Coursing from its headwaters in Wyoming's Wind River Range, the mighty Green River descends into Utah, flows east to Colorado, and then returns back through Utah as it carves a path through a dramatic and varied landscape of mountains, canyons and desert for 730 miles.

Regarding the title track, Fogerty recalled in 1993: Green River is really about this place where I used to go as a kid on Putah Creek, near Winters, California. I went there with my family every year until I was ten. Lot of happy memories there.

Accounts vary as to why the river is called the Green. One has it that it is because of the color of the water; another that it is named for a member of Ashley's original party of mountain men. John C. Frémont thought that the name came from the vegetation along the banks.

Considered one of the first grunge bands, Green River is best known for being the precursor to multiple key early 1990s rock bands, most notably Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, and Love Battery. Green River reunited for several live shows in 2008 and 2009.