We all know the story behind this album. Tom Fogerty left Creedence Clearwater Revival because he was jealous of how his brother John Fogerty had more talent and had creative control over the band he made the world care about in the first place. The other band members, likewise upset at not being able to feature their own songs on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s albums, threw a fit, and John Fogerty (perhaps to prove a point) allowed their songs to dominate CCR’s final album, Mardi Gras.

We also all know how bad this album is (and it IS bad; not underrated in the slightest), but just think about this for a second. The other band members have had around four years to write their own songs on their own time—four fucking years—when it took John Fogerty mere months to churn out several classics. After four damn years, the best the other band members could come up with after combing the depths of their talent are the passionless, by-the-numbers generic country rock songs of Mardi Gras. Hilarious and sad.

The messy murder of a once-great band.