Lodi

Background

"Lodi" is the B-side of "Bad Moon Rising", the second single Creedence Clearwater Revival released in 1969. It also appears on the  Green River album. The song peaked #52 in the USA.

"Lodi" is another song title that John Fogerty had carried around since his childhood. The song is a tragic telling. An older guy, probably a country musician, is stuck in a place where people really don’t appreciate him. 

John Fogerty wrote "Lodi" when "Proud Mary" was high on the charts, ie. January or February 1969. Creedence Clearwater Revival rehearsed the song in the shed at the bottom of Doug Clifford's garden before hitting the recording studio on February 20th.

Trivia

Lodi is a small agricultural city in the Central Valley, California, about 70 miles from Fogerty's hometown of Berkeley.

John Fogerty claims he has never played in Lodi. Doug Clifford recalls Creedence Clearwater performed in this town.

Collector's notes

The "Bad Moon Rising" b/w "Lodi" single was released with a similar cover sleeve in France, Italy and Spain. It was different from the one launched in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, India, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden (Peter Koers, Green River, 1999). 

Live versions

"Lodi" was released in April 1969. The first documented Creedence Clearwater concert with the song in the set list was held at Fillmore West in San Francisco next month. However, Lodi was dropped from the concert repertoire until Woodstock in August 1969. The number made a return to the set lists of the Creedence Clearwater trio in 1971-1972.  

John Fogerty performed "Lodi" for the first time during his solo years at The Fillmore in San Francisco on the opening leg of the Blue Moon Swamp Tour on May 18th, 1997. Since then, he has delivered "Lodi" regularly in concerts - except 2008-2009 when the playing frequency decreased down to approximately half dozen times a year.  

"Lodi" appears on two of his live DVDs: Premonition and The Long Road Home. John Fogerty also performed an unplugged version of the song in VH1 Storytellers which was taped at the Masonic Hall, Lower Manhattan, New York in June 1997. 

Since May 2013, Fogerty has performed "Lodi" with the new arrangement introduced on the remake of the song on the Wrote a Song for Everyone album. 

Critical reception

"---a blues song set to a country tune with Fogerty's recognizable guitar riffs, is also one of the better cuts on the album [Green River]." -Susan Gordon Lydon, The New York Times, September 21st, 1969. 

"But the true highlight of the album is "Lodi." This mournful tale of a musician stuck in a nowhere town has everything it takes to become a real classic. John Fogerty's masterful vocal makes "Lodi" one of the most convincing hard-luck stories I've heard in a long time." -Bruce Miroff, The Rolling Stone, October 18th, 1969. 

"'Lodi' has to be CCR's best philosophical song ever; again, not that it has a great melody, but John brings forth all the talents he can muster in his voice. That's probably why it sounds so unconvincing in concert - because Mr Fogerty just can't reproduce the studio sound. The story tells of a (presumably) folk singer trying his luck in different cities - and ultimately failing. Fate has spared John such a turn of events, but parts of this story are certainly autobiographical, and the convincing power of his voice is amazing - ranging from humble and quiet to all-out screaming, sometimes in prayer, sometimes in desperation, sometimes almost in self-mockery." -George Starostin. 

"---in the heyday of CCR, Fogerty wrote compelling verses with universal appeal that had a working-class sensibility. That viewpoint is plainly felt on bar-band epitaph "Lodi," about a singer who runs out of luck and ends up gigging at a small town road house." -Doug Simpson, Audiophile Audition, November 9th, 2009.  

"Lovely ballad about a failed musician touring a depressing circuit of small provincial clubs." -Uncut, February 2012. 

Fans' views

"Warm and true song about John Fogerty's own life ... he have made a masterpices in this song... the sound is up-to-date and just the way it was that time."

"It's a great story, with the power of the simplicity that I like very much."

"Just a great drinking song."

In the movies and TV series

Lodi appears in Finn Taylor's film The Darwin Awards (2006).

It's also featured in a couple of TV series:

• Halt and Catch Fire, episode I/O (2014)

• Supernatural, episode Scarecrow (2006)

The 2013 remake

John Fogerty recorded a new version of the song with his sons Shane and Tyler for his collaboration album Wrote a Song for Everyone, released in May 2013. The new rendition was cut at Abbey Road studios in London, UK, on July 15th, 2012  - a day after his concert with Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park. It's the one and only  occasion John Fogerty has recorded a song for a studio album outside the United States.  

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