Creedence Clearwater Revival Album: “Live in Europe”

Released a year after the disbanding of CCR, this "album" is hardly worth anything other than a historical record of the band's only "live" recordings as a trio. (Tom Fogerty had bailed in early 1971 for a solo "career.")

A blatant attempt to cash in on their now-defunct cash cow, Fantasy kept on repacking the hits in various forms - including this live album from the 1971 European tour. Rumors say that this is actually a rehearsal tape with audience applause dubbed in - and if you listen closely with headphones, it does seem that way. You can almost see the hand on the fader turning up the volume of the "audience" at the end of Bad Moon Rising - and other songs have equally egregious mixing. Not since 1966's "Got Live If You Want It" by The Rolling Stones has there been such a phony live album.

Originally released as a 2-LP set (with Keep On Chooglin' as an entire side!!?!), the CD re-release had lopped off Sweet Hitchhiker (the band's last top-ten hit) and its flip, Door To Door (no great loss, as the in-concert version is no better or worse than its studio counterpart), these two tunes have been restored as part of the six-CD box CCR set.

The music? Without the competent rhythm guitar of departed brother Tom, the sound is obviously thinner than previous tours (listen to "The Concert" for proof) and the song selection had to be geared towards a trio (meaning no Down On The Corner or Lookin' Out My Back Door).

Bottom line - totally unnecessary, unless you're a CCR fanatic. Otherwise, stick with the first six studio albums.

I'm a bit reluctant to give this album all of four stars, beacuse it's really not a very good live album, but I'm going to do it anyway because of the strenght of the material recorded here. "CCR Live in Europe" contains live renditions of 12 great Fogerty compositions such as "Proud Mary", "Lodi", "Travelin' Band" and "Up Around The Bend", but the sound is pretty bad, and the departure of rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty dosn't make things any better. Unless you're a true CCR afficionado (in which case this album is quite interesting), you'll be better of with the other CCR live album, "The Concert", which has a much better sound. Or you could get both of them!

this is a great testament of the energy that CCR had on stage until the very end. Unfortunately, the concert starts out with a rather routine performance of Born on the Bayou, which may dampen listener enthusiasm initially. After that the band starts to really roll, starting with Green River/Suzie Q, peaking with Traveling Band and Fortunate Son, and very enjoyable versions of Lodi, Bad Moon Rising and Proud Mary. I really appreciate that the three players seem to be enjoying the performance. The sound is slightly muddled, which gives the disk a "garage-band sound"...it sounds a little bit like you are listening from just off-stage at the show.

Others have commented that this may include crowd sounds edited in. I don't know about that, but the crowd certaining seems realistic and the performance is no doubt from the tour.

Definately worth 5-10 bucks for the great songs and energetic showmanship.

This was the first of a couple of live releases for CCR and it was an unfortunate release. Recorded after back up guitarist Tom Fogarty left the band we're treated to just a quick run-down of hits. With the exception of the final number "Keep on Chooglin'" these songs say nothing new. If I remeber right no song broke 4 minutes except "Chooglin'", which ran about 14 minutes. However, it was a dumb song to begin with so isn't worth the time to listen.

I would suggest you pass on this unless you're looking to round out your collection. Instead, just buy one of the many greatest hits collections out there. The sound will be of better quality and the music will be the same anyway.

This is an interesting album in that it showcases how important Tom Fogerty was to the CCR sound. John does an admirable job of trying to hold down the guitar parts single-handedly on this recording, but the real feel isn't there. An interesting item for serious Creedence fans (I've got one), but not the best representation of the band.