Creedence Clearwater Revival Willy and the Poor Boys (1969)
Songs: Down on the Corner, It Came out of the Sky, Cotton Fields, Poorboy Shuffle, Feelin´ Blue, Fortunate Son, Don´t Look Now, The Midnight Special, Side o´ the Road, Effigy.
Type of Music: Late Sixties Blues (Swamp) Rock.
Comments:
CCR´s fourth album was released at the end of 1969 and was another huge commercial success. It tells the story of the imaginary blues/rock band Willy and the Poor Boys, four guys from California showing the world they can play Southern Music as well as anybody else.
And indeed, they took two American originals (Cotton Fields and Midnight Special) and made them sound as if they were written for CCR in the first place. And that says something about their qualities. Nevertheless, I never liked Cotton Fields as a song despite the nice harmony vocals and I assure you that I´ve heard a lot of versions through the years from artists ranging between Udo Jürgens and the Beach Boys.
No, I prefer the rockers on the Album. For sure Fortunate Son is one of the great Anti Vietnam-War Songs and John sounds really upset here. And let´s not forget It came out of the Sky, for me the best song on the album. It´s a great rocker in Chuck Berry style. Try it out in your car with the speakers as loud as you can stand!
Everybody of course knows Down on the Corner. You probably heard it on the radio today and yesterday and the day before yesterday and…..
Less known is the instrumental Side o´ the Road. In fact it´s John´s guitar solo set on a Booker T & the MG´s kind of groove.
The Blues shuffle Feelin´ Blue is a nice enough song but I took away half a point as it´s just a tiny bit too long. And if you´re curious if CCR could come up with their version of Jimi´s Hey Joe, listen carefully to Effigy.
Some filler here as well. I fail to see the relevance of the Poorboy Shuffle and Don´t look Now is an inferior re-write of Bad Moon Rising.
So what do I tell you. It´s not a bad album but it does not quite convince me. I consider it to be a step back when compared to Green River.
Rating: ******* (7 out of 10)
Black = Good Songs
Green = Great Songs
Red = Could Be Better
Who should buy this Record: It´s not the first CCR Album you would want to buy. But Give it a Chance if you find it remastered and cheap!
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