It arrived at a particularly opportune moment, as American society, riven by the Vietnam War, appeared to be on the verge of splintering along any number of fault lines. Whichever side of the great divide you found yourself on, the music spoke to you with its directness and power. That was tough. Making matters infinitely worse was the fact that because of a legal wrangle of Dickensian complexity with his old record label, John Fogerty decided he could not, and would not, perform the great old CCR songs any more. Yearn no more.
Nothing stays exactly the same, of course.
On the first listen, it seemed to me that Fogerty had mellowed out over the years - that the music lacked a little of the old intensity, the old power. A trifle less raspy, perhaps - but Fogerty's still seriously into the music. Thanks to a couple of decades' worth of advances in recording technology, the music is noticeably fuller and richer than before. Never could quite put my finger on it, but it always seemed to me that there was an almost one-dimensional feel to that old CCR sound. Now, granted, there are plenty of people out there who never noticed John Fogerty was gone, and so will remain unmoved by his return.