John Fogerty - Hoodoo (1976)

Following the release of his eponymous debut solo album in 1975, Fogerty was eager to start recording the next one, so he gathered together some of his favourite musicians and set to work. A taster single was released, in the form of 'You Got The Magic'/'Evil Thing', and a tour was being mooted to promote the record. Unfortunately the single failed to sell, but even so, when Fogerty offered the album to Asylum Records, plans were put in place for its release. It was given a catalogue number, and cover art was commissioned, but on the eve of shipping it out the whole thing was cancelled. It's been said that this was a joint decision by Joe Smith of the record label and Fogerty himself, as both agreed that the songs were not up to his usual high standard, and even though the decision to cancel was partly Fogerty's, it hit him hard, and he was disappointed that the record didn't come out. He's since confirmed that he didn't think the material was his best, and that he instructed Asylum to destroy the master tapes, but a bootleg did leak out, showing that even sub-standard Fogerty is better than most people, and that this is well worth hearing. One of the issues that the record company might have had is that it was a very short album, with just nine songs running to some 30 minutes, so I've fleshed out this post with a couple of rare singles from 1973. There isn't really a good quality scan of the proposed cover, and I liked the original bootleg sleeve, so i'm using that instead.

Track listing

01 You Got The Magic
02 Between The Lines
03 Leave My Woman Alone
04 Marchin' To Blarney
05 Hoodoo Man
06 Telephone
07 Evil Thing
08 Henrietta
09 On The Run
10 You Don't Owe Me
11 Back In The Hills
12 Comin' Down The Road
13 Richocet