Lockdown videos might give us a glimpse of the home lives of the musicians we love, but so often they don't reveal much: the camera tightly focused on the musician, perhaps some studio equipment, maybe a few books in the background. The glimpses we're given often reflect our own surroundings.
Nor so with John Fogerty. The Creedence Clearwater Revival legend has released a version of his old band's classic Green River, and he's raised the lockdown video bar to a whole new level.
He performs the song in what we assume is the back yard of his home in Ventura County, California. But to call it his 'back yard' is to undersell the magnificence of the surrounding. There's an incredible view. It's sunset. A fire pit. They're toasting marshmallows. A golden retriever join in.
And Fogerty plays Green River with his kids Shane, Tyler and Kelsey. All three regularly join Fogerty onstage (Shane and Tyler are in his touring band), but here it's just the four of them and the ultimate campfire singalong.
Fogerty also explains the origins of Green River. "Right up the street from the house I lived in El Cerrito was a pharmacy: a drugstore with a soda fountain," he says. "And one of the drinks they would make for you was a 'Green River'. I stared at the label on that bottle of syrup when I was about eight years old and I said, 'I'm going to save that. That's important.'
"And for some reason it stuck in my head, and eventually all this stuff became a song."
