Bad Moon Rising: The Unauthorized History of Creedence Clearwater Revival

Less than halfway through this book, as CCR cease recording and touring,the author asserts: '...in many ways, this is where the story really begins.' Well....no. Parts One and Two trace the rapid rise and sudden burn-out of the band and comprise a brisk and workmanlike account. It's good to recall how respected and popular CCR were, masters of the almost impossible task of creating catchy hooky hard rock and consciously appealing to pretty well everybody, from hippy to redneck. John Fogerty's multi-faceted genius comes through clearly, as does the control-freak in him. But Bordowitz then fills more than half of his book with a drab and largely superfluous account of the sad decline into medicrity and irrelevance of all four members, the post-split legal wrangles and decades of backbiting and recrimination. This stuff makes poor reading for a CCR fan like me. This isn't the first band biography to give its post-split years as much weight as the golden years together - witness John Rogan's interminable biog of the Byrds - and it's surely a mistake. CCR's post-1972 era could've been covered much more appropriately in one succinct and even-handed final chapter. Thorough source notes, discography and index are pluses. In 1970 CCR were touted as stepping into the Beatles' shoes: they were THAT respected and successful. And they deserve a better-balanced biography, which majors on the band's music and its place in rock history, not on the human frailties of its members in the years after the band had ceased to exist.

Great book written about a great band but also a sad story. Well worth reading highly recommend.

Very good read, a must for any serious fans of CCR or 60s/70s music. It's suprising how little material is available on the best and most successful band of the late 60s. A fair account of the band's rise and sad but inevitable breakup and it's aftermath. Lets the reader draw his own conclusions.

Having long been a fan of the music, I decided to learn about the men that gave countless generations of music fans endless pleasure in good old-fashioned rock and roll.I'm glad I did and no doubt you will too. It's a fascinating insight into what made a band great also drove them apart.Today it could be called arrogance or ego I see it more as someone driven to succeed at all costs. As one chapter headlines it "he just doesn't want to go back to the carwash"Read it and make up your own mind

A+