Making Hits at Cosmo's Factory Quiz

Answer: Doug Clifford

It was reported that Doug Clifford had a deep sense and love for all things in nature, which earned him the nickname "Cosmo". Sitting on a pushbike and wearing bright red pants, and by being the first the line in the shot, his image dominates the cover. The band is captured here in an off-duty moment, which was considered rare for them. John Fogerty had instituted a relentless regime of practise for the band, with the members rehearsing their songs five days a week. In Clifford's eyes it was almost like going to a regular job, so he christened the Berkeley warehouse they worked in "the factory".

In a 2012 interview with Goldmine magazine, Clifford advised that Fogerty was feeling the pressure from the press and, so after the recording was complete, he advised him (Doug) that he intended to name the album after the drummer in a bid to shift some of the spotlight (read pressure) away from himself. Clifford nonchalantly jokes with the interviewer "I tell people that they named it after me, so it had to be a hit".

Answer: Europe

Acknowledge that this question has no direct link to the album but what it does do is provide me with an opportunity to highlight both the incredible work ethic of this band and, to some extent, the environment under which the album was made. "Cosmo's Factory" represented Creedence Clearwater Revival at the height of their powers. Released in July of 1970 it came on the back of this daunting schedule:
January 1969 - They released the album "Bayou Country" which featured the hit single "Proud Mary".
July 1969 - They began to tour incessantly.
August 1969 - They released the album "Green River" from which the title track and "Bad Moon Rising" were hits on the US Billboard Hot 100.
August 1969 - They were one of the headline acts at the Woodstock festival.
November 1969 - They released the album "Willy & the Poor Boys" featuring the hit singles "Down on the Corner" and "Fortunate Son".
(If you have noted so far, that is three studio albums in one year, all three of which made the Top Ten of the US Billboard 200 Album chart)
January 1970 - They recorded "The Concert" at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. (See footnote)
February 1970 - They were on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine
April 1970 - They arrived for their European tour and featured at the Royal Albert Hall.
June 1970 - They were back in Berkeley, rehearsing and then cutting the album "Cosmo's Factory".

The ability for something creative to be generated as consistently brilliant as CCR were able to achieve under this duress is amazing, but something would have to give.

(Footnote) Fantasy Records, Creedence's record label, continued to release compilation albums well after the band's demise. One was titled "Live in Europe", which was released in 1973. Another, released in 1980, was originally labelled as being recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. It was later discovered to have been recorded at Oakland's Coliseum and subsequent covers were amended and the album was repackaged as "The Concert".

Answer: Run Through the Jungle

Fogerty had cited Howlin' Wolf as being a major influence on his work and career in a 1997 interview with Guitar World magazine. He went on to advise that he was channelling the veteran bluesman during the recording of "Run Through the Jungle" for the album. It has often been thought that this song was yet another protest song about the Vietnam War by the band, especially as it had come hot on the heels of their previous year's release "Fortunate Son", which also looked at the subject. Fogerty advised that he could see how this impression could arise, how listeners could link the word "jungle" with "Vietnam", but his real protest here was the proliferation of guns in the United States and the "gung-ho" attitudes of the people using them. This is eerily echoed in the lines;
"200 million guns were loaded
Satan cries, take aim".

(Footnote) Music journalist Phil Ellwood had misinterpreted the lyric "doubles on kazoo" from the Creedence hit "Down on the Corner" (1969) as "devils on the loose". Fogerty liked the line so much that he used it in "Run Through the Jungle" and thanked Ellwood for it.

Answer: Up Around the Bend

In Britain, and a number of other Commonwealth countries, to be going "around the bend" is a colloquial way of saying "going crazy". This song promotes a far more positive attitude.

In his 2012 memoir, "Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music", Fogerty spells out that the lyrics were inspired by a motorbike ride that he had through the California hills. The surrounds, the trees, the smell of clean air encouraged a sense of freedom and he endeavoured to capture this feeling within his words. That call to nature is expressed as;
"Hitch a ride to the end of the highway
Where the neon is turning to wood",
And those shades of hope are reflected in lines such as;
"leave the sinking ship behind" and "fix your mind on a crystal day".

That sense of joy is encapsulated within an amazing introductory riff and an up-tempo beat that remains on high throughout the number.

Answer: Travelin' Band

From the start of 1969 the band had become road warriors and embarked on a heavy touring schedule to promote their songs. The journeys were a trial of constant motion, lost baggage, long waits and thoughts of "there had to be a better way". From these tribulations would arise the hectic belter "Travelin' Band".

In writing the song John Fogerty wanted to honour the style of one of his rock and roll heroes, Little Richard. As a consequence, the song is played and the words are spat out at breakneck speed by Fogerty and the band and, for good measure, the occasional throaty scream/growl would also get thrown in. There was only one problem. Specialty Records, the group who were the owners of Little Richard's catalogue, felt that the homage was a little too close to home and that the song sound very much like "Good Golly Miss Molly" and they sued the band. The suit was settled out of court, after which, the band's bass player, Stu Cook, commented (sardonically) "I thought our version actually sounded like "Long Tall Sally"".

Answer: Who'll Stop the Rain

Interpretations of this song are varied; some will argue that it is a thinly veiled swipe at the war in Vietnam and, as evidence, point to the line "I went down Virginia, seeking shelter from the storm", Virginia being John Fogerty's posting when he'd enlisted in the Army Reserve. Others claim that it rails against politicians rising to power on the back of hollow promises - "five year plans and new deals, wrapped in golden chains". Whilst the meaning is not clear the fact that there is something amiss (this unending malaise) is evident and this is spelled out by the line "good men through the ages, trying to find the sun".

For this author though, the best thoughts on the song come from Fogerty himself when he confirmed that the inspiration for writing the song came when they played the Woodstock festival in 1969 and were greeted by a wet and muddy field;
"Heard the singers playing, how we cheered for more
The crowd had rushed together, trying to keep warm"
Which, in two concise lines, echoes that no matter the situation, together, we can make light of it.

Answer: Looking Out My Back Door

With its many varied images such as "statues wearing high heels", "dinosaur Victrola list'nin' to Buck Owens" and the giants and elephants mentioned above, it is not difficult to see how punters could leap toward the conclusion that the song is drug related. Some reviewers saw this as Fogerty endeavouring to, lyrically, emulate John Lennon and the Beatles' 1967 hit "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The Beatles' track is also filled with a broad spectrum of weird images which has led to claims that it was the recollections of an acid trip. The longer handle drawn to this song is that the alignment of the words "Lucy, Sky, Diamonds" spelled out LSD.

In much the same way, "Looking Out My Back Door's" crazy animals were seen as another far-out acid trip and when punters heard the line "won't you take a ride, on a flying spoon", many drew this as a direct reference to cocaine. Fogerty dismissed all of these suggestions, indicating that the song was written with his son Josh (who was three at the time) in mind, and how good it would be for him to hear his dad singing "doot, doot, doot" on the radio. Of course, a line such as that needed playful lyrics to make it work and, for this, the inspiration came from a book he'd often read to his son "To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street" by Dr. Seuss.

(Footnote) As a nice little touch of irony, just as Fogerty's song was inspired by a work for children so too was John Lennon's work with "Lucy in the Sky...", which drew from a painting by his son Julian at nursery school.

Answer: Ramble Tamble

"Ramble Tamble" was the last track written for this album, but its seven minutes and nine seconds were used as the opening to this great album. It is also a track that has polarised critics. John Grissim, in his album review for Rolling Stone magazine, called it the only "unsatisfying" track of the seven originals that Fogerty penned for the album. John Lingan of Pitchfork magazine, however, described it as a "pure expression" that stood tall amongst a troupe of great album openers such as "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin and The Who's "Baba O'Riley".

The song has a countrified funk riff for its opening before it kicks into overdrive, raising the roof with some double-time rockabilly and John Fogerty screaming out a stream of apocalyptic images such as "bugs in the sugar" and "mud in the water". In the space of a couple of heartbeats the band brings the song to a screeching halt before starting a slow-burn venture into territory the band had not explored in previous recordings. The music starts to unwind into a journey for the listener that could best be described as a space jam, conveying the psychedelic influences that were prevalent in the late 1960s. The intensity continues to build. There's a prowler in the melody and it is coming toward the listener and, just as it's about the peer through the window, the song breaks yet again and returns to the main beat, giving Fogerty one last chance to scream about "acid in digestion" and the now prophetic "actors in the White House".

Answer: False

The band recorded two further studio albums. The first of these was "Pendulum" which was released at the end of that same year (1970) and it featured all four members. However, Tom Fogerty would walk out of the band immediately after to pursue a solo career and he did not tour with the band to promote "Pendulum".

This brings us back to "Cosmo's Factory" and the relaxed state that the band members appear to be in on the cover. It turns out to be quite misleading. By the time the band had gathered to record this album tensions were already starting to mount. The main fly in the ointment appeared to be the band's self-appointed leader, John Fogerty, who'd installed a strict regimen of practice and a firm code of conduct. In his defence, Fogerty had a clear vision of what the band had to be and what they needed to do to achieve those ends. He removed the democracy from the group because he felt that would have led to procrastination and argument as to who sang what song, how this song should be played, whose songs should be on the album... and so on. Whilst this worked initially the charm of this arrangement soon wore off on the other three members in the band. After the release of "Pendulum" in December of that year, the band carried on as a trio and released one more album, "Mardi Gras" (1972), which, despite solid sales, was crucified by the critics. On this disc John had allowed the other members to contribute their own material and provide lead vocals to these tracks. Four months later (October, 1972), the group disbanded.

The four members would, eventually, record another song together. This was the track "Joyful Resurrection", which appears on Tom Fogerty's 1974 solo album "National Zephyr". However, even here, the animosity that existed between John and the rest of the band was evident. Whilst Tom, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford would work together on the track, John recorded his parts to the song separately.

Answer: Long as I Can See the Light

There is a certain symmetry and, almost, an appropriateness in that the songs "Ramble Tamble" and "Long as I Can See the Light" are the numbers that, respectively, open and close this album. Both songs venture into previously uncharted waters for the band; "Ramble Tamble" delves into psychedelia and "Long as..." shows that Creedence have found soul. Interestingly, in their opening lines, both of them talk to the listener of itchy feet;
(Ramble Tamble)
"Move
Down the road
I go"
(Long as I Can See the Light)
Put a candle in the window
'Cause I feel I gotta move".

This closing track adds another dimension to the album, indeed, Creedence's overall sound. Fogerty's vocals echo pain and longing and a vulnerability that he hadn't previously explored. There's a saxophone brought in that sits behind each verse before breaking out into a rendering solo that makes the listener want to reach out for a protective blanket to wrap themselves in. However, the hammer here is Doug Clifford's bass drum that produces the sound of a heart breaking.

This is one of Creedence Clearwater Revival's most nuanced songs and is clearly one of the most powerful ballads they have ever produced. It was also the perfect way in which to close off their most monumental work.