A Song For Everyone

Variety, "Best Music Books of 2022"

"...[C]ritics have tended to characterize John Fogerty as a songwriter foretelling nothing but doom... Such gloomy characterizations weren’t wrong, but Lingan explains much of C.C.R.’s appeal with a simple reminder: melody and groove matter, too... Perhaps the time has even come when we can see C.C.R. for the innovators they were to begin with."

“Diagnosing the push-and-pull of John Fogerty’s unnavigable conflicts—between populism and artistic sophistication, control and collaboration—is where A Song for Everyone is at its best."

“Lingan provides an impressively detailed history of both the band and the East Bay music scene of the era.”

"A Song for Everyone will be greatly appreciated by Creedence and Fogerty fans for further insight into the band whose music seems to be everywhere, but whose story has been far less ubiquitous."

"[An] excellent biography."

"...[T]he dramatic undercurrent in John Lingan's story-line bubbles up to the surface with understated but nonetheless unmistakable intensity."

"Well-researched... [Lingan] does a fine job of weaving the CCR story through American cultural history of the their era, helping to bring the tale to life for the reader and widen its scope."

“Accurate and authoritative…the writing is exceptional when dealing with the purely musical aspects of the group’s career…The book is at its best when Lingan is rapturously breaking down and describing some of CCR’s best-loved hits with a fanatic’s eye and ear for detail.” 

"Compelling."

"[A] frankly excellent book... What John Lingan has done with this book is restore the rightful position of Creedence Clearwater Revival as one of the great American bands. By focusing on the political background to their rise to popularity, and refusing to pay too much attention to the personal issues and internal spats that eventually brought them down, he has ensured that their music, and it’s importance to its time, is front and centre throughout the pages of what is as much social history and social commentary as it is the biography of a band. Previous books about the band have come down on one side or the other in the 'whose fault was the break up' debate. With this telling of the story of Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Lingan may well have written a book for everyone."

"Entertainingly told."

“John Lingan's A Song for Everyone is a well-written and fascinating account of the convoluted history of one of rock’s most successful bands. Surprising and thoroughly engrossing.”

“Creedence Clearwater Revival rose with the Sixties and collapsed soon after that decade folded. Set against the tumultuous events of those years, John Lingan’s evocative and deftly written portrait of this beloved but often misunderstood band beautifully proves the way in which art, history and people are often bound together.” 

“A Song for Everyone is a historical masterwork. It's the story of a band whose music can, at a glance, appear perfectly calibrated for universal adoration. But Lingan's biography of Creedence Clearwater Revival meticulously documents how this fame was hard-won. Theirs was a sound and fury forged in the fires of the Vietnam War.”
 

"Like the best Creedence songs, John Lingan's A Song For Everyone reads like it was in your head before you even picked it up. Lingan has composed a work of serious reportage, tremendous insight, and most of all, killer storytelling. This is a book for everyone."