#125d - CONTRA VII, Part Four: Dead On Revival (Patreon)

In Part 4 of CONTRA VII, Dimitri and Khalid begin exploring the musical origins and Shakespearean career arc of the East San Francisco Bay’s most legendary quirked up white boys (and eventual Castle Bank victims) Creedence Clearwater Revival, including: the murky and arguably Islamic roots of blues music in the Mississippi Delta, growing up in the sleepy post-war SF suburb of El Cerrito, Tom and John Fogerty getting blues-pilled by the local black radio stations in Oakland, John getting constantly hit on by Christian Brothers at Catholic school, joining forces with schoolmates Stu Cook and Doug Clifford, becoming Tommy Fogerty and the Blue Velvets, signing with the offbeat dirtbag cawmedy jazz label Fantasy Records in 1963, being forcibly named “The Golliwogs” to ride the Bri’ish Invasion wave, John’s unfortunate stint in the US Army Reserves from 1966-68, rebooting as Creedence Clearwater Revival during San Francisco’s Summer of Love, John’s deep hatred of the MK Silk Topper Grateful Dead scene, his even deeper hatred of LSD, Timothy Leary, and stoner culture, his insistence that they always play sober despite CCR’s tactical appeal to the psychedelic crowd on “Suzie Q” and “I Put a Spell on You”, John’s assumption of full Stalinist leadership over the band, his growing anxiety that there’s “somethin’ missing” in Doug’s shuffle beat, and the construction of Fogerty’s mythical bayou from the violent fever dream swamp of the Vietnam War, the political assassinations of 1968, San Francisco MK culture, and President Richard Nixon.