Lookin' Out My Back Door

Background

"Lookin' Out My Back Door" b/w "Long As I Can See the Light" was the third 45 rpm Creedence Clearwater Revival released in 1970. Both cuts ended up to the Cosmo's Factory album launched in summer 1970. "Lookin' Out My Back Door" peaked on the charts at #2 in the USA, #2 in Germany and #4 in Belgium. The single was certified gold by the RIAA in the USA, for sales of over one million copies. It was also a certified platinum in early 1990's. 

"Lookin' Out My Back Door" may be considered one of the escapism songs of John Fogerty. Much of the piece was inspired by a Dr. Seuss book called And to Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street. In the book a kid is watching a parade go by with wondrous and magical animals and characters. Fogerty put the action “out my back door” to a place he could escape to.

The song also belongs to those pieces in the John Fogerty catalog that he wrote for his son Josh who was three years old. Fogerty thought the boy would like it if he heard dad on the radio singing "doot doot doo, lookin' out my back door." (John Fogerty, Fortunate Son, 2015).

"Lookin' Out My Back Door", which has a country tempo, is probably also the only hit song that has a reference to Buck Owens.

Instrumentation

John Fogerty played parts of "Lookin' Out My Back Door" on a Regal dobro. It's the one and only occasion on Creedence Clearwater records. Fogerty met bluegrass master Tut Taylor and bought the instrument from George Gruhn while the band was in Nashville and taped the Johnny Cash Show on June 5th, 1969 (Bill Murphy, Interview with John Fogerty, The Premier Guitar, November 2nd, 2015). 

Promo film

Quite surprisingly, Creedence Clearwater never played the song in concerts. Instead, it appears on the 1970 promo film where the band performed it as playback in Cosmo's Factory. The film was released commercially on a bonus DVD of the Creedence Clearwater Singles Collection in November 2009 together with four other promo films the band launched.

Collector's notes

The "Lookin' Out My Back Door" b/w "Long As I Can See the Light" single was released with a similar cover sleeve in Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Iran Italy, Portugal, Spain amd Sweden. It was different from the one launched in Argentina, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and Turkey. There were two different Belgian cover sleeves (Peter Koers, Green River: An Illustrated Discography, 1999).  

In the UK, "Lookin' Out My Back Door" was placed on the B-side of the single, with "Long As I Can See the Light" on the A-side.  

Trivia

"Lookin' Out My Back Door", which has a country tempo, is probably also the only hit song that has a reference to Buck Owens. In later years, Fogerty recorded Owens' "I Don't Care" for The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again.

Live versions

John Fogerty played "Lookin' Out My Back Door" for the first time on stage at Earthquake Relief in Oakland, California, on November 26, 1989. The show was broadcast by  KQED-TV in San Francisco. After beginning regular touring in spring 1997, he has played the song practically in each concert. 

The stage version has evolved a bit through the years. For a couple of years from 2008 onwards, the song featured a fiddle solo played by Jason Mowery of his touring band. In summer 2012, the audience enjoyed dueling solos with Fogerty (guitar) and Randy Kohrs (dobro). As per the Canadian Tour in fall 2012, keyboardist Bob Malone has kicked off the song with an accordion intro. 

In live concerts, Fogerty sometimes changes "tambourines and elephants are playing in the band" to "tangerines and Elvis are playing in the band".

"Lookin' Out My Back Door" appears on two of his three live DVDs: The Long Road Home (2006) and Comin' Down the Road (2009). 

Sound files of most of the John Fogerty live concerts have officially been made available as per the North American Tour in fall 2013. 

In the movies

Arguably, the most famous scene with "Lookin' Out My Back Door" on background was seen in The Big Lebowski (1998), starring Jeff Bridges. The song was also featured in Blue Chips (1994) and We Are Marshall (2006). An extract of the song was also heard in a Spanish film The Fear (El Miedo) in 2006. 

John Fogerty and Jeff Bridges reunited in a concert in Sturgis, South Dakota, USA on August 11, 2011. Bridges joined Fogerty on stage and they dueted "Lookin' Out My Back Door" and "Proud Mary". 

Critical reception

"Fastish country composition enhanced by chinking tambourines and John on dobro. This makes a nice contrast ---" -Roy Carr, New Musical Express, July 25th, 1970. 

"Though not geared for a gut-level Creedence treatment, the song is good car music, great for summer and will probably be commercially successful." -John Grissim, The Rolling Stone, September 4, 1970. 

"--- a charming, bright shuffle, filled with dancing animals and domestic bliss - he had never been as sweet and silly as he is here." -Thomas Erlewine, All Music. 

Fans' views

"The best light-hearted song in rock...always puts you in a good mood."

"Just gives me the jibbers because it never actually begins ... the intro just goes on and on."

"The song is so weird it is cool ... it's not about the same old stuff every group writes about."

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