The first two albums show that Creedence could jam and get loose with any of the ballroom acid rockers, but with a much tougher sound honed during its years playing swamp blues, country, and rockabilly as an East Bay bar band. 

 The first two albums show that Creedence could jam and get loose with any of the ballroom acid rockers, but with a much tougher sound honed during its years playing swamp blues, country, and rockabilly as an East Bay bar band. 

 Creedence truly arrived with Green River, from the pastoral beauty of "Green River" to the sexy nightmare of "Sinister Purpose." John Fogerty sings about a river, pure and unpolluted, with the power to "let me remember things I don't know." 

 Willy and the Poor Boys is Fogerty's songwriting peak, with the sharp working-class anger of "Fortunate Son," "Don't Look Now," and "It Came Out of the Sky" (one of rock's first attacks on "Ronnie the Popular").  

 Pendulum is spottier but peaks high with a couple of pensive farewells to the Sixties, "It's Just a Thought" and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" At this point, Creedence had just released four all-time classic albums in 16 months. 

 Cosmo's Factory shows off in two fantastic jams, the seven-minute "Ramble Tamble" and the 11-minute "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Fogerty waxes world-weary in "Lookin' Out My Back Door" and "Long as I Can See the Light." 

 The band was falling apart by Mardi Gras: Rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, John's older brother, had quit, while Clifford and Cook started taking equal shares of the songwriting, although they were hardly up to the task. 

 The 20-song Chronicle is a superb place to start, the greatest hits of a band populist enough to put its greatness into its hits.  

 The less essential second volume of CCR's best-known songs. 

 The first two albums show that Creedence could jam and get loose with any of the ballroom acid rockers, but with a much tougher sound honed during its years playing swamp blues, country, and rockabilly as an East Bay bar band.