The Long Road Home

Background

In 2005, Fantasy Records offered John Fogerty with a record deal, which included the release of The Long Road Home. Fogerty had started his recording career on the label, but his quarrels with former label executive Saul Zaentz during the 1970s led to lawsuits and Fogerty's refusal to perform any of his material from Creedence Clearwater Revival. Fogerty explained how he felt about the album's release on Fantasy in an interview for Entertainment Weekly: "It felt surreal at first, but I've been working alongside the new Fantasy people since the company was sold. Now that all the old bad people are gone, I have no lingering bitterness or anger."

The Long Road Home is a 25-song compilation of most of Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival's best-known songs, some of which are live versions. It was the first album to compile both his and the band's hits.

Critical reception

In his review for Allmusic, music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine found the album "enormously entertaining" and said that it adequately summarizes Fogerty's work and serves as proof that he is one of the rock and roll era's greatest songwriters. Robert Christgau, writing in Blender magazine, called it "one of the rare career overviews" that justifies itself by playing as one sequence of "timeless sure-shots." In his review for The Village Voice, Christgau remarked that because of his unchanging musical form and replicable "Creedence sound", the album consistently shows Fogerty as "the original roots-rocker" who displays aspects of his modest personality.

In a less enthusiastic review, Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian criticized the album for emphasizing Fogerty's ordinary boogie songs and omitting the more superior songs that are featured on several other Creedence Clearwater Revival compilations.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by John Fogerty.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Allmusic.

Additional personnel