No Filler Music Podcast - Sidetrack: Creedence Clearwater Revival - Effigy

Episode Date: February 7, 2018

Creedence Clearwater Revival are one of the early pioneers of the southern rock genre. On this week's sidetrack we touch on John Fogerty's lyrical confrontation with Richard Nixon on their 1969 album Willy And The Poor Boys, and take a quick look at the last track of the record, "Effigy". We close out this episode with an equally gloomy King's of Leon track, "Wicker Chair". For more info, check out the shown notes: https://www.nofillerpodcast.com/episode/ep-3-kings-of-leon-youth-and-young-manhood#sidetrack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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slash home dash trial. Tom, how would you characterize this music? Characterize? Mm-hmm. Rock and roll music. It's the only logical or, you know, explanation. It's just, there's all those terms that people have invented, but it's really just rock and roll music. And you're listening to our sidetrack episode for this week. This is the No Filler podcast. My name's Quentin. With me is my brother Travis. Hey, Q. What's going on, dude? How you doing? Pretty good. Awesome. Ready to talk about Credence Clearwater Revival, aka CCR. One of the most influential rock bands, I think,

especially in that southern rock style. I don't know if they were a direct influence for Kings of Leon. But, I mean, just that little clip that we played that intro clip, that was from a song called Glory B, which was on their third release called Green. River came out in 1969. So they actually released three full-length albums

in one year, which is crazy. They were quite prolific in their day. I mean, Kings of Leon, their first album has been referred to as a modern Credence Clearwater Revival. Yeah, it's that, you know,

gritty, yeah, gritty rock. Roots rock is what they call it. Swamp Rock. Yeah. It's the, in the voice, too, and similarities and just, you know, just that howling kind of voice that John Fogarty had. Yeah. So Credens actually has a couple siblings in it. The rhythm guitarist is Tom Fogarty, lead guitarist, the primary songwriter and lead vocalist of the band was John Fogarty.

So those two brothers are the founding members of the band. They had Doug Clifford on drums and Stu Cook on bass. And of course, John Fogarty went on to have a pretty successful career just on his own, you know. Yeah, so our sidetrack for this week, so I listened to a bunch of credence before this. So songs that you're familiar with. Proud Mary, down on the corner, fortunate son, those are some of their more well-known singles. and they're all a little more upbeat and John had always said that

they firstly wanted to be a band that you could dance to. Interesting. It's always been rock and roll but yeah, they always wanted to kind of to write music that you could kind of stomp your feet to get up and dance to.

But their last track on their album, Willie and the Pull-Bow I say Po Boys, because that's how it sounds when he says it. Willie and the Poor Boys was an album that came out in 1969. But again, they had two other albums that came out in 69. The last track on there is a song called Effigy, which it's pretty dark.

Like it's compared to their other stuff, I don't know. You're saying the lyric-wise, it's dark or just the song in general? The lyrics, too. Yeah, so one thing I read about this album, and I'm pulling this from an unofficial biography that came out in 1998 called Bad Moon Rising, the unauthorized history of Creedon's Clearwater Revival. This guy who wrote this book had a chance to interview quite a few members of the band. And this album, Willie and the Poor Boys was extremely political. John Fogarty said that it's basically a confrontation between me and Richard Nixon, is what he said. So late 60s, that's right in the middle of the Vietnam War.

You know, lots of protests going on, lots of people were really upset with the ongoing war. And yeah, so a lot of that album has to do with what people saw as extremely unfair as far as the poor and the working class were drafted to the war. Anyone who had any kind of money could just pull a string here or there, get their boys to stay home and not have to go over and fight this war. So, like, the song, Fortunate Son is pretty much all about that. So an effigy is kind of along those long. too. The effigy is something it's supposed to be a depiction of someone, like a model of an actual person,

kind of like a voodoo doll. You know, and you destroy it, light it up on fire kind of as an act of protest. So that's kind of what the song is about. He's probably, I'm sure he's singing about Richard Nixon. So I've got a couple clips I want to play from it. Just a little short one at the beginning. I just kind of like the way it, all just kind of comes in

and has just this little guitar line that starts it off. Kind of sets the mood for the whole song. So you just heard a little bit of the lyrics there for the first verse. It says last night I saw a fire burning on the palace

lawn. Apparently when you're saying the palace lawn he's referring to the lawn of the White House. Interesting. You know, there were protests That's daily out there at the White House, you know, people protesting the Vietnam War. And Nixon would just completely dismiss them, not even give a shit about it, basically.

So Fogarty is quoted saying he remembers the president had said, nothing you do here today will have any effect on me. I'm going back inside to watch the football game. And so that dismissive attitude really, really pissed off Fogarty. And that led him to writing the song, Fortunate Son. And again, FAAG as well, a very political song. Confrontation between him and Richard Nixon. All right.

So the second clip from FIGE kind of plays out to the end of the song. And it's just got some really awesome guitar work on it. So that's really the only reason I wanted to share it. So let's give it a listen, shall we? Another reason I picked this song for this episode. If you remember on our full episode for Kings of Leon, I had mentioned that we would do a Kings of Leon song called Wicker Chair for our sidetrack. And then I decided to go with Creedens Clearwater instead

because I'd started listening to some of their early stuff. And I could really hear the influence that they must have had on these boys. So I think what we can do is close out this episode with Wicker Chair. It's one of my favorite Kings of Leon songs, I think. Yeah, it's a great track. It's kind of along the same lines as the hidden track at the end of Youth and Young Manhood, Tallahina Sky. You know, it's more of their, more kind of slow, slower-paced songs, you know.

Right. But yeah. So it kind of, yeah. That's why I ended up going with effigy, because it's that, you know, it's, as far as CCR songs go, effigy is definitely more a little darker. Well, yeah. If you think about youth, young manhood as a modern day credence, clearwater revival, you'll certainly, you'll certainly hear why people refer to it as that when you, when you

listen to Wicker chair, having just heard effigy. Yeah. And, uh, so. wicker chair shows up on their um their their first record their little EP called holy roller novacane which came out in february of 2003 so that was the same year that youth and young manored came out uh wicker chair is track four on that one and i don't know 100% what the origins behind that song is but it kind of seems to me that he's singing about someone who is an alcoholic or, you know, addicted to a drug of some kind and he's just kind of referencing,

just kind of watching their decline, you know? Yeah. So it's sad. It's really a sad. It's a sad song. Part of the lyrics, you know, hey, you know, it ain't coincidental that you're lost in place. It's dripping off your face and you're losing your precious mind. that's sad dude i don't know who he's talking about but yeah so but i really like the song it's just a

great super simple southern rock song um yeah man it's it's a solid track yeah so let's close out this episode with a little clip from wicker chair off of uh kings of leon's first ep ever released called holy roller nova cane so yeah that's that's it for our side track episode for this week. We've got another episode coming up in just a few days, so stay tuned. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Spotify if you want to listen to our

playlist. You can find us at no fillerpodcast.com. Follow us on iTunes, SoundCloud, all the other podcast players, and that's it. All right, friends. Until next time, my name is Quentin. My name is Travis

And thanks so much for listening And you're losing your precious mind But send me a postcard If you get that phone You got a couple pennies And your rusty jaw 22% of households that start the year with Peloton Are still active a year later

All because of a fancy bike? It's not just a bike Peloton makes treadmills too Eh, all treadmills are the same Our treadmills can adjust speed and incline automatically so you never break your stride Whether you're squeezing in a power walk or training for a marathon, Peloton can help you achieve your fitness goals. 92% stick with it.

So can you. Try the Peloton Tread risk-free with the 30-day home trial. New members only. Not available in remote locations. See additional terms at onepellaton.com slash home-dash trial.