I believe reason #3 is the right one. John thought their performance was not worthy of being released to the public on tape, because he felt it didn't match up to other creedence performances. he didnt want some one to see this performance and judge them on that. id love to see it though any creedence performance is a good one in my book.
oh the info was from both books "up around the bend" and "bad moon rising"

dustin
barenaked@boatnerd.com