A Song For Everyone, John Lingan
A Song For Everyone, John Lingan
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A Song For Everyone
The Story of Creedence Clearwater Revival

Author: John Lingan

Narrator: John Lingan

Unabridged: 8 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 08/09/2022


Synopsis

The definitive biography of Creedence Clearwater Revival, exploring the band's legendary rise to fame and how their music embodied the cultural landscape of the late '60s and early '70s

From 1969 to 1971, as the United States convulsed with political upheaval and transformative social movements, no band was bigger than Creedence Clearwater Revival. They managed a two-year barrage of top-10 singles and LPs that doubled as an ubiquitous soundtrack to one of the most volatile periods in modern American history, and they remain a staple of classic rock radio and films about the era. Yet despite their enduring popularity, no book has ever sought to understand Creedence in conversation with their time. 

A Song for Everyone finally tells that story: the thirteen-year saga of an unassuming suburban quartet's journey through the wilds of 1960s pop, and their slow accrual of a sound and ethos that were almost mystically aligned with the concerns of decade's end. Starting in middle school, these Californian friends and brothers cut a working-class path through the most expansive decade in American music, playing R&B, country, and rock 'n' roll under a variety of names as each of those genres expanded and evolved. When they finally synthesized those styles under a new name in 1968, Creedence Clearwater Revival became instantly epochal, then fell apart under the weight of personal grievances that dated back to adolescence. As musicians and as men, they embodied the contradictions and difficulties of their time, and those dimensions of their career have never been explored until now.

Drawing on wide-ranging research into the social and musical developments of 1959-1972, extensive original interviews with surviving Creedence members and associates, and unpublished memoirs from people who knew the group closely, A Song for Everyone is the definitive account of a legendary and still-beloved American band. At the same time, it is also a cultural history of those same years—from Elvis to Altamont, Eisenhower to Watergate—seen through the eyes of four men who encapsulated them in song for all time, told by one of the rising figures in contemporary music writing.

About John Lingan

John Lingan has written for the Oxford American, Atlantic, BuzzFeed, the Baffler, Slate, the New Republic, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and many other places. He lives in Maryland.


Reviews

Goodreads review by *TUDOR^QUEEN* on July 19, 2022

3.5 Stars As a child of the sixties and seventies I was drawn to read this book about the rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival, "CCR" for short. I'm pretty sure I have a greatest hits LP in storage from decades ago! Sometimes you forget just how many infectious hits they had on the radio that defi......more

Goodreads review by Craig on October 07, 2022

I'm in a tricky position with this one since my oral history of CCR is one of the basic sources (fully acknowledged and with my approval.). I like the way Lingan puts the story in historical context and he's got a bit of detail neither I nor Hank Bordowitze (Bad Moon Rising) located, but the contour......more

Goodreads review by James on September 19, 2022

While the book includes some interesting details about the earliest days of the band before they became Creedence Clearwater Revival, overall the book just scratches the surface of what should’ve been a much more interesting story. Important details around the business dealings of the band and their......more

Goodreads review by Justin on September 30, 2022

*Rounding up from 3.5 stars* This biography carves out plenty of space to place CCR within the specific time during which the band was making hits. It also doesn't shy away from the issues amongst the bandmates and how many of them stemmed from John Fogerty's strict control of the music. I have great......more

Goodreads review by C.G. on September 24, 2022

Loved this well-researched and entertainingly written biography of Sixties R&B band Creedence Clearwater Revival. While I of course knew most of their songs (play them, you will realize you do too, no matter your age) I really knew nothing else about them. This is the perfect type of music biography......more