John Fogerty has posted a video feature in which he shares the story behind what inspired him to write one of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s most enduring and popular tunes, “Bad Moon Rising.” The song, which was released as a single in April 1969, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late June of that year.
The tune features Fogerty singing ominously about a rising moon that portends the coming of destructive storms and earthquakes.
In the video, which was posted on Fogerty’s YouTube channel and social media sites, he explained that after the success of the CCR singles “Proud Mary” and “Born on the Bayou,” which appeared on the band’s second album, Bayou Country, he decided that he needed to write some new tunes, since he felt that no other tracks on the album were worthy to be released as singles.
Fogerty then noted that he’d written the phrase “Bad Moon Rising” in a songbook where he collected ideas for tunes.
[RELATED: John Fogerty Recalls the “Euphoric” Feeling He Got from Writing “Proud Mary” and Other Classic CCR Songs]
“I had been toying with the idea of ‘Bad Moon Rising’ for a while,” he explained. “Thinking about the theme of ‘Bad Moon Rising,’ it was inspired really by the way kids talked in those days, in kind of an astrological sense. People would come up to each other and say, ‘Well, what’s your sign?’ And the answer might be something like, ‘Well, I’m a Sagittarius with Mercury rising,’ whatever that means. It was very popular at the time.”
What Inspired the Lyrics to “Bad Moon Rising”
The 79-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer then shared that the song’s lyrics were inspired the 1941 supernatural-themed film The Devil and Daniel Webster. He noted that he recalled seeing the black-and-white movie as a child on late-night television.
“[I]t’s a classic tale of a guy who’s down on his luck, so he sells his soul to the devil in return for much good fortune here in his earthly life,” Fogerty pointed out. “He does the deal with the devil, and then a terrible storm comes to the community, and all night long the man is cowering in his barn while he hears this raging storm outside. In the morning, he opens his barn door and he sees that all his neighbor’s crops have been destroyed, smashed to the ground, [but his] are untouched.”
About the Recording of “Bad Moon Rising”
Fogerty also noted that he wrote “Bad Moon Rising” on a guitar tuned to the key D. He pointed out that he’d learned the tuning years earlier by listening to folk legend Pete Seeger, who in turn had learned it from folk-blues great Lead Belly. John explained that although he’d already written many songs using the tuning, “Bad Moon Rising” was a little different because he was forced to come up with a new guitar and amp setup just before recording the track.
Fogerty said that his favorite guitar and amp had been stolen from his car while he was having a meeting in San Francsico at the headquarters of CCR’s label, Fantasy Records. John went to a music store in nearby Albany, California, and asked what guitars and amps they had available. He wound up playing a Gibson Les Paul, tuned to D, through a Fender amp, and immediately loved the sound.
“[I]t was magical. Epical, really,” Fogerty maintained. “[It] made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. My eyes got real big. I looked at the man [at the music store] and I said, ‘I’ll take it!’”
He continued, “Anyway, that little event in a music store in Albany set me off on a lifelong love of Les Paul guitars. So the first record I made using this new guitar and this new tuning was ‘Bad Moon Rising.’”
More About “Bad Moon Rising”
After its release as a single, “Bad Moon Rising” was included on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s chart-topping third album, Green River. The song also spent three weeks at No. 1 on the U.K. singles in September-October 1969.
In 2016, the song was certified double platinum by the RIAA for equivalent sales of two million copies.
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