Orel Family

John Fogert at Pine Knob, August 4, 2024 I've written previously about my childhood rock heroes: The Beatles. Bruce. And John Fogerty. Fogerty, and CCR, was a taste a acquired largely during my first years in college, when I graduated from the Fantasy Records "More Gold" compilation I had bought as a kid to the entire original Fantasy catalogue in 3 neat double albums, creatively titled "1989/69," "1969" and "1970," and then finally daring to purchase the lamentable "Mardi Gras" and Fogerty's first two solo albums as cut-outs. Eventually I even located the pre-CCR "Golliwogs" singles on another Fantasy collection.  Still, it's been a decade since I last saw John play live. Oh, he's been around, but typically sharing the stage with performers I had no desire to see, even performing as an opening act. I wanted the full treatment, and last night I got it. Fogerty's "Celebration" tour came to Pine Kn...

John Fogerty at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater (photo: John Fogerty facebook page) Growing up, I had 3 musical heroes. First, there were the Beatles. And eventually there was Bruce. But along the way, there was also Creedence Clearwater Revival. CCR released just 7 studio albums. Six of those albums were crammed in to an amazing 30 month period, as John Fogerty cranked out 3-minute masterpiece after 3-minute masterpiece. Being too young to see CCR play, I waited... a long time. I didn't see John play live until the 1990s, and last night was still just my 4th show -- and two of the other 3 weren't full length performances. In recent years, John has come around as an opening act for performers like John Mellencamp and Jimmy Buffett . No offense to those guys, but... really?  I couldn't bring myself to pay money to see Fogerty in that role, not for artists I didn't especially want to see otherwise, not even this past Saturday when Fogerty opened for Buffett in Detroi...