Please Mr. Fogerty, play "Ramble Tamble" tonight
A plea to the CCR frontman to include the most rockin' song of all-time in his setlist at the Riverside
Tonight John Fogerty will play a concert at the Riverside Theater. He will most likely play a couple of songs from his new album, The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again, and many more songs made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival. One of those songs will probably be about big wheels toining and Proud Mary boining. Another song will likely be about poor people playing music on street corners. But if we’re really lucky, Fogerty will reach a little deeper in this back catalog and play not only the most rockin’ song he’s ever been associated with, but the single most rockin’ song of all-time.
I’m obviously talking about “Ramble Tamble.”
Two years ago I wrote a blog for The A.V. Club making the case for “Ramble Tamble” being the most rockin’ song of all-time. It was a bold choice, and I knew people would disagree, but I felt I had established an ironclad set of criteria that more or less proved I was right. Let’s revisit those criteria, shall we?
1. It came out between 1955 and 1980.
This was easily the most controversial requirement, mainly because people didn’t stop to read how I defined the term “rockin’.” (This is the Internet, after all.) I’m not saying rock songs today don’t rock; I’m saying they’re not rockin’. It’s not a value judgment, just a reflection of changing times. Rockin’ to me is a very specific word that should be differentiated from “rocking,” which is reserved for bands that are heavy and loud but aren’t rooted in classic rock ‘n’ roll, blues, and country. Rock music changed dramatically by the end of the ’70s, as the rise of metal and punk redefined what a rock band was supposed to look and sound like. CCR was the epitome of an old school rock ‘n’ roll outfit in the late ’60s and early ’70s—they covered Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and recorded albums that sounded like they were made at Sun Records. But if Fogerty had started writing about riverboats and taking acid while listening to Buck Owens in 1981, CCR likely would’ve been regarded as a somewhat eccentric country group, not a rock band. Fogerty and the rockers of his generation took their cues from Elvis and Chuck Berry and Little Richard—the architects of rockin’ music— but those influences were passé by the time kids were going crazy over Mötley Crüe and The Cars. For rock fans born after 1980, the music they love was born with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, the ultimate “rocking” bands. Here’s a handy way to distinguish “rockin’” music from “rocking” music: Scorpions talk about rocking you like a hurricane in "Rock You Like A Hurricane," and Chuck Berry talked about a rockin' band blowin' like a hurricane in "Rock 'n' Roll Music." Big difference there.
2. It has to be bluesy, but not too bluesy.
I clearly hadn’t listened to enough Jimmy Reed and Slim Harpo when I added this requirement, but I still say it fits. Rockin' music gets its mojo from the blues, but the blues isn't truly rockin' unless it's subverted in some way. This could mean playing it too loud, too fast, too sloppy, too stupidly, or too happy. The Rolling Stones were a bunch of white middle-class Brits with a silly-looking economics student for a singer, and yet their failed attempts to sound like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and Otis Redding resulted in some of the most rockin' songs ever.
3. It can't be a classic-rock radio staple.
Repetition—and getting played in the same context of Styx and Bad Company—won’t kill a rockin’ song, but it will keep it from the most rockin.’
4. It must make you drive at least 10 mph faster within the first 60 seconds and/or make doing the dishes fun.
This one is self-explanatory.
5. You know it when you hear it.
See the opening to riff to T. Rex's "Bang A Gong.”
So, why is “Ramble Tamble” the most rockin’ song of all-time? Here’s what I wrote in my original blog:
Because 'Ramble Tamble" is like two super rockin' songs in one. It starts off as a souped-up, proto-punk take on Sun Records rockabilly. Then, about a minute and a half in, it slows down to a crawl and then dies for just a split-second, starting back up again as a slowly simmering psychedelic blues number anchored by a cascading guitar riff best described as "Abbey Road-esque." Just as drummer Doug Clifford seems spent from pounding the relentless jam into submission, the Sun sound comes back even faster and angrier than before for the closing minute and a half. A perfectly satisfying rock tune that meets all the rockin' criteria more completely than any song I can think of right now, "Ramble Tamble" essentially is a seven-minute mash-up record encompassing the history of blues, country, punk, and psychedelia.
Mr. Fogerty, I’ll be attending your show tonight. I’m not one to shout out song requests, and I don’t know if you look at the Internet. (Judging from the photo above, I imagine you spend most of your time standing in the middle of wheat fields.) But if you could find it in your heart to play “Ramble Tamble” tonight, I will be most grateful. If you don’t, I’d still like to thank you for writing the most rockin’ song of all-time. That is, unless someone disagrees with me. Surely there’s no other appropriate choice, right?
