CCR: Willy and the Poor Boys (40th Ann Ed)

In honor of the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Fantasy Records is releasing the six studio albums of the band as a quartet. No word yet of their final album, Mardi Gras, which found lead guitarist John Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford as a trio after rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty quit.

Willy and the Poor Boys was the band’s fourth album and the third to be released in 1969, capping an amazing creative output. The album opens with the Stax Records-sounding “Down on the Corner.” John sings and tells the story of the “four kids on the corner trying to bring you up” whom the album is named after. The song is a joyous number, capturing the spirit of playing music for its own sake, offsetting the despair of others who find themselves stuck in “Lodi” again, as sung about on previously on Green River.

“It Came Out of The Sky” evokes the ‘50s with John’s jangly, Chuck Berry-influenced guitar, a driving rhythm section, and lyrics bringing to mind sci-fi movies about aliens. Doug pounds the cymbals during the final chorus. Kids might miss out on the name-dropping as Vice President Spiro Agnew, California Governor Ronald Reagan, and CBS Television newsmen Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid all get referenced.

Creedence offers a tip o’ the hat to musician Leadbelly on Willy. “Cotton Fields” is played as a laidback, country rock song, sounding like The Eagles before the Eagles existed. “The Midnight Special” is a traditional song Leadbelly was known for playing. While the band’s hits were popular on the radio in 1983, this deep cut appeared in the opening of Twilight Zone: The Movie and revealed a different side of the band to an audience who barely knew them. Starting as a blues number, John’s distant vocal and the slow, extended playing of the guitar notes are compelling. Then, the rest of the band joins in and it becomes signature Creedence.

“Poorboy Shuffle” sounds like a jugband instrumental, possibly with the washboard and the gut bass referenced in “Down on the Corner.” If you go by the album photos, John’s harmonica leads the way. It crossfades with “Feelin’ Blue,” a rhythm & blues number so authentic it’s easy to assume it’s a cover, but John is credited as the writer. It oozes “smooth” as they shuffle along and creating one of the few CCR tunes to make out to.

“Fortunate Son” is the classic antiwar song that drew attention to the inequity between the majority of poor and working class folk who went to Vietnam and those who avoided the draft because they were sons of senators and millionaires. Yet, it transcends that time and still resonates today because it speaks to the inequities in society. President George W. Bush, as one “born silver spoon in hand” and who sent many “down to war,” is a perfect embodiment of the title character.

“Don’t Look Now” is definitely Sun Records rock ‘n’ roll with John giving us a little Elvis in his vocal. “Side of the Road” sounds like Creedence’s response to Booker T. & The M.G.’s classic instrumental “Green Onions.” Tom’s rhythm guitar fills in for Booker’s organ and John recreates Steve Cropper’s guitar sound as the rest of band keep a sure and steady beat.

“Effigy” is the longest song and closes the album proper. It sounds more like the music coming out of the San Francisco scene at the time. The tone of John’s guitar is more ragged-sounding like Neil Young and Doug’s drums are more prominent. The lyrics tell a very interesting tale of revolution. It’s my favorite discovery.

This edition offers three bonus tracks. The first two tracks are more previously unreleased tracks record live in Europe 1971 during the final tour of the trio. “Fortunate Son” from Manchester, England sounds decent, but the vocal drowns out the guitars. The drums can be heard between. “It Came Out of The Sky” from Berlin, Germany has similar sound level with the guitar slightly raised in the mix, but not by much.

“Down on the Corner” is taken from a jam session with Booker T. & the M.G.’s recorded for a TV special in 1970. Surprisingly, the historic moment wasn’t better captured because it sounds like a consumer tape recorder captured the song in mono. The liner notes it is the best source available. Booker’s organ and Cropper’s guitar are the most obvious elements added to the arrangement.

Willy and the Poor Boys is another worthy addition to the band's catalog and a continuing testament to the band’s talents. Their wide appeal is evident by how well the album performed as it crossed over and appeared on both the Pop Album and Black Album. It also had two singles make the Pop charts, “Down On The Corner” doing the best by reaching #3, and one hit the Country charts.

CCR: Green River (40th Ann Ed)

In honor of the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Fantasy Records is releasing the six studio albums of the band as a quartet. No word yet of their final album, Mardi Gras, which found lead guitarist John Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford as a trio after rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty quit.

John must have been on fire creatively because in March 1969, weeks after Bayou Country, they released “Bad Moon Rising” with “Lodi” on the flipside, two CCR classics with the former arguably being their definitive and most well-known song. In August of that same year, Green River was released. If Bayou County is where they found their distinctive sound, Green River is where they perfected it. The only flaw is its length, coming in at 28-plus minutes, but it’s a fair trade off for such a quick turnaround of such strong material.

A surefire way to get yourself back to the bayou is to travel down “Green River.” John’s swamp boogie guitar on the title track that opens the album lets you know your heading in the right direction to get “back down where cool water flows, yeah.” The reason the narrator needs to “remember things I love” is because many of the songs on the album are filled with gloom and doom and in his youth he was given sage advice from Old Cody Jr. that “if you get lost come on home to green river.”

One reason to feel lost is the “Commotion” of life. The band rips through this one at an up-tempo pace, reflecting the hectic nature of life as people are “hurryin' to get” where there going. However, a commotion can be raised by someone not even moving, such as those who “keep a-talkin', they don't say a word,” yet that doesn’t stop them as they “Jaw, jaw, jaw, jaw, jaw,” including those in the White House, one of John’s first songwriting slights at those in charge.

“Tombstone Shadow” is another spooky blues number in the vein of “Graveyard Train.” This time a gypsy man, “way down in san berdoo/… Said I got thirteen months of bad luck.” John’s guitar has a great tone that rings out. On the second bridge, there’s a fantastic, creepy-sounding guitar duet.

“Wrote A Song For Everyone” is a little bit country as John writes a song for those that need to be remembered: those in the welfare line, those goin’ down to war, those in jail fighting for what’s right. This is one of the many songs that show how the talented the rest of the band was as they are create music that matches whatever genre the song resembled.

“Bad Moon Rising” is about the end of the world as he knows it and the band sounds fine. Never has impending Armageddon sounded so good with John’s almost joyful delivery backed by a foot-tapping, hand-clapping beat. They might have the right idea. Shouldn’t we all be “quite prepared to die” since death is part of the price of admission in this crazy thing we call life? If you have to deal with earthquakes and lighting, hurricanes and floods, better to do it with a smile on your face and a spring in your step.

“Lodi” tells the tale of so many who “set out on the road,/ Seeking my fame and fortune,/ Looking for a pot of gold.” It’s especially poignant for the musician who, in contrast to what they hear from their friends or “the man from the magazine,” comes up short on talent or luck, seeing their one-night stand last seven months and their dreams turn to home.

“Cross-Tie Walker” has a riff similar to “Bad Moon Rising” and continues John’s fascination with trains. “Sinister Purpose” finds the Devil offering a deal to “Make you rich and wise” and the music is wonderfully evocative and menacing.

The album proper closes with the only cover “The Night Is The Right Time.” First recorded in 1937 by Roosevelt “The Honeydripper” Sykes then a year later by Big Bill Broonzy. The definitive version for me is Ray Charles’ version from 1958 where Margie Hendricks joined him. CCR do a fine job, but it doesn’t fit the mood or themes of the album.

Probably do to its short length, Green River offers the most bonus tracks of the re-issues. Two unfinished songs feature only the music. “Broken Spoke Shuffle” has serious country western twang. “Glory Be” has a British Invasion sound and Stu standouts on bass like never before, offering up some funky lines that make you wish he had been allowed to do this more often.

The three live tracks are from the band’s final concert swing through Europe as a trio in 1971. “Bad Moon Rising” from Berlin, Germany is played in their typical “slightly faster live” pace. John’s vocals are mic’d well, but his guitar sounds out of tune and over amplified so you can’t make anything else out but the drums. In this performance, some of the joy is missing and is replaced with trepidation.

The melding of “Green River/ Suzie Q” shows how close the music. In fact, the transition is seamless. The audio quality is much better in its presentation of the whole band, likely due to this performance being recorded for but cut from Live in Europe.

While the audio quality of “Lodi” from Hamburg, Germany doesn’t sound good, the bad recording actually adds to the song. The poor-sounding performance helps to exemplify why the narrator is stuck in Lodi, and sounds like an AM radio station having trouble picking up a signal.

Creedence Clearwater Revival didn’t rest on their laurels as they toured, including joining the world at Woodstock, and released Willie and the Poor Boys this same year in November.

CCR: Bayou Country (40th Ann Ed)

In honor of the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Fantasy Records is releasing the six studio albums of the band as a quartet. No word yet of their final album, Mardi Gras, which found lead guitarist John Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford as a trio after rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty quit.

It took them less than a year after their debut album release, but Creedence Clearwater Revival found their distinctive sound, helped in part by playing these songs many times live before recording them.

“Born on the Bayou” is quintessential CCR as it evokes Louisiana, or more accurately “Loo-siana.” The opening feedback transports the listener through a mist while the slow vibrato of John’s guitar slowly clears the air, revealing a porch in the backwoods on a warm, humid day. John regales you from his rocking chair with a story from his youth as you sway in the swing, both sharing some sweet tea. His gruff, ragged vocals sing out with such conviction that this has to be his story. He tells us about his “ol’ hound dog…chasin’ down a hoodoo” and “rollin’ with some Cajun queen,” painting a clear, vivid picture of the areas even for those that had never been to bayou country. Doug adds cowbell to the back half of the song.

With Tom on acoustic rhythm guitar “Bootleg” builds on the Southern feel. Where the lyrics are supposed to be “bootleg, bootleg,” John sounds like he is instead speaking French Creole and singing “boule’ boule’,” which had to be on purpose for effect.

The band plays a great, smoldering blues rhythm line on the over eight-minute epic “Graveyard Train.” John has an echo on his voice that augments the spooky mood as he sings about the car accident he was partially responsible for where “thirty people lost their lives.” The harmonicas add a haunting effect. It is credited as an original, but it sounds like it could easily have been a gem recorded by Alan Lomax years earlier.

They cover the Little Richard classic “Good Golly Miss Molly.” John’s vocals can’t hit the high notes, nor does he try, but the low gruff end sounds good, and his guitar replaces Little Richard’s piano.

Another original that sounds like it could have been a cover is the Chicago blues-inspired “Penthouse Pauper.” John’s guitar playing is fantastic as he alternates firing off notes and bending them notes to his will. The song fades out and I am compelled to hit repeat it. This song could not have been too long. Considering I have never heard this song until this assignment, I can only summarize that there has been something wrong with if every single programmer at every single classic rock station I have ever listened to because everyone should know this Creedence song alongside all their other hits. If you don’t, consider your life incomplete.

Creedence takes us down the Mississippi as they tell the classic tale of “Proud Mary.” They take the beginning of this song and do it nice and easy and then do the finish the same way. John’s guitar solo was intended to emulate Steve Cropper of the MGs. The single was the band’s first top ten hit. It was paired with “Bayou Country” and reached #2 on the charts, which is as high as they ever got. In fact they have the most #2 singles of any artist that never had a #1,

The album proper closes with dirty blues rocker “Keep on Chooglin’” that offers some great advice passed on by many musicians over the years, before and after: “You got to ball and have a good time.” While John gets to shine with his great guitar work and harmonica solo, here and throughout, it’s easy to overlook the talents of the rest of the band. They are consistent and unwavering regardless of the song’s length as they allow John to venture out and soak up all the limelight.

The bonus tracks features “Bootleg” (Alternate Take). It’s almost twice as long and sandpaper blocks join the percussion towards the song’s end. The remaining three are all live tracks. “Born on the Bayou” and “Proud Mary” are both taken from their final European tour in 1971 when they played as a trio. The tracks have not been previously released. The audio of “Born on the Bayou” from Royal Albert Hall is slightly distorted. It doesn’t help that sound isn’t as full due to Tom’s rhythm guitar missing. In Stockholm, Sweden, “Proud Mary” suffers the same flaws and is played at a tad faster pace. Both songs are shorter than the studio versions. I would have preferred songs from the time of the album’s creation, but I’ll take what I can get.

“Crazy Otto” comes from the March 1969 Fillmore Auditorium gig recorded for San Francisco station KSAN. It’s an eight-minute instrumental jam where the quartet shows they aren’t solely looking eastward to the past because this psychedelic blues jam is in synch with the then-current music scene. A harmonica joins the mix in place of the lead guitar at three minutes in for a little more than two minutes and then John switches back.

The entire Bayou Country sounds so good it had to be blaring out of the cars of all the cool kids 40 years ago. It still should be today. Plan a trip there real soon.

CCR: Creedence Clearwater Revival (40th Ann Ed)

In honor of the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Fantasy Records is releasing the six studio albums of the band as a quartet. No word yet of their final album, Mardi Gras, which found lead guitarist John Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford as a trio after rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty quit.

Released in 1968 Creedence Clearwater Revival is a brief introduction to the band with eight songs coming in at almost 34 minutes. They play music that evokes genres associated with the South, which is surprising when revealed that they come from San Francisco, a scene awash in psychedelia at the time. They were a roots rock band, steeped in American music traditions, long before the term was used.

The album opens with a cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins “I Put A Spell On You.” The music and John’s wailing vocal retain some of the eerie mood of the original. Also, John’s guitar solos are fantastic coming out the left speaker, whether stretching out the notes or strumming at a blistering pace with Tom joining in on the latter. As I soak them in on repeated listens, I realize he is a much better player than I or anyone I remember ever gave him credit for on the strength of this performance alone.

A radio edit of their cover of Dale Hawkins’ “Susie Q” was their first big hit and reached as high as #11 on the Pop charts, but the album cut is fantastic. Coming in at over eight minutes, the influences of the San Francisco scene are evident as the band stretches out with John soloing out of the right speaker and the band just chugging along nicely out the left.

Aside from those two classic rock staples, the remaining songs on the album are not as well known and reveal a band trying different musical ideas as they seek their identity. The Creedence signature sound hasn’t coalesced yet, but you can hear the elements forming. The third cover on the album is of Stax Records artist Wilson Pickett’s “Ninety-Nine And A Half” as the boys head east on US 40 to interpret some Memphis soul. “The Working Man” is an upbeat blues rock tune filtered a through a bit of Cream. “Get Down Woman” has a classic ‘50s feel with lyrics that could have been sung by Elvis. “Gloomy” finds the boys going psychedelic with the sound effects of a clock and using the studio to manipulate the guitar similar to The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

There are two songs from their previous incarnation as The Golliwogs. “Porterville,” the first CCR single and coincidentally the last single by the Golliwogs, with its jangly guitar and background vocals sounds like The Byrds and The Beatles circa 1965. “Walk On The Water” is a remake of “Walking On The Water.” Similar to “Gloomy,” it finds the band again playing with studio effects to augment the song.

The 40th anniversary edition of Creedence Clearwater Revival features four bonus tracks, two from the studio and two live. “Call It Pretending” was the B-side of “Porterville.” It has much more of a Motown R&B sound. A cover of Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me” was recorded during their first studio date and would be rerecorded for Cosmo’s Factory. The two live tracks, “ Ninety-Nine And a Half” and “Susie Q,” are taken from a 3/14/69 performance at the Fillmore in San Francisco, which was recorded for radio station KSAN. “Susie Q” gets extended over eleven minutes. The extra time allows John to stretch out on his guitar, venturing into ragged and rugged terrain one usually finds Neil Young. The band, particularly Clifford’s drums, keeps an intense rhythm going. The audience voices their approval at the conclusion.

Ben Fong-Torres provides new liner notes reminiscing about the album and the band. The back of the album is recreated, but the white words on the black and white photo are hard to make out, but I am pretty sure Ralph J. Gleason must have had good things to say about the band and its debut. I know I do.