Born on the Bayou

Song infobox
Name = Born on the Bayou


Artist = Creedence Clearwater Revival
Album = Bayou Country
Released = January 5, 1969
track_no = 1
Recorded = late 1968, RCA Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre = Rock
Length = 5:16
Label = Fantasy
Writer = John Fogerty
Producer = John Fogerty
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next = "Bootleg"
next_no = 2"Born on the Bayou" is the first track on Creedence Clearwater Revival's second album, "Bayou Country". It was released as the B-side of the single Proud Mary and reached #2 on the Billboard Charts.

As the author, John Fogerty, commented:

"Born on the Bayou" was vaguely like "Porterville," about a mythical childhood and a heat-filled time, the Fourth of July. I put it in the swamp where, of course, I had never lived. It was late as I was writing. I was trying to be a pure writer, no guitar in hand, visualizing and looking at the bare walls of my apartment. Tiny apartments have wonderful bare walls, especially when you can't afford to put anything on them. "Chasing down a hoodoo." Hoodoo is a magical, mystical, spiritual, non-defined apparition, like a ghost or a shadow, not necessarily evil, but certainly other-worldly. I was getting some of that imagery from Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters."

Born on the Bayou is an example of 'swamp rock', a genre associated with John Fogerty and Tony Joe White. The guitar setting for the intro is over-driven with amp vibrato on a slow setting; Fogerty uses a Gibson semi-acoustic with humbuckers (which was stolen from his car soon after recording this track). The E7 chord gives the song a strong Southern blues feel. To many, the vocal performance on this track represents a pinnacle in John Fogerty's singing, the performance as a whole is regarded as one of Creedence Clearwater Revival's finest hours. "Born on the Bayou" opened most of CCR's concerts, and was known as the band's signature song.

"Born on the Bayou" was covered by Francis Cabrel on his album "Des roses et des orties," as "Né dans le Bayou." It was also covered by the Foo Fighters, and the recording can be found on the Resolve CD Maxi released in 2006. The Blue Öyster Cult's famous rock song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" takes inspiration from "Born on the Bayou" in its guitar riffs and use of the cowbell. The song was featured in "The Return of Swamp Thing", John Woo's 1993 film "Hard Target" and Adam Sandler's 1998 film "The Waterboy".