John Fogerty-Centerfield (1985)

Artist: John Fogerty

Title: Centerfield

Label: Warner Bros.

Format: LP

Cat: 1-25203

Year of Release: 1985

Country and Year of Edition: US 1985 Allied Pressing Zanz edition

Sell Price: $4.81 VG+/VG

Discogs Last Sold: 6/1/24 NM/VG+ $6.00 1985, lyric sheet

Low: $1.69

Median: $6.00

Average: $7.98

High: $22.34

Current low price: $3.00

Current Number on Sale at Discogs:90

Have/Want: 5173/222

Where Sold: Pflugervilee, TX

Time it took to sell:  9 years

Where and When Purchased: new Al Bums Worcester $7.49 Jan '85

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B

Sad To See It Go: No

When Centerfield came out it seemed extremely important.  I was big on Creedence and had his two prior solo albums (Blue Ridge Rangers I found used and miraculously I found the first out of print album from '76 in a Caldors cutout bin unexpectedly in the early '80's.  Caldors also had the brand new Led Zeppelin Coda that just came out and I bought them both for around ten bucks combined.  Fogerty hadn't put anything out in nearly a decade.

Listening to this album, it sounds a little better than I thought back then.  There is something about those Creedence records that sound a little more raw, although Centerfield has a little bit better overall sound than most 80's classic Rock hitmakers.  It sound reminiscent of CCR, but lacking a little bit of the balls.  Then you get the annoying handclap title track.  I saw him do this song sans handclaps about 10 years later for the first time at Hammerstein Ballroom, which was his first NYC performance and his first time playing CCR in God knows how long after being stuck to his solo records and covers while being in perpetual lawsuit.  Maybe the one I remember is from seeing him at the Beacon 5 years after that (minus Jerry of course).  He seemed sped up and steamrolling over the chorus and handclaps.  Or maybe that was just MY Fantasy.

Litigation spills out into this album on side closing tracks like "Mr. Greed" and on this edition "Zantz Can't Dance" (but he'll steal your money).   Since Saul Zaentz was chairman of CCR label Fantasy records, he threatened further legal action so the record was pulled, repressed and replaced with "Vanz Kant Danz" and hot on the heels of this hitting number one put out a third video.  This "pig" had a pretty good second career producing films like "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest," "Amadeus," "The English Patient" and even the animated Lord Of The Rings before he sold those rights.

In hindsight, nobody that loves rock 'n roll really cares that much about this record (witness this "rarity" going for 5 bucks) compared to Creedence and you are more likely to hear the #44 charting title track with handclaps on a sports stadium PA than the #10 smash "The Old Man Down The Road" or the #20 "Rock n Roll Girls."  The song I forgot about was "I Saw It On TV" which had a scent of "Who'll Stop The Rain."  Every once in a while he can still nail it..-I'm thinking of the title track of "Deja Vu All Over Again."

Despite half the second side being singles, it is a little less rocking and makes the album lose a little steam.  "Searchlight" opens side two with horns atop then "Centerfield" comes after that.  "I Can't Help Myself" sounds driving Letterman-Rock style, that one is pretty good.  Then Zantz kicks in.

Where there's a will, there is a whip.