{"id":616,"date":"2026-06-21T11:07:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T11:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616"},"modified":"2026-06-21T11:07:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T11:07:35","slug":"a-lonely-adolescent-summer-set-to-bad-moon-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
You\u2019re reading Songs of Summer<\/strong>, a series on music and memory.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Any time is a good time to grow up if you find what you love, but there was something special about coming to self-consciousness in the mid-sixties, amid the British Invasion and the rise of Motown. I got hooked on rock early, when I was six\u2014in 1964, in Queens, at the onset of Beatlemania\u2014thanks to a friend in my building who, like his cool older sister, had a pocket-sized radio, so my father took me to Radio Row (the electronics district in lower Manhattan that was wiped out to make way for the World Trade Center) to get me one, too. Top Forty music (though nobody I knew called it that then) was the soundtrack of my life for the rest of the decade, as it seemingly was for the world at large, because that was the meaning of the rock revolution\u2014the making of a new mainstream. That\u2019s why my millennial children listen to that sixty-year-old music now, whereas, in 1964, only a precocious Mahler buff would have listened to the music of 1904.<\/p>\n

Read more The Difference Between the Knicks and the White House Cage Fight<\/a><\/p>\n

I soon started buying records (45s, which had an A-side and a B-side\u2014the intended hit and the throwaway that was sometimes just as good): lots of Beatles to start, but also other artists\u2019 work, including \u201cThe Name Game,\u201d \u201cDowntown,\u201d \u201cPapa\u2019s Got a Brand New Bag,\u201d \u201cSatisfaction,\u201d \u201cLove Potion Number Nine,\u201d \u201cLook of Love,\u201d \u201cThe Game of Love\u201d (looks like I was getting a whole lotta love). Thanks to radio\u2014New York\u2019s 77 WABC\u2014I heard and loved many more songs than I could buy, and what I got from this wide and wild spectrum of collective liberation was an aesthetic education, a sense of style that took far deeper root than did anything I was finding in books or movies. These songs evoked worlds of experience then beyond my ken, and did so in ways that, in retrospect, seem distinctly cinematic, from film noir (\u201cI Fought the Law,\u201d \u201cSummer in the City\u201d) to neo-Westerns (\u201cKing of the Road\u201d), from spiky low-budget independent films (\u201cYou Really Got Me\u201d) to European art films (\u201cA Whiter Shade of Pale\u201d), from comedy (\u201cWooly Bully\u201d) to surrealism (\u201cRed Rubber Ball\u201d) to a real-time freakout hallucination (\u201cPictures of Matchstick Men\u201d). Meanwhile, a prodigious weekly outpouring of masterworks from Motown laid the groundwork for my teen-age love of jazz.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Rock was endless summer: heat and sunshine came through my radio all year long, but I didn\u2019t have a song of the summer until 1969. We\u2019d just moved to a Long Island suburb, where I hadn\u2019t yet set foot in the school, and meeting other kids casually was almost impossible, because the development was planned not for walking but for driving. In our old neighborhood, everyone just went outside; in the suburbs, I learned of the peculiar practice of calling another child on the phone and making an appointment. In any case, I had no one to call. The summer went by in a slow blur at a local pool; I don\u2019t remember what I read or watched, but radios were playing everywhere\u2014at poolside, at home, in the car\u2014and the song that I made mine was \u201cBad Moon Rising,\u201d by Creedence Clearwater Revival.<\/p>\n

Their sound was one that I was already attuned to, from the frequent airplay earlier that year of their previous hit, \u201cProud Mary,\u201d which I first heard in one of my daily elementary-school bus rides, where the driver kept the radio on, too. I didn\u2019t know why anyone would sing about a riverboat, but the words filled the melody\u2019s space admirably, in the way that most pop lyrics struck me then\u2014as the equivalent of vocalise, the apotheosis of which had been the spirited nonsense of \u201cThe Name Game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Why the Odyssey Keeps Defeating Filmmakers<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d was different; it was the song of my solitude, as much for its meaning as for its sound. The lead singer\u2019s voice\u2014I had no idea yet that his name was John Fogerty\u2014felt like it came from somewhere distant, deep, and haunted. I wouldn\u2019t have known a bayou from a mud puddle, but the blend of natural mysteries and mystical dangers, of good times amid evil spirits, was unmistakable. Fogerty made the menacing lyrics, about \u201ctrouble on the way\u201d and \u201cbad times today,\u201d sound like a boast; the song shone like my own bleak sun\u2014yet it still rocked. Its irrepressible joy was intensified by the darkness looming at its edges; this was the only singer I knew who could sing \u201cHope you are quite prepared to die\u201d and turn it into a party. I may have been alone, but this was a party I was invited to.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Then summer vacation ended, I went to school and met some kids, and the following summer, actual death stole into the family circle and the songs didn\u2019t matter so much; but Creedence wasn\u2019t done with me. At the end of the year, their new album \u201cPendulum\u201d came out; it was the first album I\u2019d ever bought, so I depended less on radio hits. In one track, Fogerty\u2019s desperately aggressive query \u201cMolina, where you goin\u2019 to?,\u201d which he wailed with a hefty backbeat, captured this twelve-year-old’s bewilderment with existential randomness and concision. I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve listened to Creedence much since then; the association with bad times is hard to shake. Also, I soon found other paths through the darkness\u2014I read Willa Cather\u2019s story \u201cPaul\u2019s Case,\u201d I found out that philosophy exists, and I started listening to music with far more revolutions per minute, namely, jazz\u2014but in substance and sound, their summer song had opened the way.\u00a0\u2666<\/p>\n

Read more The U.S. Men\u2019s Team Is Building Something, and Marching On<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Brody remembers the summer of 1969, when the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival was released to great success, and when he was an eleven-year-old boy growing up in a Long Island suburb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-songs-of-summer"],"yoast_head":"\nA Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d - City Relocation News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d - City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Richard Brody remembers the summer of 1969, when the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival was released to great success, and when he was an eleven-year-old boy growing up in a Long Island suburb.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Relocation News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-21T11:07:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"headline\":\"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-21T11:07:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616\"},\"wordCount\":1005,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/4251e786ff657273a4bb682206785c86.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Songs of Summer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616\",\"name\":\"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d - City Relocation News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/4251e786ff657273a4bb682206785c86.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-21T11:07:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/4251e786ff657273a4bb682206785c86.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/4251e786ff657273a4bb682206785c86.webp\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?p=616#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"City Relocation News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cityrelocationnews.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d - City Relocation News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d - City Relocation News","og_description":"Richard Brody remembers the summer of 1969, when the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival was released to great success, and when he was an eleven-year-old boy growing up in a Long Island suburb.","og_url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616","og_site_name":"City Relocation News","article_published_time":"2026-06-21T11:07:35+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4"},"headline":"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d","datePublished":"2026-06-21T11:07:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616"},"wordCount":1005,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4251e786ff657273a4bb682206785c86.webp","articleSection":["Songs of Summer"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616","name":"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d - City Relocation News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4251e786ff657273a4bb682206785c86.webp","datePublished":"2026-06-21T11:07:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4251e786ff657273a4bb682206785c86.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4251e786ff657273a4bb682206785c86.webp","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?p=616#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Lonely Adolescent Summer, Set to \u201cBad Moon Rising\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/","name":"City Relocation News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3e7ce0c0c60d21e12a5ac61fb2b786d4","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com"],"url":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cityrelocationnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}