Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1686 in Digital Music Album
• Published on: 2006-02-21
• Released on: 2006-02-21
• Running time: 4601 seconds

Customer Reviews

Fogerty Through The Years
The Long Road Home is subtitled the ultimate John Fogerty Creedence Collection. While it is tough to make an appellation like that because someone's favorite tracks are always left out, this twenty-five song collection comes pretty darn close. Spanning Mr. Fogerty's almost forty year career the collection include his beloved CCR hits like "Proud Mary", "Born On The Bayou", "Green River", "Who'll Stop The Rain", "Down On The Corner" and two versions of "Fortunate Son" to his solo works like "Centerfield", "Old Man Down The Road", live versions of "Rockin' All Over The World" and "Almost Saturday Night" to the title track from last year's Deja Vu (All Over Again). The only complaint is that the collection relies heavily on his CCR work and that two of his solo albums, the overlooked Eye Of The Zombie and Blue Ridge Rangers are not represented at all and the two tracks from his self-titled 1975 album are recent live version not the original versions from the out of print album. Those are minor complaints about a truly first rate release that shows the greatness of one the best songwriters in rock history and a major influence on countless artists.

Great single disc collection of CCR/Fogerty classics
Although it's missing a few important tracks, "The Long Road Home" is a great single disc collection of JF's solo hits and CCR classics. Fogerty returned to work with Fantasy after the original owner Saul Zaentz (Fogerty felt that Zaentz cheated the band out of the royalities they deserved and was generally less than honest with them)sold the company. Interestingly, the live tracks concentrate on his CCR material for the most part ("Almost Saturday Night" was originally recorded for Fogerty's second solo album "John Fogerty" aka "Old Shep").

Regardless, there's a consistency to Fogerty's songwriting throughout his career and a return to the same themes much as Springsteen or Lennon returned to similar themes throughout their career. Sonically these have never sounded better on CD. I am disappointed that some of the singles that Fogerty recorded for Fantasy in an effort to fulfill his contract and tracks from the MIA third Fogerty solo album aren't included here as well (the third solo album original mastertapes were destroyed at Fogerty's direction but some solid sounding bootlegs have been floating around for years). That would make this a definite must buy for fans who have most of his material. Heck, even if they were offered in a limited edition two CD set fans would eat this up.

Nevertheless, if you're looking for a one-stop shop grab bag of great CCR titles, Fogerty solo songs and live tracks this is the CD to purchase. The tracks aren't arranged chronologically--which actually works pretty well and makes some of the more familiar material sound fresh again.

Like The Beatles' "1" this is far from comprehensive but has some of Fogerty's most important songs from throughout his career. You can argue about which tracks are missing (I've always loved "It Came Out of the Sky" with its biting satiric story of a farmer who makes a bundle off a crashed UFO but it wasn't a hit so probably doesn't qualify for inclusion) but it's hard to argue with the quality of the man's songwriting. Highly recommended.

INFINITELY BETTER THAN THE SUM OF THE HISTORY!
Fogerty is an icon who made records the old fashioned way: he earned the respect for the direct, no frills homage to rootsy rock and roll. In fact, he might rightly be credited with having inspired the roots renaissance.
This collection is so much more than just a culling of hits that those of us from a certain age, with thinning hair and expanding waistlines, mightremember. These songs still reverberate with an urgency and a directness that grunge, punk, and whatever else only vaguely understood. In the course of 3 minutes, Fogerty could capture everything from baseball's field of dreams to the political hypocrisy that sons of the wealthy still exploit. Anyone smell a US president here? Anyway, for someone from Bakersfield, California, Fogerty's heart, and certainly his soul, dwelled poetically and rhythmically in the Delta. Voodoo, Northern Mississippi blues and the earnestness of folks who called them as they saw them ring out in his lyrics. The music was always immediately recognizable, and instantlt infectious. Fogerty was brilliant all through his career.
There are some terrific live performances here that justify the CD all by themselves, and actually leave you wanting more. When is the last time you could say that about a Greatest Hits type of package? For my money, I'd have loved to see more from PENDULUM, but to Fogerty's credit, he has in fact picked the very best of what he stood for. Hopefully sales of this disc will encourage him to record again. He is an American classic, and this is an extraordinary resume.