Nothing says "Vietnam flashback" like a Creedence Clearwater Revival song. Four guys from California were able to capture the rustic South like no other band before or since.
As years went on, their sound also came to epitomize the unrest of the 1960s. Filmmakers began to use CCR's songs as the background for civil rights protests, sniper fire in Nam, and even LSD trips gone bad.
With the band's lead singer and chief songwriter, John Fogerty, playing a solo set at Hard Rock Live tonight, let's look at the ten best uses of CCR in movies and television.
10. The Expendables - "Born on the Bayou"
This Sylvester Stallone movie employed every action movie cliché in the book, including the gang of Expendables all unwinding in a bar throwing knives at a dartboard while listening to CCR.
9. Married With Children - "Who'll Stop the Rain"
Interspersed between Bud Bundy's one-liners is an entire episode titled after a CCR song where Al has to fix the family's leaky roof.
8. The Johnny Cash Show - "Proud Mary"
The band also played "Bad Moon Rising" on the Man in Black's weekly variety show, but closer "Proud Mary" brings down the house.
7. Forrest Gump - "Fortunate Son"
It is so lazy to have a CCR or Doors song as your central character helicopters into Vietnam, but this ancestor of punk rock is such a good song, we'll forgive Forrest and his stupid is as stupid does soundtrack philosophy.
6. Where the Buffalo Roam - "Keep on Chooglin"
Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson isn't as groovy as it sounds, but this scene where they pick up a hitchhiker while zonked out on drugs does choog along quite finely.
5. Music Scene - "The Night Time Is the Right Time"
Mama Cass introduces CCR in this 1969 episode as they add a hint of gospel that undoubtedly served as a blueprint for the Black Crowes 20 years later.
4. The Return of Swamp Thing - "Born on the Bayou"
The opening credits to this B movie featuring Heather Locklear shows panels from the Alan Moore-written DC comic from which it is based to the backdrop of "Born on the Bayou."
3. An American Werewolf in London - "Bad Moon Rising"
This 1981 horror-comedy werewolf movie takes a literal translation to the song's lyrics as the protagonist feels something ain't right moments before his feral transformation. The Wesley Snipes vampire movie Blade later copied the foreboding use of the song.
2. The Big Lebowski - "Run Through the Jungle"
Jeff Bridges and John Goodman are on a mission. Nothing gets John Goodman's Vietnam-vet character, Walter, ready to fulfill said mission than a little CCR.
1. The Big Lebowski - "Lookin' Out My Back Door"
Like there was any other choice? Apologies for double dipping on this Coen Brothers classic, but we consider it acceptable as the Dude's stolen Creedence tapes are as central a part as any of the movie's shaggy dog of a plot. The one-man car chase scene involving the Dude smoking pot while singing along to "Lookin' Out My Back Door" is comedy gold that will forever etch a smile on your face when hearing this song about tangerines and elephants.
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