Interview by Paul Salfen
Creedence Clearwater Revival, the iconic band whose music is practically synonymous with every movie EVER about the Vietnam War (Forrest Gump, Born on the Fourth of July, Tropic Thunder, Apocalypse Now, Good Morning Vietnam and many more), broke up at the height of their fame in 1972.
CCR’s Drummer, Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Doug Clifford, is releasing some tracks recorded in 1986 with the late Steve Wright from the Greg Kihn Band. The album “For All The Money In The World” features tracks with Joe Satriani and outstanding live and session players.
In this interview, Clifford, now limited from touring due to Parkinson’s disease, talks about his early influences, iconic drummers that influenced him, early days with his bandmates John Fogerty, Tom Fogerty and Stu Cook, his record label, and some more music he would like to release featuring recordings with the likes of Bobby Whitlock (Derek and The Dominos) and Doug Sahm and The Sir Douglas Quintet.
From the Press Release: In mid-1968 a band of four dedicated musicians from El Cerrito, California skyrocketed to fame with their debut single “Suzie Q.” It took 10 years of gigging to get there, but by the time “Suzie Q” peaked at #11 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) was an unstoppable force in rock’n’roll. Over the next 2 years they released 11 million-selling hit singles and 5 studio albums, they toured the world as headliners, including an appearance at Woodstock in 1969, and were ultimately inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993.
In the decades that followed CCR’s 2 year reign as the #1 band in the world, Creedence drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford focused his creative energy on producing album projects. His concept was to assemble a top shelf mix of players, write an album’s worth of original songs, then record, mix and master each album. When a project was completed, the masters were archived and safely stored in Cosmo’s Vault until the time was right to release them. Fast forward to 2021 and Cosmo has retrieved those masters and will be releasing them one album at a time on his own label, Cliffsong Records. The first release will be For All The Money In The World by Clifford / Wright.
As was the case with Creedence, the core members of Clifford / Wright are from El Cerrito, California, each having earned Gold records over the years for playing on million-selling hits. Cosmo’s original idea was to build the band around a solid rhythm section, and his first choice for a bass player was his old pal Steve Wright from the Greg Kihn Band. Cosmo and Steve not only had great chemistry as a rhythm section, they also clicked as a songwriting team, crafting well over a dozen original songs for the album.
Completing the Clifford / Wright lineup were featured guitarists Greg Douglass (Steve Miller Band), Jimmy Lyon (Eddie Money) and Joe Satriani, plus keyboard players Tim Gorman (The Who) and Pat Mosca (Greg Kihn Band). After holding auditions for a lead vocalist, Keith England was selected as a perfect fit for the Clifford / Wright songs. With the band in place, recording sessions were booked in various studios in the San Francisco Bay area. The final result is the 11-song album For All The Money In The World by Clifford / Wright, direct from Cosmo’s Vault.
