to master the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and saxophone; but can't manage to put his own goddam hands together?! (Not to sound like a DeRogatis - it's just that seemingly EVERYONE was using those exact handclaps, & they kinda epitomized everything I disliked about the sound of '80s recordings. Many aspects of which I've since come to tolerate or like or love; not the handclaps, tho.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 24 March 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

"Change in the Weather" (from 'Zombie') is good standard-issue 'choogle', or whatever it was CCR (whom I luv, btw) did

― dave q (listerine), Thursday, 24 March 2005 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I find "Centerfield" a totally bad song, I never could stand it. I did kind of like that one-man-band LP he did, "Blue Ridge Rangers," though. I believe I saw J.C. Fogerty with Keith Urban, playing acoustic guitars and singing, on CMT recently, and they sounded pretty good together. I'm kind of agnostic about most CCR--I love "Effigy" and "Run Through the Jungle" and several others, but over the years I've come to find them somewhat one-dimensional for my taste...

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 24 March 2005 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The video for "Centerfield" is classic.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 24 March 2005 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

I did kind of like that one-man-band LP he did, "Blue Ridge Rangers,"

Any other opinions on this? I'm curious.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 27 June 2006 23:25 (nineteen years ago)

If you like honky-tonk and old-school country, you'll be in
heaven with _Blue Ridge Rangers_.

IMO _Centerfield_ and _Eye Of The Zombie_ are quite good,
but the casual CCR fan should be wary. The production is
very 80s and there's a fair amount of synthpop on these
albums.

If you just want to download sample tracks, these songs
are as good as anything he ever wrote:

1. Big Train From Memphis
2. Rock N Roll Girls
3. Vanz Kant Dance
4. Goin' Back Home
5. Change In The Weather

Very different from his usual ouevre, but I think
they're better than the wheel-spinning retread that
was _Deja Vu_.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Wednesday, 28 June 2006 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

"Zombie" has got to be one of the worst album covers of all time.

― Melvin van Osterlow, Jr. (res), Sunday, 17 January 2010 15:26 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

the singing on EOTZ is execrable, but the guitar licks on a few tracks remain as hot as ever.

― a 'catch-all', almost humorous, 'Jeez' quality (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 00:04 (fourteen years ago)

can't decide if 'violence is golden' sounds more like survivor or red rider

― balls, Tuesday, 30 August 2011 04:07 (fourteen years ago)

eight years pass...

It's worth seeking out the John Fogerty volume of the bootleg series Ultra Rare Trax.

A lot of it is subpar - for example, it begins with the complete acetate of his unreleased album Hoodoo, and you can hear why Fogerty pulled it. (Fogerty wrote about in his bio and said he had been too distracted by his lawsuit against Fantasy. He also asked Asylum to destroy the master tape in the '80s, which they did.)

The best stuff IMHO are the singles he released in 1973 and credited to the "Blue Ridge Rangers" - those four tracks have never been officially released on CD for some reason, and they're among the very best records he ever made post-CCR.

― birdistheword, Monday, 3 August 2020 21:09 (five years ago)

"working on a building" is incredible

are the BRR single cuts different from the album ones ?

― budo jeru, Tuesday, 4 August 2020 16:55 (five years ago)

oh i see — you're talking about the tracks that didn't make the LP.

― budo jeru, Tuesday, 4 August 2020 17:01 (five years ago)

yeah they don’t appear on the album

12 You Don't Owe Me
13 Back In The Hills
14 Comin' Down The Road
15 Ricochet

(from https://www.discogs.com/John-Fogerty-Ultra-Rare-Trax/release/13819391)

― brimstead, Tuesday, 4 August 2020 17:26 (five years ago)

(xp)

― brimstead, Tuesday, 4 August 2020 17:26 (five years ago)

Collector's note: there's a later (and now more widespread) bootleg called Hoodoo: The Lost Album which (besides the Hoodoo acetate of course) also has those singles as bonus tracks, but they sound pretty crappy. Maybe they used poorer copies of the singles or maybe the transfer itself was just crappy, but there's much more distortion. Ultra Rare Trax isn't perfect - for starters, the added compression is obvious - but at least it's a cleaner sounding transfer. (I don't mean NoNoise or CEDAR either - the tics and pops from the 45 surface noise make it obvious no NR was used.)

― birdistheword, Tuesday, 4 August 2020 18:37 (five years ago)

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