Why creedence broke up

He was John Fogerty's older brother and joined after John had agreed to be in a band with Doug Clifford. Although he was the younger brother, John's star was destined to rise higher than Tom's.

They signed with Del-Fi Records but didn't release anything before breaking up. Tom then joined with the Blue Velvets as their lead singer. When the band's name was changed to the Golliwogs, Tom became co-songwriter and co-vocalist with his brother John. Around that time, it also became clear that John was better at both singing and penning lyrics, so Tom stepped over to rhythm guitar. From there, CCR was born. In , Tom left the band over issues with creative control. He went on to a solo career, releasing albums throughout the s, but only 's Tom Fogerty landed on the charts.

Despite the friction between the Fogerty brothers, CCR managed to get it together long enough to play for Tom's wedding in An unscreened blood transfusion reportedly caused his infection. Tom Fogerty died young, and it's interesting to contemplate what he might have been able to do with more time. He was a fairly accomplished vocalist and was also the first member of the band to realize that Creedence Clearwater Revival wasn't where his future lay.

Around , the other members of the band began asking him to have more input in CCR's business and creative decisions. Tom Fogerty, after quitting the band over this very issue in , continuously complained in the following years that his contributions to the band had not been appreciated at the time, writes AllMusic. This is where the story starts to splinter into pieces. As detailed by Ultimate Classic Rock and Uncut , according to Cook and Clifford, John told them that if they really wanted that, then for their upcoming album, they would write all the music and lyrics or he would leave the band.

John said he would only play rhythm guitar on their compositions. According to John Fogerty, the conversation went differently. It's worth noting here that these musicians had a rough falling out, and even now, 40 years later, it's impossible to really know who has the right of it. Regardless, writes Uncut, according to John, his bandmates said they'd leave if they didn't get more creative control on the next album.

Mardi Gras was CCR's seventh album. John Fogerty actually ended up writing three songs contrary to what he had told his bandmates , Stu Cook wrote four, Doug Clifford penned three one co-written with Cook , and the last was a cover of Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou.

They had been a hit factory for so long that this statement by Rolling Stone, of all media outlets, was shocking. Fogerty, writes Uncut , knew before it was released that the album wouldn't be well-received, though he says Cook and Clifford thought "it was really cool. Mardi Gras ended Creedence Clearwater Revival's run.

By that point, the once-quartet had become a trio, and after the differences of creative control the album brought to light, the bandmates didn't work well together. Their breakup would last for decades. The band announced their official breakup on October 16, The result was Mardi Gras , released in to a resounding critical drubbing. Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau called it "the worst album I have ever heard from a major rock band," and though the album was still relatively commercially successful, it did not sell as well as previous efforts.

Fogerty had also become involved in a series of disputes with CCR's record label, Fantasy Records, over what he thought were unfair contracts, and on Oct. While the group's career together was short and marked by an incredible level of artistic output, the ensuing decades would drag on with a series of lawsuits and long periods of inactivity from any of the musicians.

Tom Fogerty recorded several solo albums that largely went ignored. He died in of complications from AIDS after contracting the virus through a tainted blood transfusion. Nothing will ever change that. If the fans were disappointed with what happened at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, I regret that. To the fans, all I can say is, things in the real world change.

But if you asked me a hundred more times, when the conditions were like this, I would do the same thing. The year before Creedence got in, the Yardbirds got inducted. I was there. That was funny. Fuck them! My mouth dropped open. And then my brain caught up with his words. That was absolutely right.

What other emotion could he have? He stuck up for himself. I had tried to reconcile with Tom long before he died. I wanted to do that with Tom for our mother. So I started a dialogue. Face it. Deal with reality. So I write a letter. There were probably about eight points on my list. That meant going to depositions, meeting with and paying my attorney to prepare a defense, and dealing with all the anxiety that goes with the legal system.

Many thousands of dollars later, Tom decided to drop the lawsuit. John Fogerty. Unfortunately, our mom passed away. It was family business. All I could think was, Oh, great — Doug and Stu want to drag Tom a r ou n d the world in a wheelchair. I thought they really wanted to do this for themselves. Creedence had signed the usual slavery deal for an unknown band, but Fantasy were now prepared to re-negotiate.

John Fogerty had also signed a separate publishing contract with Fantasy. Once it started to go sour he dealt with it on a very personal level, and that resulted in a shut-down. According to Cook and Clifford, the band were offered a deal that would have given them 10 per cent of Fantasy Records — effectively 10 per cent of themselves, as they were the only the only chart act on the label. We were there as bandmates, and with ideas to try and help him out of this log-jam, but he just got more and more withdrawn, as if we were attacking him.

It was very frustrating. But John said people would forget us. I felt that a world tour would keep us in the public eye. When Fogerty threatened to bring in the notorious Allen Klein — who was busy making mincemeat of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones and their labels — the others backed off in horror.

But contract negotiations with Fantasy had come to a standstill. This situation deteriorated. Clifford says Tom threatened to quit several times during , and that he and Cook would go round and talk him out of it. In February , just after the release of their Pendulum album, Tom Fogerty made good his threat. Creedence continued as a trio. They toured Europe again, and Australia and Japan. And within the business people were increasingly aware that all was not well with the band.

The rest of the world found out in May when they released the Mardis Gras album. The songs were divided equally between Fogerty, Clifford and Cook. For Clifford and Cook it was the first songwriting credits they had had.

And it showed. Those accounts then invariably follow that up with an excoriating attack on the album. And Creedence fans are not going to understand this. Artistically that was a mistake, but we felt we were trying to save the band.

In October , five months after the Mardis Gras album which still reached No.