Nirvana cover of "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
by David Pescovitz from on (#1XM7X)
On March 19, 1988, Nirvana played Tacoma, Washington's Community World Theater and performed this fantastic, gritty cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising." The song first appeared on CCR's masterpiece, Green River, in 1969. That version is below. According to CCR's John Fogerty, the song is about "the apocalypse that was going to be visited upon us."
"It wasn't until the band was learning the song that I realized the dichotomy," Fogerty told Rolling Stone in 1993. "Here you got this song with all these hurricanes and blowing and raging ruin and all that, but it's [snaps fingers] "I see a bad moon rising." It's a happy-sounding tune, right? It didn't bother me at the time."