Craft Recordings

Craft RecordingsCreedence Clearwater Revival‘s full 1969 Woodstock festival performance finally gets released today, nearly 50 years after the event. Live at Woodstock features CCR’s complete 11-song, hour-long set, and is available on CD, as a two-LP vinyl set and digitally.

The band was supposed to play a Saturday night headlining slot at Woodstock on August 16, 1969, but technical issues and rain pushed the start time past midnight. Frontman John Fogerty has joked that CCR hit the stage after The Grateful Dead had put everybody to sleep.

Fogerty initially didn’t feel positive about his band’s performance, which led him to block its release for years, while also refusing to allow CCR to appear in the Oscar-winning 1970 Woodstock documentary and on the film’s soundtrack album.  Fogerty tells ABC Radio that his feelings about CCR’s Woodstock performance have since changed.

“We had kicked butt in front of…Well, we woke up a half a million people,” he declares. “And by the time we were…done with it, they were rocking and having a great time…But, you know, it was a struggle, ’cause everyone was asleep.”

Speaking separately with ABC Radio, CCR bassist Stu Cook recalls that the band’s performance got off to “a rough start,” but says that after that, “we got our footing and settled down, and then played a solid journeyman set.”

Cook says also he remembers the audience being “pretty whipped,” but doesn’t think they were quite as lethargic as Fogerty described them.

As for his old band’s performance finally being released, Stu says, “I’m glad it’s out for people to check out. You know…most people still don’t know that Creedence actually played at Woodstock.”

Here’s the Live at Woodstock track list:

“Born on the Bayou”
“Green River”
“Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)”
“Bootleg”
“Commotion”
“Bad Moon Rising”
“Proud Mary”
“I Put a Spell on You”
“The Night Time Is the Right Time”
“Keep On Chooglin'”
“Suzie Q”

Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.