Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (1970)

After pretending to be someone else on Willy and the Poor Boys, Creedence Clearwater Revival (sometimes called CCR, or just Creedence) followed up that classic 1969 album with an LP that showed the band as themselves once again - a San Francisco Bay Area band determined to prove themselves as artists worthy of comparison to the trendier bands across the bay from CCR's hometown of El Cerrito, California.  The result is an album that offers up the band's usual selection of sparsely arranged originals and covers but also features daring, moodier and, yes, longer cuts to answer the Grateful Dead's long modal jams (this, ironically, at a time when the Dead were putting out LPs respecting traditional song structure).

Cosmo's Factory - the title refers to CCR drummer Doug "Cosmo" Clifford's description of the band's rehearsal space as a factory - retains the tight sound of earlier Creedence records, but leader John Fogerty explores various forms of pop beyond the band's roots-rock origins.  "Ramble Tamble," the opening cut, begins with Creedence's typical rockabilly sound but then evolves into a slow, burning jam that builds in intensity; by the time CCR are ready to make their way back to the melody and tempo they started out with, they're almost at the edge but pull back before going over.  Even more menacing on Cosmo's Factory is "Run Through The Jungle," a Vietnam War parable with apocalyptic lyrics as well as sound effects created with backward instruments, putting the listener in the middle of the war-torn tropical wilderness.  But Fogerty is too adventurous to limit himself to progressive experiments, as he balances experimentation with traditionalism; "Travelin' Band," a manic song about life on the road, recalls the excitement of Little Richard and Chuck Berry, while "Up Around the Bend" explodes with a bold, heavy guitar sound that makes heavy metal seem like child's play by comparison.

For all of the attempts at stretching out, Cosmo's Factory still has a worthy number of songs that stick to a purely traditional sound, from the good-time vibe of covers such as Roy Orbison's "Ooby Dooby" and Arthur Crudup's "My Baby Left Me" to their original Buck Owens pastiche "Lookin' Out My Back Door" (with some really warm hokiness in the scratchy guitar riffs and the absurdist lyrics), and Fogerty's commanding take on Bo Diddley's "Before You Accuse Me" is so durable that not even Eric Clapton could better it.  And CCR's own "Who'll Stop The Rain," a pensive folk-rocker that looks again at Vietnam, is a protest song clearly rooted in the traditions of Woody Guthrie. The overall sound of Cosmo's Factory is carried flawlessly by the guitar work of Fogerty and his brother Tom, anchored by as always by Stu Cook's well-paced bass and Clifford's wrecking-ball drums.

This sound comes together perfectly on the least likely piece of music - an eleven-minute version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," which challenged the Grateful Dead's mastery of extended jams and probably pushed the Dead to try harder.  Because for all of his efforts to expand his music here, John Fogerty kept his feet on the ground, adhering to rock's blues and country roots rather than straying too far from his own working-class origins.  And despite the ugly reality Fogerty dealt with (and still deals with) in his music - his own songs here have images of war and sorrow at every turn, while his cover arrangements bite just as hard - he still sees music as a healing balm.  "Long As I Can See the Light," the closing R&B-flavored song that sees hope beyond the horizon, makes the case for the honesty of  Creedence's music in spades.