Creedence Clearwater Revival - Mardi Gras

This, the final outing for the band, came after a comparatively long dormant period for them. They had been putting out 2 or 3 albums a years but after Pendulum, it took over a year for this to be released. Bassist Stu and drummer Doug were unhappy with John's leadership role and demanded a chance to add their own songwriting to the mix, despite John's reservations. The result is varied and not totally successful, which is not surprising as John had been the sole arbitrator of the CCR sound up until this time. It is interesting to note that Wikipedia's description of this record and this time in the band's career differs wildly from John's in his book.

In any case, the record opens with a somewhat nondescript C&W outing from John (complete with pedal steel guitar), "Looking For a Reason" followed by Stu's first foray, "Take It Like a Friend", which is truly dispensable - not terrible (although his vocals do leave something to be desired), but obviously not up to the usual CCR standards. Stu and Doug join forces for "Need Someone to Hold", which does sound a bit more like something John would have written and is more substantial and Doug's lead vocals are a big improvement over Stu's - the harmonies are nice, as well. Doug gives us a pretty straight-forward, Johnny Cash-like country number in "Tearin' Up the Country" before John's "wistful swan song", the lovely "Someday Never Comes".

"What Are You Gonna Do" is another offering from Doug, a melodic, blues-pop tune with some good guitar work (I'm assuming from John, but apparently Stu played some lead on this record, as well), but not a lot else. Stu's voice is so weak and strained that it is distracting, so "Sail Away" fails, and then John is back for a pretty straightforward take on "Hello Mary Lou" in which he succeeds with some classic James Burton finger-pickin' leads. Stu's derivitive "Door to Door" isn't bad and suits his voice better, but might have worked with a stronger singer, but they pull out all of the stops for the closer, one of John's most potent blues rockers, "Sweet Hitchhiker" - a fantastic finale for the record and the band.

It's sad that personal issues caused this classic band to devolve, but it happens all too often. Unfortunately, other than the powerful, double sided single, there is not a lot on this record to recommend.