Mavis Staples can make any song sound like gospel music. This John Fogerty song was an under-appreciated deep track from CCR’s 1969 “Green River” LP until Mavis recorded it for her 2010 “You Are Not Alone” album. The only nod to anything religious is a line in the second verse, “If you see the answer, now’s the time to say/What I want, all I want is to get you down and pray.”
The slower original Creedence version sounds more like swamp rock, which is probably more in keeping with the song’s inspiration — an argument Fogerty had with his wife. That last verse, though, brings in Fogerty’s cynical political stance:
Saw the people standin’ thousand years in chains.
Somebody said it’s different now, look, it’s just the same.
Pharoah’s spin the message, ’round and ’round the truth.
They could have saved a million people, how can I tell you?
Fogerty also resurrected the tune for the title of his 2013 album of duets on his old songs. Many of the featured artists are country singers, as CCR sounds more like modern country than modern rock. He sang this one with Miranda Lambert, and got Tom Morello to contribute the guitar solo.
