Gather Members Review: John Fogerty The Long Road Home

The best thing I can say about John Fogerty: The Long Road Home on DVD is that it recorded a concert I'm sorry to have missed.  From the first notes, it's a high energy, exciting rock 'n roll show that makes you want to boogie even in your living room.  Thank the righteous gods of rock 'n roll they recorded it.  (That last sentence made me feel like part of the cast of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.)

I received a copy of this DVD in exchange for a review.  That might tempt me to pick it apart, so you wouldn't think I was influenced.  There is no way I can do that and be honest.  The truth is, I love it.

The worst thing I can say about the DVD is that nothing much is new here.  I haven't really followed Fogerty's career.  I own a copy of Creedence Clearwater Revival's album, Willie and the Poor Boys.  I've heard some of his other albums.  I once saw him in concert, with members of the Grateful Dead, at an event called In Concert Against AIDS in the late 80s, and I later had a videotape of that event from TV.  That is the extent of my experience with John Fogerty's music.  Even with that limited involvement, I knew 17 of the 26 songs on this DVD.  A search of his albums on the Internet showed that even the 9 songs that were new to me were all at least a couple of years old.

When you're watching a performer whose music has justly earned him an honored place in the history of classic rock, I'm not sure that new is what you want.  It's nice to see that an artist you respect is creating something worthwhile, but that doesn't always match the excitement of hearing the music that made you love him in the first place, played well.  If I saw John Fogerty in concert, I would want to hear CCR's biggest hits.  That's exactly what this DVD delivers.

The show opens with a hoppin' version of Travelin' Band that gets you pumped, but seems almost too fast.  From there, many of CCR's best songs ensue, including Who'll Stop the Rain, Lookin' Out My Back Door, Born on the Bayou, Have You Ever Seen the Rain?, Fortunate Son, Bad Moon Rising, and Proud Mary.  The band plays them with a clean, open sound that never suffers from thickness or fuzziness, although there are 3 and sometimes 4 guitars, plus a bass on stage. Fogerty wrote every song here, which proves his greatness as a songwriter.

Everyone, band and audience, has a grand old time.  The audience knows every word of every song.  The band looks delighted to be there, playing together.  It's the kind of show that makes up for many a disappointing one in a rock fan's life.

Visually, the lighting is crystal clear in vivid color.  All five guitarists look like they have a sartorial hangup on Johnny Cash.  The Man in Black himself would envy the assortment of spiffy black shirts.  When all five line up and approach the front of the stage in unison, it's a striking visual moment straight out of a Cash look-alike contest.

There's little talk between songs, but some of it is political.  Introducing the song Déjà Vu (All Over Again), Fogerty emphasizes the song's comparison between Iraq and Vietnam and says he sings the song "for families."  The lyrics are haunting:

Day by day, I hear the voices rising.

It started with a whisper, like it did before.

And day by day, we count the dead and dying.

Ship the bodies home, while the networks all keep score.

Most of the audience looks too young to remember Vietnam, but that doesn't prevent them from being moved.

There is a technical problem with this DVD.  If your system doesn't support DTS 5.1 Surround, you won't hear any sound when you press play.  The solution is to go into Audio Setup and choose one of the other two sound options.  You'll have to do that again when you want to watch the bonus video, Déjà Vu (All Over Again).

Summary: rock on, John!