ABSTRACT
In the early fall 1971, Creedence Clearwater Revival struck out for Europe as a threesome. As the plane flew into Germany, John Fogerty slipped a Merle Haggard cassette into his portable player. Out cried “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive.” A little while later the plane touched down in Hamburg and a television crew greeted the band. Fogerty did a quick dance step and sang a chorus of the Jimmie Rodgers’s classic, “California Blues (Blue Yodel #4)”: “Well, I’m going to California where they sleep out every night.” The band checked into their hotel, played a sports palace that night before 11,500 fans, and then played another set in a hotel room as their alter ego, the Shit Kicker Three. “We’d rent a block of suites and put the party room in the middle. We did all acoustic stuff. I had a little practice kit,” recalls drummer Doug Clifford. “I played rhythm guitar,” remembers bassist Stu Cook. “We didn’t use a bass. It’d be too loud. John had a one-neck pedal steel guitar; he was teaching himself how to play. We’d play country music: Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Jimmie Rodgers…some Rick Nelson. That’s where ‘Hello Mary Lou’ [on Mardi Gras] came from.” The Shit Kicker Three started on the tour’s first date in Manchester, England. “The Shit Kicker Three from room 73,” laughs Cook. 1
