An A+ Album: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Willy and the Poor Boys

They've played to larger audiences, too.

I luck out again by choosing a short album. When I hit the five-CD Star Time or have to re-listen to all 69 Love Songs, I'll be putting in a lot of listenin'.

Fill that jug full of your favorite still-distilled moonshine, because this is what I'm dealing with today:

THE BASIC DETAILS
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Album: Willy and the Poor Boys
Label: Fantasy
Release Year: 1969
Length: 34:31
Producer: John Fogerty

What the songs on this album might compel you to do: Ride shotgun in your buddy's Challenger with a bottle of Wild Turkey in one hand and a, well, shotgun in the other. And when you run out of booze and rob the local liquor store, the guy behind the counter will be all, "Go ahead, man, the owner's a dick, anyway!" and offer you a hit of his weed.

CHRISTGAU AND THE ALBUM
What does the Dean of American Rock Critics have to say?

Somehow I have never bothered to state my almost unqualified admiration for John Fogerty. Creedence's ecumenical achievement is almost unbelievable: this is the only group since the Beatles and the Stones to turn out hit after hit without losing any but the most perverse hip music snobs. With this in mind, Fogerty's subtlety as a political songwriter (have you ever really dug the words of "Fortunate Son"?) comes as no surprise. This is everything a good rock album should be--the best they've done yet, I think. A+

How many words is that? 87.

What are your favorite words or phrases? "ecumenical achievement"

How does the A+ grade compare with other albums from the band?
Creedence fairs well in the Christgau grading system: two A's, an A-, a B+, and three B's.

ANY OTHER NOTABLE INFO?

• Amazon: On one of the Amazon offerings there are 41 reviews, 33 of which rate it 5 stars. The lowest-ranking review, only 2 stars, is not about the album but a complaint about the lack of "multichannel sound."
• Allmusic: 5 stars (out of 5), four "Track Picks," plus a reviews of the most well known songs, "Down on the Corner" and "Fortunate Son." Review excerpt: "a fun record, perhaps the breeziest album CCR ever made."
• Rolling Stone: Ranks #392 on the magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time," which was compiled in 2003: "John Fogerty's ability to wed rockabilly and swamp rock into catchy, complex arrangements gives Willy a durability few rock albums can match."
• YouTube: All the tracks are likely available.

WHAT DID YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?

Had I heard of the the band, prior to seeing it on Christgau's list? Yes.
Had I heard of the album, prior to seeing it on Christgau's list? I don't think I would have been able to name this album, so I guess the answer would be "no."
Had I heard any of the songs? Yep. Who hasn't?

AND NOW, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT IT?
Because I didn't much listen to the radio when I was a lad in the single digits of age, most of my exposure to music came from TV commercials from music companies like K-Tel. I'd discovered CCR though one of these commercials, and I don't know what's stranger: the fact that I can remember the exact commercial, or the fact that it took me about 20 seconds to find the commercial on YouTube (and the fact that someone recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube):

I know this is the commercial from my past because I remember that it went on forever, and I recall the moment early on (at the 15-second-or-so mark) when the voiceover guy identifies each band member and concludes with "...and JOHN FOGARTY!" I remember thinking, "Who the hell is John Fogarty?"

WHO THE HELL IS JOHN FOGARTY?
I'm taking the easy way out by directing you to Fogarty's Wikipedia page for the basic details, but what's important is this quick timeline regarding :

• 1959: John Fogarty formed an instrumental trio called The Blue Velvets with Stu Cook and Doug Clifford.
• 1960: John's brother Tom joined the band as the singer.
• 1964: While recording their first songs for Fantasy Records, label co-owner Max Weiss changes the band's name to The Visions.
• 1964 (a bit later): Before those songs are released, Weiss decides to rename the band again, this time as The Golliwogs, "an apparent reference to a once-popular minstrel doll called a Golliwogg."

Here's a catchy-if-heavily-echoed tune from The Blue Velvets:

And here's a fun little number, an almost-hit, from The Golliwogs. Note that both songs are about a "girl," but the two songs sound as if they're from two completely different rock genres, if not eras.

Anyway, Wikipedia further condenses the next bit of CCR history very succinctly:

Eventually John Fogerty took control of the group, writing all of their material, singing lead vocals, and blossoming into a multi-instrumentalist who played keyboards, harmonica, and saxophone in addition to lead guitar. By 1967, he was producing the group's recordings. In December 1967, the band changed its name to Creedence Clearwater Revival. The band's first album as Creedence Clearwater Revival was released in 1968.

The CCR Wikipedia page notes that the Golliwogs name was changed after Fantasy was bought by Saul Zaentz, an interesting fellow in his own right (the guy won three Best Picture Oscars and is still kicking at age 91). Zaentz told the band that they could record a full-length album if they changed their name, and the Brothers Fogerty and Cook and Clifford probably yelled "OK!" before Zaentz could finish his sentence.

Speaking of Fantasy, another reason I'd heard many CCR songs was because they've appeared in several commercials, much to John Fogerty's chagrin. Fogerty and Fantasy were also involved in a Supreme Court decision, Fogerty v. Fantasy, regarding lawyers fees and copyrights and stuff that makes a case involving a rock band and a record label sound very boring.

CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE ALBUM NOW?
Willy and the Poor Boys comes at about the midpoint of the band's career, the fourth of seven studio albums between 1968 and 1972. That's a steady output even before you learn that Willy was the third CCR album released in 1969! To put things in a self-centered context, I never went out of my way to listen to CCR, and I don't listen to "classic" rock stations, but I can recall at least ten of their songs (though maybe that greatest-hits commercial from the 1970s is the reason for that).

Interestingly, although Christgau awards this album an A+, the band's follow-up album, 1970's Cosmo's Factory, sold more (4x platinum vs. 2x platinum for Willy) and spawned more hits. Christgau delivered an A to Cosmo's Factory, so there must have been something that Willy had that Cosmo's didn't.

I'm not qualified to compare the albums, but I can say that this album was the first A+ album (out of four that I've listened to for this blog) that seems to really warrant that highest and Christgauest of grades.

"Down on the Corner" is another song that falls under "I've heard this so many times that it's lost its magic for me," but I have to admit that when I popped the disc into my car's CD player and heard those opening beats, followed by that familiar bass line, followed by Fogerty's howl, I was pumped up enough to pull my car off the road and onto the shoulder to pass the rush-hour traffic on the way home. (I drive a Toyota Echo,  so I probably would have flipped the car on a small stone.)

I'm probably in the minority, however, when it comes to "Fortunate Son," the lyrics to which I never "dug" as much as Christgau. I don't have a problem with the message, but the tune seems a bit heavy-handed, and I don't care for the music, either. Or, maybe I'm just jingoistic: USA! USA!

But plenty of people love "Fortunate Son," and I'm sure there are folks who'll enjoy a song like "Effigy," which isn't one of my favorites, either. But I really like (besides "Down on the Corner") the, uh, bluesy "Feelin' Blue," which makes me want to whip up my own batch of corn mash whiskey.

Even though I'm incapable of summoning adjectives more tired than "great," this is truly a great album, and it hasn't aged a bit.

IN RELATED NEWS
Where I can, I'm going to also include links to songs that use samples of the albums I discuss. MF DOOM and Paul Barman turned the "Down on the Corner" riffs into something even catchier, though I'm sure John Fogerty will be pissed off about it.

It also appears at the end of The Beastie Boys' "Time to Get Ill," but that's more in the fadeout.

A PHILISTINE'S SUMMARY OF FIELD DAY
Without getting all "music critic-y," did you like it? Yes. Hell yes. Even the couple of tracks I didn't fully enjoy.

Which tracks would you consider for your iPod? "Down on the Corner," "It Came Out of the Sky," "Feelin' Blue," "Don't Look Now"

How would you describe and/or recommend this to others? It's what pop music sounded like in the early 1980s, before elements of dance and shitty drums ruined it for most people.

What would you grade this album, based on Christgau's Consumer Guide grading system? An unqualified A+, even though I didn't love every song. (Does that make it a qualified A+ after all?)

Is Cosmo's Factory a better album? I haven't listened to it in its entirely, but I do enjoy the hits I'm familiar with. Maybe I'll do a follow-up sometime and compare the two albums. Or I'll drunk-dial Christgau and ask him what Willy had that Cosmo's didn't. Hopefully, the jail will have Internet access.

There's a lot of CCR-related facts and trivia that didn't make it to this post; maybe I'll discuss some of it in the future. Meanwhile, on my A+ playlist for the near future: Randy Newman, Arto Lindsay, and Lefty Frizzell.