The three guitarists who inspired John Fogerty’s sound: “These fellows in England”
Revolution was in the air back in the 1960s, but along with the various political uprisings, protests and cultural agitators, the world of guitar music experienced a particularly revolutionary period, spurred on by a select few guitar heroes beamed down by the rock and roll gods inspired the next generation of performers, including the likes of John Fogerty.
Although he never particularly subscribed to the acid-fueled manifesto of the hippie age, Fogerty was nevertheless at the forefront of the hippie counterculture back in the 1960s, with Creedence Clearwater Revival paving the way for swamp rock rebellion and anti-war politics.
Perfectly balancing a rock and roll sensibility with a tangible message of hope and resistance, Fogerty’s songwriting encapsulated the spirit of the era beautifully, but the distinctive sound of CCR might never have been discovered were it not for the performer’s own guitar heroes.
In just over a decade, the rock world had gone from the clean tones and blues riffs of Chuck Berry to the extraterrestrial psychedelia of Jimi Hendrix. Colossal changes had occurred in a pretty short span of time, and John Fogerty was keen to embrace this mind-expanding modernity, and his weapon of choice was a trusty Rickenbacker 325, the kind popularised by John Lennon.
Fogerty knew, however, that the musical landscape was changing and the Ed Sullivan-esque tones of Lennon wouldn’t stand up in the midst of the hippie age. So, as he once recalled on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he ended up modifying the Rickenbacker heavily. “I made a bunch of changes to it, because I found some things lacking with the standard model,” the songwriter explained.
Adding, “The most important thing is that I put a Gibson humbucker off of a Les Paul [on the bridge].”
Thus, Fogerty’s famous ‘Acme’ Rickenbacker was born, and it became a trusty companion for the performer throughout his most prolific period, including Creedence Clearwater Revival’s stand-out set at Woodstock back in 1969.
According to the performer, though, those essential modifications owed themselves to the pioneering sound of three guitarists from across the Atlantic. “I’d heard about these fellas in England,” Fogerty recalled. “There was quite a mystique. They were Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton.”
Reportedly, it was these three former Yardbirds axemen who spurred Fogerty on to experiment with modifications on his Rickenbacker, in an attempt to evoke the same awe-inspiring sound of Led Zeppelin, Cream, or The Jeff Beck Group, who were each responsible for colossal strides forward into this new age of rock and roll rebellion.
In the end, Creedence Clearwater Revival didn’t share all that much in common with the sounds of any of those aforementioned outfits, at least not overtly. What they did share, however, was a willingness to experiment with the kinds of sounds that could be achieved on a humble six-string, in doing so laying the foundations for multiple future generations of innovative guitarists who – like CCR – have managed to capture the zeitgeist of their own time through a litany of iconic rock riffs.
