Wherein we periodically dip into the pool to see how others have treated a classic tune.
I’ve written about Creedence here and here before if you would like to check out my back pages. None other than Bruce Springsteen, poet laureate of New Jersey refers to John Fogerty as the “Hank Williams of rock.”
According to Wikipedia, “Bad Moon Rising*” (yes, I know it sounds like “bathroom on the right.” Please spare me.) is a song John Fogerty reportedly wrote after watching the 1941 film The Devil and Daniel Webster.
It was inspired by a scene in the film in which a hurricane destroys the crops of several farms, but spares those of Jabez Stone, the character in the film who makes a deal with the devil in exchange for wealth. Fogerty claims the song is about “the apocalypse that was going to be visited upon us.”
That is some heavy shit. It is one of those songs like Lennon’s “Imagine” or Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army” that will have you singing along without necessarily thinking about the fact that the mood of the lyrics doesn’t quite match the mood of the music.
Wouldn’t it be nice, you say, if a ballsy singer like Ann Wilson rocked out on this. Well it would be nice but instead she chose to do a duet with country performer Gretchen Wilson.
This cut comes from Wilson’s debut solo album, 2007’s Hope & Glory. It is an all-cover guest-star album with cuts including Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky,” Lennon’s “Isolation,” and of course a Zep tune, “Immigrant Song.”
Here’s the countryfied version, fiddle and all. Yeeee-ha! Swing your partner, do-si-do:
The sole reason I’m even remotely familiar with Thea Gilmore – and it struck me all of a sudden – is because I once got a bonus CD from some magazine and it had her terrific cover of the Clash’s “I’m Not Down.”‘
“Thea Eve Gilmore also known as Afterlight is an English singer-songwriter. She has released more than twenty albums since her 1998 debut Burning Dorothy. She has had three Top 40 entries on the UK Albums Chart and one on the UK Singles Chart. Her first album as Afterlight was released on 15 October 2021.”
Thea takes the folkier route on this version. It’s availalbe on a bonus disc with her 2002 album Songs from the Gutter.
*Notably used in the movie An American Werewolf in London.
