This is actually a song I didn't initially include on my list but I switched it out for something dumb that I'd initially put in to mix things up a little (it was by the Bouncing Souls and it's a great song, but probably not top 100). So it's a cheat, but it belongs here.
For a long time, I liked Creedence like I like Whitney Houston, from here on forever my touchstone for having a general love of a band without being able to pick a single song. But my mom pointed out how odd the lyrics are and I started thinking about it harder. The chorus is infectious as well, but that's kind of par for the course with Creedence.
Even my mom said this was about drugs. My parents are in that meaty part of the curve, old boomers who graduated college in 1969 or so. But they didn't dick around the states after that so it's hard to say if they would have tried the common drugs of the era when they came of age. I got the impression my mom tried pot, but my dad has remained silent on the matter. In any case my mom wasn't particularly cool or uncool when it came to this stuff among parents. But she was sure.
TYPICAL BOOMER ARROGANCE. As it turns out this is a song for Fogerty's then three-year-old son. I like that way better.
How great is it that they're from San Francisco and not somewhere in Louisiana? I love that about CCR, fake twang and everything. I wish I could go back in time and pretend like Electric Grandmother is from somewhere else.
I think like a lot of people I associate this song not just with my own experience listening to it as a fan of CCR but heavily with the Big Lebowski. The music in the film is always perfectly placed, but this one stands out, when the Dude is looking at Larry Sellers' homework and the cuts to each of his teacher's angry critiques on Larry's analysis of the Louisiana Purchase timed perfectly with the guitar in the bridge. So good.
Almost unrelated, I have a very clear memory sitting with Pete in the Lennox Shopping Center Champs near the Ohio State campus. We were there for dinner and it was in the thick of Hurricane Katrina. I heard "Bad Moon Rising" playing and it occurred to me that the song "predicted" Hurricane Katrina. I mean, I knew it didn't, but it seemed uncanny. I also think of Andre Rison because of his nickname and subsequently Left Eye and get a little sad. I guess "Bad Moon Rising" could maybe have made this list too, but it's not as good as "Looking Out My Back Door," no sir.