Born on the Bayou

"Born on the Bayou" (1969) is the first track on Creedence Clearwater Revival's second album, Bayou Country, released in 1969. It was released as the B-side of the single "Proud Mary" that reached #2 on the Billboard charts.

"Born on the Bayou"
Single by Creedence Clearwater Revival
from the album Bayou Country
A-side"Proud Mary"
ReleasedJanuary 5, 1969
RecordedLate 1968, RCA Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre
Length5:10 (Album Version)
3:50 (Single Edit)
LabelFantasy
Songwriter(s)John Fogerty
Producer(s)John Fogerty

Background

Songwriter John Fogerty set the song in the South, despite neither having lived nor widely traveled there.[1] He commented:

"Born on the Bayou" was vaguely like "Porterville," about a mythical childhood and a heat-filled time, the Fourth of July. I put it in the swamp where, of course, I had never lived. It was late as I was writing. I was trying to be a pure writer, no guitar in hand, visualizing and looking at the bare walls of my apartment. Tiny apartments have wonderful bare walls, especially when you can't afford to put anything on them. "Chasing down a hoodoo." Hoodoo is a magical, mystical, spiritual, non-defined apparition, like a ghost or a shadow, not necessarily evil, but certainly other-worldly. I was getting some of that imagery from Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.[2]

"Born on the Bayou" is an example of "swamp rock",[3] a genre associated with Fogerty, Little Feat/Lowell George, The Band, J.J. Cale and Tony Joe White. The guitar setting for the intro is over-driven with amp tremolo on a slow setting; Fogerty uses a Gibson ES-175 (which was stolen from his car soon after recording this track).[4]

Creedence Clearwater Revival performed the song at Woodstock.[5]

References
  1. John Fogerty interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1970)
  2. Kitts, Thomas M, ed. (2012). "Finding Fogerty: Interdisciplinary Readings of John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival". Lexington Books.
  3. "What Is Swamp Rock?". ThoughtCo. Retrieved October 28, 2018.
  4. Drozdowski, Ted. "How John Fogerty Created Swampy 6-String Magic with Classic Les Pauls". Gibson Guitar Co. Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  5. Greene, Andy; Greene, Andy (December 11, 2014). "Creedence Play 'Born on the Bayou' at Woodstock". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
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