| "Lookin' Out My Back Door" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Creedence Clearwater Revival | ||||
| from the album Cosmo's Factory | ||||
| B-side | "Long As I Can See the Light" | |||
| Released | July 25, 1970[1] | |||
| Format | 7" 45 RPM | |||
| Genre | Southern rock, country rock | |||
| Length | 2:35 | |||
| Label | Fantasy | |||
| Writer(s) | John Fogerty | |||
| Producer | John Fogerty | |||
| Creedence Clearwater Revival singles chronology | ||||
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"Lookin' Out My Back Door" is a song recorded by the American band Creedence Clearwater Revival and written by the band's lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, John Fogerty. It is included on their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory, the group's fifth album.
The song is known for its upbeat tempo, its down-home feel, and a signature change in key and tempo towards the end. The song's lyrics, filled with colorful, dream-like imagery, led some to believe that the song was about drugs. According to the drug theory, the "flying spoon" in the song was a cocaine spoon, and the crazy animal images were an acid trip. Fogerty, however, has stated in interviews that the song was actually written for his then three-year old son, Josh. Fogerty has also said that the reference to a parade passing by was inspired by the Dr. Seuss book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.
"Lookin' Out My Back Door", along with "Long as I Can See the Light" on the flip-side, was released as a single in July 1970. The double sided single, counted as one entry by the methodology used by Billboard magazine at the time, eventually climbed to number two on the Billboard Pop Singles chart (by comparison, "Long as I Can See the Light" only reached number fifty-seven on the concurrent Cash Box singles chart, which still tracked the performance on both sides of a single separately). This marked the fifth (and final) time the group had a double sided single accomplish that feat on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. The single was held out of the top spot by Diana Ross's cover of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough ("Lookin' Out My Back Door" did top the Cash Box singles chart for one week). "Long as I Can See the Light" also reached #20 on the U.K. Pop chart.
In live performances, Fogerty sometimes changes "tambourines and elephants are playing in the band" to "tangerines and Elvis are playing in the band". In a recent show of Austin City Limits he added a fiddle, to give the song more of a country sound.
It was featured in the Coen Brothers' movie The Big Lebowski and in the 2006 drama We Are Marshall.
In 1973, this song was covered by Hong Kong female singer/organist Ma Chia Nar (馬嘉娜), on her LP album For Mama．There Goes My Everything with the local Life Records.
Heavy metal band Children of Bodom released a cover of the song on their 2009 album Skeletons in the Closet.