CARLTON FLETCHER: The self-inflected mortal wounds of the ‘other guys’ in CCR

If you could see you through my eyes instead of your ego, I believe you’d be surprised to see that you’ve been blind.

— Joe South

When you think of the rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival — lovingly referred to by fans as CCR — you think of classic hit songs like “Proud Mary,” “Looking Out My Back Door,” “Long as I Can See the Light,” “Bad Moon Rising,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Ramble Tamble” … and so many more.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers were, during the late ’60s and early ’70s, one of the quintessential rock bands of their era. But what many fans don’t know — or they struggle to try to forget — is that internal strife that eventually led to the band’s breakup led to one of the worst rock albums ever recorded, 1972’s “Mardi Gras.”

Now Creedence albums from “Bayou Country” to “Green River” to “Willy & the Poor Boys” to the magnum opus “Cosmo’s Factory” are the kinds of releases CCR are most remembered for. As well they should be. Each was certified multiple platinum and included the many wonderful songs that made the band one of the most popular of the era.

But jealousy in the band proved to be its undoing. John Fogerty, the voice and lead guitar wiz behind Creedence’s hits, was unquestionably the star of CCR. His brother, Tom, who played rhythm guitar, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford were capable musicians who backed John Fogerty ably. But Creedence without a heaping helping of John Fogerty … well, music fans got to experience that. And it wasn’t pretty.

It started when the other band members started complaining that John Fogerty was getting all the publicity as well as the credit for CCR’s success. (It should be noted here that, professional jealousy aside, it would take an awfully tone-deaf, delusional person not to see that. John Fogerty, for all intents and purposes, was Creedence.)

Finally — and ironically — it was Fogerty’s sibling, Tom, who complained loudest about his brother receiving the lion’s share of the credit for the band’s success. It got so bad that, eventually, Tom Fogerty walked out, one would assume with the idea that Creedence could not survive without him.

Still, when Cook and Clifford continued to pressure John Fogerty for higher-profile roles with Creedence, he — for reasons known only to him — gave in and consented. The results? “Mardi Gras.”

Now saying this album was bad is an understatement. It is, in a word, some of the worst music ever released by a talented musical group. (One Rolling Stone reviewer called it the worst rock album ever made.)

“Mardi Gras” does contain the Fogerty-sung hits “Someday Never Comes” and “Sweet Hitch-Hiker,” which led millions of Creedence fans (like me) to go out and purchase the album soon after its release. But what wasn’t widely known at the time of “Mardi Gras’” release was that that those two songs, and far too little of his signature guitar prowess, were pretty much all Fogerty contributed to the LP.

Songs like “Door to Door,” “Take It Like a Friend,” “Sail Away” and other forgetful numbers featured the vocal mastery of the other guys in Creedence. And saying they sounded like a below-average garage band playing in some no-name honky-tonk is a disservice to below-average garage band’s playing in on-name honky-tonks everywhere.

The album flopped, although the Fogerty songs included were enough to secure a million in sales. Most of those million (ahem, yes, me again) probably have played “Mardi Gras” only a time or two before moving it out of their Creedence section in the “C’s” and putting it in a more apt place, like maybe in the “N’s” for “Not Really Creedence.”

CCR eventually broke up, and John Fogerty continued to release songs that cracked the Top 40 — although, in one of the most bizarre twists in music history, he was sued by his former record company because his post-Creedence music — get this — “sounded too much like Creedence.”

John Fogerty remains today a rock and roll legend, and because of John Fogerty, Creedence is one of the most popular American bands of all time. But those other three guys in CCR? They’re remembered mostly for perpetrating one of the dumbest moves in rock and roll history.