FIRST LISTEN | Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River | Reaction

[@maryerpenbach9517]

One of the miracles and mysteries of music is how four kids from an Oakland, California suburb DEFINED Swamp Rock.

[@conanthebarbarian7853]

Great point. I live near Lodi CA, You can easily be stuck in Lodi.

[@neocommenter]

They studied the shit out of the blues.

[@Chicano1992]

Wasn’t he around in Lodi for awhile? There’s a ton of rivers here in the valley .

[@maryerpenbach9517]

@@conanthebarbarian7853 I grew up near Lodi, WI. Even though I knew the song was probably not about that town, I felt his pain. You think being stuck in Lodi CA is bad, it's practically Hollywood compared to Lodi WI. :-)

[@nybirdman]

@@maryerpenbach9517 still much better than Lodi, NJ.

[@atuuschaaw]

Riding flatcars is simply that...catching a ride on a railroad flatcar, and crosstie walking was just walking down the railroad. When I was a young teenager, me and some others would spend a day on the tracks. You see things most folks never do. ☺♥

[@gingeroo5765]

All that’s so interesting! You saw things like what??

[@atuuschaaw]

@@gingeroo5765 the rails always go through the less populated areas of the country, which means more unspoiled areas with more wildlife. It was like exploring for us kids. I will still walk the railroads today, but I'm too old to try to hop a train anymore. ☺

[@gingeroo5765]

@@atuuschaaw aww, sounds like SUCH wonderful times - suspended in a lovely time capsule. Thank you for offering your story to us. 💕 Take care 🙋🏻‍♀️

[@atuuschaaw]

♥

[@loosmaster]

@@gingeroo5765 The most interesting thing I ever came across was the Blue Runner snake when walking the railways as a kid. They were some fast buggers and actually chase you. Where I lived was either King Snake or Water Moccasin.

[@hog7203]

Flat car riders and cross tie walkers is a reference to trains, train tracks, hoboes, railroad workers etc. Cross ties are the wooden slabs under the rails on a train track. CCR has so many great songs. Even the deep cuts could've been hits.

[@lanapeterzon9055]

Beat me to it. . Good on ya. :)

[@melissa0987]

This is a river that is now called green river but also known as putah creek. Legend has it that a man named Cody jr. built the cabins there long before John was born. John used his imagination to pretend that Cody jr. was inviting him to come back there to revisit more innocent and happy times if he got burned by the world. "Said you're gonna find the world is smoldering. And if you get lost, come on home to green river." It was a real place that John loved and one of the fondest memories he had of his father who was taken captive to alcoholism, as well as his mother. This split up the family and john didn't see his father much after that. He is literally recalling happy times and trying to forget the sorrow of how things went bad later.

[@deborahcornell171]

I grew up boating, swimming, waterskiing & partying on (& in) the river in my hometown. I was, indeed, a "barefoot girl dancing in the moonlight" when this song came out. Love it & "Born On the Bayou", my favorite CCR songs. Great memories associated with both.💙☮💙

[@Markrealguy51]

Did all those things by an upstate ny lake…fun times

[@Unclesmokey314]

Barefoot girls dancin' in the moonlight is probably one of my favorite lines ever laid down to music. This song is IN DEPTH descriptive...

[@jollymolly2521]

John Fogerty wrote this song in his early 20s after he got out of the Army reserves (He was not a fan of his military service and basically conned his way into a reserve position so he wouldn't get drafted and go to Vietnam LOL! It's why his vocals on Fortunate Son are so raw and bitter!). It was about the summer camp he and his family went to every summer (in CA where he was born and raised) before his parents split up. After the split, his father left and they couldn't afford to go to the camp anymore and when he was older he was trying to come up with song ideas and thought about the camp that he'd spent his youth at every summer. Everyone and everything mentioned in the song is someone he knew, ie, "Cody" was the owner of the camp they went to), he and his brothers used to play on the railroad tracks (walking on the cross ties and snagging rides on the flat train cars), he'd go fishing for catfish in the river with his father (not Green River, he just called the song that because the camp was close to Green River), etc. And for the record - John Fogerty wrote all the CCR hits by himself. That band was little more than a backup band and then they stabbed him in the back. Who'll Stop The Rain is a song Fogerty wrote when he knew he was going to break up the band because they were fighting too much and there was too much resentment from the other 3 members - including his brother. It turned out that his brother really hated his guts and he never knew it. In fact it was his brother Tom who was the first to quit the band. At the time his brother died over 30 years ago they weren't speaking. IIRC he heard about his brother's death from their other brother. Tom and his other 2 band mates have sold him out so many times for a paycheck it's not even funny. Fogerty doesn't even own the rights to his own damned songs because he sold the rights to get out of his CCR contract. it was the only way Saul Zaentz would let him out of the contract after CCR broke up. The other 3 got to walk away scott free - but Fogerty owned Zaentz 3 albums because HE was the only member of that band who knew how to write a decent song. Forgerty chose instead to just not make any music at all for over 15 years. That's why CCR's career was so short - barely 3 years at the top before the jealousy of the other 3 members caused the band to collapse. You should read Fogerty's bio from 3-4 years ago. He laid it all out and explains why he still doesn't speak to the 2 surviving members - Doug and Stu. He wouldn't even play with them when CCR was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[@user-bk3bp5yy7m]

The music business is vicious . Band members can be equally so when there’s money to be had . I know from experience

[@lancevaughn432]

The great thing about this song is green river is anywhere you want it to be. He grew up in Northern California. The river around anybody’s house could be your green river.

[@gingeroo5765]

That’s EXACTLY what I was thinking too. 🙂

[@hunter1961100]

It was putah creek flows out of lake berriessa he used to go there growing up

[@timbriere2325]

All in his heart

[@dagmar.6954]

I grew up on the great music of the 60's-70's. CCR has always been one of my favorites. They don't have a bad song! John Fogerty has one of the most unique & recognizable voices around.

[@leehelppie4544]

amen to that..

[@vevocreb]

I’m 57 and my earliest memories of music on the radio here in Australia was CCR and T-REX, to me at that time they were the greatest bands

[@mokhtariabengrigra1438]

I love ccr they are a legend of rock'nroll'''' they are mazing .. wowww man. Thank u for that

[@mikeburt5667]

"Flat car riders & cross tie walkers" refers to the railroad. Hopping on a flat car for a ride on the train. Walking down the railroad feet reaching from the wood ties to the next one. Especially if you walk a railroad bridge you must walk from cross tie to cross tie as there is nothing but air in between & a long way down to the river. There you go LFR Family Man.

[@greg2976]

That makes sense. Thanks for explaining that. I never gave it much thought!

[@peterdressel3507]

I grew up with his son. Same age. Green River is Putah Creek in Solano and Yolo County in California. They are from El Cerrito in the East Bay, Northern California.

[@robertromero2928]

Always singing about the Bayou, nobody did it better than CCR even though they were from San Francisco, genius !

[@kimryan6087]

CCR is definitely in my top 5. "Someday Never Comes" is one of my absolute favorites. Please check it out.

[@TOBYH]

THE GUITAR WORK IN THAT SONG IS UNREAL!

[@debbiechang5781]

Apparently John Fogarty was very heavily influenced by Cajun music and the bayou culture even though it wasn’t where he was raised. Regardless of where he’s from or who made impressions on his music, the end result was a sound that captivates the listener and never gets old. I think those were references to railroad people when he talked about flat cars and cross ties. I love this rabbit hole. Would love to see you react to “Someday Never Comes”. Happy holidays to you Van. 🎄🌺✌️

[@jeraldkimball494]

CCR was the music I grew up with in Louisiana. This was the soundtrack of my youth.

[@stephanietip]

It tickles me you are discovering music that raised me.This song is kinda my life growing up in Tennessee

[@Bekka_Noyb]

Not only my fave CCR song, but one of my top 5 fave songs! ♥

[@kathycrutcher2671]

Suzie Q is one I remember asking my dad to play,he listened to all kinds of music when I was little.

[@donnadubyak6504]

He's gifted

[@richardboyd9764]

That river is everywhere in the south bro. That's what we do down south for fun, weekends, all night by the bonfire, muddy water, drop the tailgate, crank up the tunes, cold beer and solo cups, smoke sumthn.... Good times

[@williamweiss6128]

Little boy when CCR was it!! AFL hadn't joined the NFL. Penny candy was still. No computers, cell phones, video games. Good times.

[@keithetherington678]

Lodi California is where John and his brother grew up. His brother played Rythm guitar in the band. But they really do sound like they are from the south. They have a song about Lodi you should check out.

[@zitawhirlock813]

God Bless You for sharing and bringing out the down to earth, realness of bayou living , and the tasty cord arrangements in the song, Green River!

[@rogerkelly7988]

Love all things CCR been a fan since 1969 a lot of people think that this band is from the south but their from California but John Fogertys song writing would make you think their from Louisiana more specifically New Orleans

[@gumbomudderx7503]

South California! Lol

[@briantimmons3075]

I think he's gifted. He was born in the midwest and grew up in San Francisco

[@lorilxn1597]

Been listening to CCR since before I became a teenager

[@Xcris_crosX]

Kids in rural areas had fun in their own ways like hopping trains and exploring the countryside in box cars or flat cars. Cross-tie walkers were like the kids in the movie "Stand By Me" who walk the railroad tracks. I would do it for short distances but my big brothers would "ride the rails" to surrounding towns

[@thomasstahl9683]

Great song and a very great band! CCR play in Woodstock!

[@user-sm2ql7nq4l]

John Fogerty once said, he wrote this song because of Green River soda. And if you really wanna hear John's real experience, check out "Lodi." And another amazing song no reactors really touch upon is "Wrote A Song For Everyone.

[@shirleymongold9491]

I would say that flat car riders and cross tie walkers would refer to railroad.

[@everykneeshallbow]

Exactly correct. Which he sings about on the song "Cross tie walker", off the same album.

[@russelldye3751]

John and his band was actually from Northern California and green river was also in California where they went as a family!

[@debbeborders5762]

Back in the day, AM radio played short songs, less than 3 minutes. When FM radio came about, we had access to longer songs and DJs with deep voices, who talked slowly and may have been partaking of medicinal entertainment.

[@nightrider7297]

Check out their cover of Heard it through the grapevine, you'll love it. P.S. he was talking about hobos walking the tracks and riding the flatcars

[@magicbrownie1357]

"Flat car rider and cross tie walkers" He's talking about railroad flat cars and walking across the railroad ties, I assume there was a railroad trestle/bridge over Green River.

[@bartstarr100]

Green river had a railroad bridge crossing it by Cody's camp. Green River is in basically every state, but he's from Northern California.

[@Theresa1057]

(Fortunately, Fogerty put the uncertainty to rest in a 2012 Rolling Stone interview in which he discussed his seminal tune: “What really happened is that I used a setting like New Orleans, but I would actually be talking about things from my own life. Green River, as I named it - was actually called Putah Creek by Winters, CA. It wasn’t called Green River, but in my mind I always sort of called it Green River. All those little anecdotes are part of my childhood, those are things that happened to me)

[@seiraeiramasil2302]

This song's really good, so is "Commotion", I bet you'd get into that one, it starts off with that guitar you said you like. Did you know that when John Fogerty left CCR, he had a song called "The Old Man Down The Road" and the remaining members of CCR tried to sue John claiming that his song was too much like "Run Through The Jungle". Well, they lost of course, because John wrote both songs!, Can you believe that?, well, it's ridiculous, but true. Thanks for playing this song, really enjoyed it!

[@happymethehappyone8300]

Creedence Clearwater Revival "The Kings Of Swamp Music"

[@slimpickins9124]

"flat car riders & cross tie walkers" are railroad references. A flat car is a rail car with no sides or tops, a flatbed so to speak. Cross ties are the wood beams holding the rails together. Basically a cross tie walker is someone who walks the railroad.

[@catherinesutton5979]

Flat cars used to be on trains. When you jumped a train on a flat car, you were a flat car rider. Cross ties and the wood under the rails on a train track. Walking the tracks made you a cross tie walker.

[@TheCashcrue]

Fogarty said that it was about a creek that his family used to go to in Northern California. There was a drug store that had one of the old soda fountains where you picked your own flavor, and one of them was called Green River. He said that just stuck in his mind, and he related that to the creek they used to play in.

[@TerrieKolb-eu1kn]

In the Netflix special he said there was a place in California that was the memory source.

[@catherinesutton5979]

The members of CCR were all from Cali. Either Berkeley California, or Oakland.

[@Teresia12]

I was born on Green River in Kentucky. John Prine sang about the Green River in Kentucky where Paradise lay back in Muhlenburg County. There are plenty of Railroad tracks over the river and above streets. They needed them for Mr Peabody's coal train to haul paradise away.

[@davidlane9724]

Love this song

[@joeyricefried9621]

My favorite CCR song!!

[@isabelle317]

John Fogerty had an Excellent solo album (Centerfield). Fogerty is a native Californian, but loved the sounds of the bayou region. He even created his speech impediment to sound more cajun

[@jedidiahhoyle1986]

Flat car riders and cross tie walkers were railroad hobos walk-in camping and hitchin a ride on the trains.

[@karenpowell6063]

Desperado by the Eagles 🔥Stateboro Blues , Whipping Post, Stormy Monday The Allman Brothers

[@jmweed1861]

He is singing about a river in Northern California his family went while he was growing up as a young boy. The Referance to Flat Car Riders and Cross Tie Riders,is about Hobos Riding the Rails. Listen to "Cross Tie Walker" on the Green River Album, one of my favorite CCR songs...

[@Mel-hf2qj]

Love them

[@BravyM9]

Green River is an actual place in northern CA I grew up in NorCal where being in nature is common due to the proximity and abundance of it. Many families who live in the Central Valley towns and/or Bay Area spend weekends in the many beautiful places everyone is surrounded by. John Fogerty is from northern CA as am l.

[@dmgiliam]

He’s singing about Putah Creek near Lake Berryessa in Northern California near where he grew up. And yes the water is green.

[@antoniocunha8772]

i knew this is a great band tnks from brazil lfr family

[@DaveBarton1]

Fogerty (all of CCR actually) were from the San Fancisco Bay area (El Cerrito). Fogerty used to spend his childhood days at a camp in California owned by a relative of Buffalo Bill Cody (hence the lyric "up at Cody's camp...").

[@jzotto7971]

Rockin.

[@tomcabrera8223]

That was a great album .

[@tracyneely1412]

Don't matter.... CCR..... OH YEAH.

[@stevenV57]

Gotta agree Led Zepplin and CCR are the best, grew up in the day listening to both.

[@carolcjh8938]

Riding on a train flatcar was a way a hobo and or someone would get from one town to another. Walking, stepping from one railroad wooden tie to another. (Done this many times) Dragonflies will land on anything and sit there in the hot sun. If you get lost, just follow the river. Great reaction.

[@kishka7]

Merry Christmas Mer Van - Love your reactions! ENJOY the music we grew up with!!! (67 yr old gentleman inN California

[@micaharlon9998]

As far as the rope hanging from the tree probably refers to a rope that secures a small boat or raft used to fish in Green river or any river, bayou, lake, etc.

[@staghornthedruid957]

Green River is northern Cali and southern Origeon i believe. This is a taste of Pacific Northwest folk rock.

[@stephanietip]

A flat car is flat deck mounted on a 6 wheel truck or train and a cross tie is a beam laid under a railroad tie for support.Flat car riding"riding the back of a large flat bed truck or train car"cross tie walking is walking along the beams holding up the train tracks"both of which I used to do as a kid

[@mariusvanniekerk7707]

Here we are in the same boat. Led Zeppelin and CCR for life 🇿🇦☕

[@danspringer12]

You should check out "Up Around the Bend" from CCR- the guitar is great in that, too.

[@larryl1427]

Flatcar is a railroad car that's ready to be loaded. Those big old ships carry containers, and then the containers are loaded onto the flatcars and transported around the country by rail. Cross ties are the wooden ties that the rails are attached to with spikes.

[@MEWA-ft3fg]

it was actually called Putah Creek by Winters, California. It wasn't called Green River, but in my mind I always sort of called it Green River. All those little anecdotes are part of my childhood, those are things that happened to me actually, I just wrote about them and the audience shifted at the time and place.[6] Fogerty added that the "actual specific reference, 'Green River,' I got from a soda pop-syrup label... My flavor was called Green River." CCR was the first album I ever bought when I was 12 years old So many great songs some of my favorites are : Sweet Hitchhiker, Traveling band, Up around the bend, Hey tonight, and a mostly instrumental “Ramble Tamble”

[@condoguy710]

John said that Green River was a drink he had once had as a child, it was a sweet drink like a Mountain Dew that came in a mug with the name Green River on it and a scene of a river bank was painted on the mug. He had this drink as a little kid and never forgot it and wrote a song about this as a young man.

[@kf8346]

Green river is putah creek, in Davis/winters California where John spent a lot of his summers as a kid. Speaking of putah creek, we got more snow in the last two weeks than we got in 40 years. So putah might actually look like a river this spring like he remembers it from when he was younger. All I know is ccr grew up near here and I can’t wait for the snow to melt this year. Cuz putah might actually look like a river for the first time in a long time.

[@beverlydiaz226]

It's a hand car it takes 2 people to work it .cross tie walkers.are people who walk the tracks,hobos,etc

[@timothycook2917]

This song was written about Putah Creek, in Yolo, Napa and Lake Counties, California (Lake Berryessa), and no, it doesn't mean what you might think it means, it's a native american word, not Spanish. John and his family would spend summers there and he's writing about his childhood experiences there

[@rugby342]

"Flat Car Riders" to me it's the flat cargo rail cars you see in trains & "Cross Tie Walker" is when you walk across a train bridge over a river.........in this case the Green River.

[@marine5480]

Flat car is a flat open train car and cross ties are the large pieces of wood that are under the rails.

[@isomer13]

It's like that growing up in the South all over the place.

[@mmiller1113]

You had mentioned something in your run through the jungle reaction about being set in a backwoods party setting... you should check out UP AROUND THE BEND which talk exactly about that

[@melissa0987]

A cross tie is like a log but it is more square rather than round. It's a cautionary thing. If you see a cross-tie, it's usually to let you know you are approaching water or train tracks. Logan Martin lake in Pell City Alabama used to have cross-ties. I went there ever summer when I was a kid.

[@s714s714]

Green River is Putah Creek, down from the Monticello Dam (also known for it's glory hole spillway - google it), mostly in Solano county California. It is right down the road from me, been there many times.

[@JDogg73]

I used to catch a flatcar from the high school after track practice and ride across town to the street I lived on. ✌️

[@stevedotwood]

From Wikipedia: "The song was based on a childhood vacation spot of John Fogerty's.[4][5] In an interview Fogerty gave to Rolling Stone in 2012, Fogerty stated: What really happened is that I used a setting like New Orleans, but I would actually be talking about thing from my own life. Certainly a song like "Green River" - which you may think would fit seamlessly into the Bayou vibe, but it's actually about the Green River, as I named it - it was actually called Putah Creek by Winters, California. It wasn't called Green River, but in my mind I always sort of called it Green River. All those little anecdotes are part of my childhood, those are things that happened to me actually, I just wrote about them and the audience shifted at the time and place.[6]"

[@jenniferworley775]

Railroad cars and railroad tracks, are my thoughts on the flat cars and cross the walkers. Love ya Van. Thanks for another trip down my high school remberances.

[@love-vy1ry]

Time to listen too......Ramble Tamble

[@scotthugins7672]

I used to sneak into my big bros room so I could put this record on and listen to it. I was hooked!! I was 7 I think, LOL

[@markwilliams5606]

Ok! ! Your Ready! Time for the Jay Gillies Band! Southside shuffle Live! Put your Boogie shoes on! 🤠🐎✌️🇺🇸🏈

[@tomdanison234]

Pudah Creek, California. Fogarty played there as a kid.....

[@jamesmcmillan7845]

California!

[@bassanderson5610]

Don't worry that's called DELTA BLUE'S not Rock & Roll so you could 😂😂😂 HOG FAMILY 4 LIFE 🎯😎

[@ssacra22]

Flat Car is a open train car, and the cross-tie is the wooden beam the railroad tracks are laid on.

[@warrenrines3924]

Great reaction

[@cdfdesantis699]

Hey, Mr. Van! To answer some of your ?'s:. CCR was from El Cerritos, CA, but, as you can see, John Fogarty loved the bayou vibe; this song is about Putah Creek in Winter, CA, where Fogarty used to hang out when he was young; "flat car riders" are people riding railroad flatcars, & "cross tie walkers" are people walking train tracks; the shortest rock song ever written was "You Suffer", 1:316 mins. long, by Napalm Death, 1987; the longest, "Thick As A Brick", 43:50 mins long, by Jethro Tull, 1972, which took up both sides of its album. OK, other CCR songs you may want to react to:. "Lookin' Out My Back Door", "Down On The Corner" & "Travelin' Band". Thanks for lovin' my CCR!

[@bobkovacs2206]

There are a few Green Rivers in the US, and I don't know which one Fogerty was singing about. As you surmised, this may just be a film he made up in his head, populated with experiences he actually had. One of the longer Green Rivers in the US is in Kentucky, and it runs through the park at Mammoth Cave. I rode a tour boat on it years ago, and it resembled Fogerty's Green River.

[@RiseOfThePhoenix30]

The song that will always remind me of home..I may go back to green river soon as the world is well...you know

[@brandongallegos1206]

This song brings back childhood memories hunting and camping with my dad

[@lisaboccardo4293]

Check out John Fogerty when he sings with his son's they're really good usually goes to concerts with him and Shane solos and plays electric guitar is awesome check it out his sons have their own band just me again trying to help

[@johnaustin9051]

I grew up on a river. I grew up with the music of this entire era. I am fortunate. One sees and learns things "on the river". True annuff.....

[@williammcmanus2841]

Its every river brother!

[@stephandreyer2944]

CCR is from the bayou near San Francisco, California.😊