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Unlike most, Creedence Clearwater Revival has been served very well by the various "best of" packages that have been issued over the years. So why bother with the original albums? Individual cases can be made for the others; but Cosmo Factory is one of the greatest rock albums made. With its kind of cheesy cover it is easy to misjudge Cosmos Factory as a piece of junk. But appearances are deceiving. Inside are eleven cuts which have burned their way into the modern American songbook.

"Run Through The Jungle" and "Up Around The Bend" were put out over the radio as a pair and were the first songs the public heard off the album. The radio DJ at the time explained that the record company was trying to find out which song the public liked so that they could issue a single. As it turned out both were popular which aided the sales of the album itself. This started a cascade "hits" from Cosmos Factory-five from one album in all. The remaining six cuts began to have lives of their own on the fledgling FM album rock stations all over the country.

"Travelin' Band" was wildly popular. "Lookin' Out My Back Door" was so universally appealing that country music quickly adopted the song as one of its own. "Who'll Stop The Rain" became almost transcendental as 1970 saw one of the most terrible and traumatic periods of the Vietnam War. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" struck us as particularly cool running at over eleven minutes-revamped as it was into the swamp rock idiom. Even kids who weren't drawn to Motown loved the song.

"Ramble Tamble" was basically built around a single riff; but what a hell of a riff it is. We tend to regard "Before You Accuse Me". "Ooby Dooby" and "My Baby Left Me" as mere covers and album fillers. Long time listening, however, shows this assessment underestimates their appeal and warmth. Their use anticipated by a few years the revival of 1950's era rock in the 1970's. Finally, "Long As I Can See The Light" has grown to be a sentimental favorite although it has never been a "hit" on the popular charts or the FM play list.

Cosmos Factory caught sense of the time. It looked back to the uneasy recent past, picking up what it could, and moved forward to a bright but uncharted and uncertain future. Looking back, no one could have told you what was to happen. The Vietnam War ended with nothing anyone on any side of the controversy could be proud of. Race relations went on to become more angry and bitter. The much-touted "Age Of Aquarius" was found to be an empty promise. Musically, the "Next Beatles" never came. Indeed, the music of the 1970's was a subject of deep disappointment at the time. (Although assessments for the music of that era have grown more positive.) It turns out that some of the surest footing into the "future to be" is found on this album. God bless ya, boys.


Perhaps one of the finest albums of all time...   November 21, 2003
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

If there weren't so many great CCR albums, it would be easy to call this one their best. Certainly 'Bayou Country', 'Green River', and even 'Willie and the Poor Boys' can be considered their most outstanding record, given minor variations in taste. I suppose my personal favorite is 'Bayou Country', due to a 14 year-old's nostalgic connection to 'Born On the Bayou', and (as a Detroiter) a love for their great cover of (native Detroiter) Mitch Ryder's hit, 'Good Golly Miss Molly'.

Yet it's hard to argue against 'Cosmo's Factory', as it features so many top hits. 'Who'll Stop the Rain' didn't stop scaling the national charts until it hit number one, and 'Travelin' Band' and 'Lookin' Out My Back Door' both peaked at number two. Even the 'b-sides', appearing on this album, 'Run Through the Jungle' and 'Up Around the Bend' received significant airtime.

And none of those are even close to being the best song on the album!

That distinction would lie with one of the greatest covers of all time, Creedence's version of 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine', all 665 seconds of it (good thing there wasn't one more second in there!). While this California band most often projects a southern-rock veneer, 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine' exudes a rhythm that makes you swear you're in the midst of an Indian war dance. The sound is nothing less than pure genius. John Fogerty's vocals are gripping, and his lengthy guitar solo's are intoxicating. Creedence is a great cover band, so much so that most of their covers easily transcend the original versions. 'Cosmo's Factory' includes three other fine covers, 'Ooby Dooby', 'Before You Accuse Me', and 'My Baby Left Me'. But Marvin Gaye may as well have signed over his 'Grapevine' rights to John Fogerty and CCR... it's that good.

Add to these highlights the appropriate closer, 'Long As I Can See the Light' ("Put a candle in the window..."), and the opener, a seven minute rambling rocker called 'Ramble Tamble', and you have one of the finest albums of the early 1970's.


Playin' in a travelin' band.   August 4, 2005
 5 out of 7 found this review helpful

Wow, what a great album. Three singles were released from this album, with all a-sides and b-sides becoming hits. In addition, the cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" became a rock radio classic. In all, 7 of the 11 songs on the album made in onto "Chronicle", their greatest hits album. Of the other four songs on the album, three are great covers of 1950s rock classics. The one other John Fogerty original is "Ramble Tamble", another great song. This is an all around great album, which I highly recommend.


One of their greatest   January 6, 2006
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Apart from their flawed first & last albums, Creedence actually never made anything short of perfect, short of classic, or short of 'greatest', so I can't say if this record is better than 'Willy And The Poor Boys', for example... actually my main point must be, that any serious fan of music in general should have all their classic albums, while anybody who really LIKES creedence should ALSO acquire their inconsistent but mostly marvellous debut, & their chaotic last album (which nonetheless includes such classics as 'Sweet Hitch-Hiker' and 'Someday Never Comes')

'Cosmo's Factory' opens with 'Ramble Tamble', a joyous & exhilerating rocker, a true anthem for a world that never was (or was it? !). It changes midway into a slower, almost Abbey Road-era Beatlesque song. The next song is a cover of the classic 'Before You Accuse Me', &, not to offend anybody else who has covered it, but this definently THE version of that song.
The following song, 'Travelin' Band' is one of their greatest ever, a simply wonderful slice of a rockabilly-like stomper, recalling figures such as Gene Vincent & the King himself.
The next song, the cover 'Ooby Dooby', is sort of a comedown from the skies, but it still works, though it is eclipsed by the next classic, 'Lookin' Out My Back Door', a lazy, gleamin' jewel of a rock song with a divine intro, followed by another classic, the paranoid, screeching rock of Creedence's great anti-Vietnam song, 'Run Through The Jungle'.
The third, & arguably greatest, classic in a row follows; 'Up Around The Bend' is driven by a marvellous riff & is the purest Creedence, simply breathtaking, lifegiving...
In this way, the cover of 'My Baby Left Me' could be seen as a disappointment, but few songs could have held the atmosphere of 'Up Around The Bend', and succesfully followed it ('Bad Moon Arising' actually works wonders on the 'Platinum' best-of, where it sounds so perfect just after 'Up Around The Bend' that I was surprised they didn't come off the same album...). Anyway 'My Baby Left Me' is a great song, but it's not 'Bad Moon Rising'... not that that matters, for the last three tracks are almost-classics all the way, from the brilliant 'Who'll Stop The Rain' through 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine', again the best version of that classic song, to the pure Creedence 'Long As I Can See The Light', that shimmers till the end of the album.


"Factory" Churns Out Hits!   June 23, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

1970 was a banner year for the Creedence gang. WILLY AND THE POOR BOYS had been the best album yet;it seemed impossible that they could produce anything greater.Once again however,Fogerty and Co made all the critics choke on their pens.COSMO'S FACTORY took CCR's title of America's greatest singles band to a new high;every track on the album was a potential hit single.Even doing covers by Roy Orbison(OOBY DOOBY),Marvin Gaye(I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE),Bo Diddly(BEFORE YOU ACCUSE ME)and Elvis Presley(MY BABY LEFT ME); Creedence took these covers by the scruff of the neck and stamped their musical brand on them.for the first time,sax(played expertly by John Fogerty)appears on a Creedence album(all the band members could play more than one instrument);on the tracks TRAVELIN'BAND and LONG AS I CAN SEE THE LIGHT.John Fogerty's perspective lyrics based on observations of the late '60s-early '70s were spot on(witness RAMBLE TAMBLE,WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN ,RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE and TRAVELIN'BAND).The dessert of this musical feast is the downright spooky long version of I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE(evil bass line,Stu!).The band played tight on COSMO'S FACTORY;tighter than most of their musical peers.The end result was the best CCR album . . .check that . . .best album of 1970,by anybody!The only way to go now was down(ever so slightly).Buy COSMO'S FACTORY . . .it's Creedence's masterpiece.