• AllMyVinyl #80
• Band: John Fogerty
• Album Title: Eye of the Zombie
• Release Date: 29 Sep 1986
• Date purchased: N/A
• Location purchased: N/A
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

As I’ve written before, in 2023, my brother shipped me my old vinyl collection that he found in our mom’s basement.  There were some real gems in there, and a couple of stinkers.  Then there’s albums like this one.  It’s a complete blank slate.  When I was unpacking that shipment, I ran across this one.  1986’s “Eye of the Zombie” by John Fogerty.  I was quite astonished that it was there – primarily because I didn’t remember this album even existed, much less that I bought it on vinyl back in the 80’s.   Fogerty had an album from the year before (1985’s “Centerfield“) that had a couple of really big hits for him.  It’s not a huge shock that the album that came after that I picked up.  I just have zero memory of doing it.  Zombie was one that I hand on heart have zero memory of actually buying.  When I look at the list of tracks on the album – it’s a complete blank slate, so I’ll be going into this listen with a pure open mind – I have no idea what to expect one way or the other.  Honestly, that’s a little bit of a rarity – because to some extent, you remember things about music from your past, even things you didn’t like.  But this – total clean blackboard.

The physical vinyl which you can see from the photo of the sleeve isn’t one that’s borne the decades the best.  It’s got a VERY distinctive marking for where the actual vinyl is on the outside.  It’s far worse than some that spent 30+ years in mom’s basement.  Given they were never messed with, one has to assume this was one that was sitting on the outside of the pile, perhaps more susceptible to the elements than others?  Who knows.   Still, the vinyl itself, while also not looking the best doesn’t play too badly, so the music is intact.  I’m lucky in that regard that none of this old vinyl is unplayable.

This was Fogerty’s fourth solo album overall, and the first one where he didn’t play all the instruments himself.  The term “solo album” gets thrown around a lot for someone who used to be famous in a band and then branched out on their own.  But Fogerty really rocked the “solo album” concept by playing everything (until now).  Something that’s super rare anymore.

Goin’ Back Home – This is an instrumental leadoff to the album. It’s pretty low energy, which is surprising as it never seems to get out of the same gear it’s in at the start.  It goes on for 3:25, although there is a nice guitar sound that comes in halfway through.  It’s got a little bit of a Pink Floyd vibe to it.

Eye of the Zombie – The title track starts off with a drum beat that’s rather evocative of the mid 80’s electronic drum sound which was prevalent at the time.  However, it’s got a really heavy rock beat that follows it.  So much so I was little surprised that for a 1986 album it’s mixed this way – it sounds like it’s got some more modern production “punch” to it.  I really enjoyed this.  Had a mix of his CCR sound with a sound that isn’t CCR

Headlines – This one opens with a guitar riff that reminds me of early Kiss.  The rest of the song doesn’t sound like that, but I got a “first Kiss album” vibe to the opening riff.   This is a faster paced song both on its singing, riffing, and the basic beat.  It ends up back around to that Kiss sound I was thinking off again by the end of the song.   But it doesn’t matter – I liked this song.

Knockin’ On Your Door – Change of pace song.  Has a beat that I want to say sounds like disco (r & b maybe), but I know that’s not right – I just can’t place it.  It’s a slower song with a rhythm I quite liked.  Has some keyboards in there which were used in a way he normally doesn’t.  I also want to say it has horns on it?   It’s definitely more upbeat sounding than anything else on the album.

Change in the Weather – The second single off the album.  It sounds more like a CCR song than most of the album does.  Even having said that it has a slightly darker tone to it than the usual upbeat CCR sound as well – I realize that sort of contradicts myself  but it both does and does not sound like CCR as the song plays.   This feels like a very different song than the one that preceded it on the album.  It’s got a fatter sound to it – without being too heavy.  It’s definitely a steady beat for sure.  Some nice guitar work mixed in as the song goes along.

Violence is Golden – Interesting song title.  From reading about the album its timing was fortuitous as weeks after the album came out the US Iran-Contra weapons scandal broke, and this song is well, about stuff like that. It starts off with a bunch of odd sounds – not quite Floyd special effects, but music played oddly that sounds off the charts different.  The basic beat under this is quite heavy – and also sounds like something I’ve heard before.  Very loud sound with guitars too – a screeching thing I’ve heard guys like Steve Vai do later on.  I mean check out these lyrics.  We’re a long way from “Put in Coach, I’m ready to play”…

“Pass another plate of shrapnel
Sprinkle it with T.N.T
Gotta have another grenade salad
Split it with your enemy
Gotta sell another Uzi
Maybe couple of 44 mags
Got a wife and a kid to support
And a payment on the Jag”

Violence is a decent song, but definitely strikes me as quite intentionally NOT what he’d done before.

Wasn’t That a Woman – This is a weird track.  It sounds more of its era than most of the other stuff here.  The “80’s synth clap” sound is here, and them repeating the song title in the background has a really dated sound to it.  Electronic drums – yeah, don’t care for this one too much.

Soda Pop – This one does seem to have a disco beat and is him basically bitching about other artists and music business greed.  It’s a fair track, not one of my favorites on the album, but the beat is definitely catchy – but the kind of song that you like while you’re listening, but when it’s over, the song is gone from your head.  That’s what this one was to me.   “Gimme that money” and “Soda Pop – everyone wants to make it to the top”  are both lyrics from this which get repeated a lot.  This one suffers from the “Yeah, OK you said that 30 times already” in its over-repeated lyrics.

Sail Away – There is a song also called this on a CCR album, but this is a new composition that just happens to have the same title.  This is a ballad.  With lyrics like “Leavin’ all of this pain behind, gonna sail away”, there’s a definite message here.  Had a reggae beat to it in places, and honestly, it didn’t do anything for me.  It was just kind of there.   Kind of a weak ending for the album to me.

It was quite interesting re-discovering this album today after all this time and not listening to it in decades or even remembering it.  There were some songs I quite liked, and it ended with three songs in a row that didn’t do anything for me.  A weird mix of good and bad.  Mostly good, though.

In thinking about it, it’s definitely different in tone to the album before it (Centerfield).  That album was more upbeat and this isn’t (for the most part).  1986 me probably listened to this, declared it too different, going “Ehhhhh”, and put it aside and that was it.  2024 me discovered that there’s some good tracks here even if it’s an inconsistent album.

Fogerty’s next album after this wasn’t for another 11 years, so I wonder what he thought – especially as since this tour ended only one song ever came back to any of his live shows (Change in the Weather).