Graveyard Train

Background

“Graveyard Train” closes the original A-side of Bayou Country, the second album of Creedence Clearwater Revival. 

Extended to almost nine minutes, this sinister, moody and repetitious blues in the style of Howlin' Wolf describes a tragic car accident. “Graveyard Train” is another track through which John Fogerty established the swamp rock sound on the second album.

John Fogerty wrote much of the original material for Bayou Country in early June 1968 in his small apartment in El Cerrito in the Bay Area during the turmoil caused by the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Equipment

John Fogerty played the song's guitar parts on a Gibson ES-175 (John Fogerty, Fortunate Son, 2015).

Live versions

Creedence Clearwater never performed “Graveyard Train” on stage. It took 44 years for John Fogerty to add the song onto his set lists. The world premiere took place on the opening leg of the first Bayou Country album concert tour in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, on September 7th, 2012. 

Concert goers enjoyed “Graveyard Train” also on the second Bayou Country album concert tour in the USA in fall 2013. Audios of most of the shows in autumn 2013 were officially made available as downloadable files for a couple of months after the tour. 

In the movies

Perhaps a bit surprisingly, "Graveyard Train" was featured in three films in the 1970's:

• China Doll (1975)

• Janet's Birthday Bash (1972)

• Sin of Lust (1976)

Critical reception

"The best track --- demonstrates that if the group stops looking for a gimmick and settle down to do its own thing, it has the innate ability to make a succesful go of it." -Peter Reilly, The Stereo Review, June 1969. 

"--- simply boring." -Ray Rezos, The Rolling Stone, March 1st, 1969.

"John Fogerty's ripsaw vocals are as spooky as anything ever delivered by Howlin' Wolf or Skip James, and are far more sinister than Mick Jagger's theatrical posturing in the revered "Midnight Rambler" (recorded the same year). Plus Fogerty blows a much meaner harp than Jagger did." -Jeff Hinkle, The Phoenix New Times, January 17th, 2002.

 "'Graveyard Train' is a really slow blues workout, and I mean real slow - sometimes I feel an urgent need to speed it up on a seventy-two; and the harmonica break in the middle just doesn't thrill me as much as it thrill a lot of people. I do appreciate that there are actually two or three overdubbed harmonicas, but whoever is playing them, he's just repeating the same three or four phrases over and over, which makes the monotonousness of the dreary blues riff even sharper and harder to take: if you ask me, the song is nothing but an obvious space-filler." -George Starostin.

"The band plays a great, smoldering blues rhythm line on the over eight-minute epic “Graveyard Train.” John has an echo on his voice that augments the spooky mood as he sings about the car accident he was partially responsible for where “thirty people lost their lives.” The harmonicas add a haunting effect. It is credited as an original, but it sounds like it could easily have been a gem recorded by Alan Lomax years earlier." -Gordon S. Miller, The Blog Critics, October 1st, 2008.

Fans' views

"As a kid, I'd listen to this song in the dark. Great visuals."

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