Cosmo's Factory Tunings

[DeacorMarleen]

Hey folks,

I've been listening to Cosmo's Factory with startling regularity these past couple months and between studying archival footage, Fogerty's modern live performances, and just listening to the record a lot, I think I have a pretty good idea of how Fogerty had his guitars tuned through the record and perhaps even which guitars he would've used on each song. Here's my list, I'd love to get the ball rolling on some good conversation if anyone disagrees, this stuff is all so fascinating to pick apart.

Tunings:
Ramble Tamble - (Drop D)
Before You Accuse Me - (E Standard)
Travelin Band - (E Standard)
Ooby Dooby - (E Standard)
Lookin' Out My Back Door - (D Standard on acoustic and Les Paul, GBDGBD on Dobro)
Run Through The Jungle - (D Standard)
Up Around The Bend - (E Standard)
My Baby Left Me - (E Standard)
Who'll Stop The Rain? - (E Standard)
I Heard It Through The Grapevine (D Standard)
Long As I Can See The Light - (E Standard)

Now there are a couple things here worth pointing out:

On "Lookin' Out My Back Door" John is playing four guitars. He plays the percussive scratching through most of the song on his Gibson J-200 as well as the acoustic rhythm part. The acoustic rhythm part was likely played in D standard in the "C" position for a couple reasons: 1) How does one play a B flat like that in standard? and 2) In the promotional video for the song John is shown playing the C major, A minor, F major, G major chord progression on his Les Paul. Naturally following Fogerty's playing in the promo video we can also surmise that his chicken picked Les Paul part as well as the dueling Les Paul solos were done in D standard as well. This one was pretty easy to crack thanks to Ably House's great cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vScv6cwXIKc

Run Through The Jungle was a little trickier. I (like most others I'm sure) learned Run Through The Jungle in E standard or drop D, playing everything in the D minor position around the first through third frets, however, based on the sound of the record, John's track record with D standard, and several recent Fogerty performance clips I've come to the conclusion that the song was written, recorded, and later performed in D standard using the E minor position. Here's a performance to back this up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbGpfGDZwQg

I Heard It Through The Grapevine is almost always tabbed out in drop D online and in books, but there's enough evidence for me to believe that it was in D standard. Chiefly, the promo video for the song shows brief glimpses of John's hands playing an E power chord low on the neck with his middle finger reaching up to the D (C) string for that sweet melody. There are also numerous modern Fogerty performances to back this up. Here's that promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCCfc2vAuDU

Ramble Tamble is the only CCR song I know of that was ever recorded in drop D, with the middle section being reliant on the higher strings being in E and the verses needing that low D for the central riff. Fogerty also confirmed this in an interview that I don't care to track down, so here's some rehearsal footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EiBIdzhcfE

I hope this helps anyone who wants to learn some of this album's catalog, let me know if you have any differing ideas and love to hear what people think about John's gear on these songs as well.

Thanks,
Deacon