WCSX Classic Cuts : Up Around the Bend
WCSX Classic Cuts
Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Up Around the Bend”
The Hook: What do you mean what do you mean by it?
Album: Cosmo’s Factory
Year: 1970
Writer: John Fogerty
Stats: Reached number-four on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Background: CCR bassist Stu Cook recalls how the meaning of “Up Around the Bend” seemed to get lost in translation — in another English-speaking country:
Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist Stu Cook on “Up Around the Bend.” OC:…that amusing. :30
“‘Up Around the Bend’ is a quite happy song, a very positive song. But when we were touring England there was some concern about just what the story was about, because when someone goes around the bend, or up around the bend, in English slang it means they’ve flipped out or lost it completely. So doing press conferences and things like that when we were first touring England, there were several questions from the press just about what this song meant. And finally it was explained to us that it had practically an opposite meaning in an English context. We found that amusing.”
