willy and the poor boys

 Creedence Clearwater Revival tried to bring us up with the happy noise of this roots rock mock concept album.  The group had seen fantastic success already that year, with three singles ('Proud Mary', 'Bad Moon Rising', and 'Green River') peaking at number two on the US pop chart and two multi-platinum albums ('Bayou Country' and 'Green River'); but there was more to come.  

John Fogerty remembers:  “The year ’69 was special, for the remarkable number of albums CCR put out and for the cultural landscape of the time.  Woodstock happened that year. We landed on the moon that year. There was lots going on. John (Lennon) and Yoko Ono had their bed-in (in Montreal)...Nowadays, people would have too many professionals around them and they would warn them, ‘They are losing the momentum of the very first record.’ There would be all kinds of advice. Of course, if it was me, I wouldn’t take any of it. In fact, I wouldn’t take any of it then ... I was very driven. It was life and death. I could see we didn't have a publicist, we didn't have a manager, we didn't have a producer, and we were on the tiniest label in the world, so we had to do it with music. And that kind of meant me...What I clearly had an aptitude for was the music.  I knew exactly what to do. But the business part and the relationship part were not there at all. I mean woeful ... We're kind of out here all by ourselves, and I remember thinking, 'OK, well then I'm just going to have to do it with music.  And so that's really what I set out to do...On the first album, there were two songs that were really good — 'Suzie Q' and 'I Put a Spell On You.' I didn't write those songs. On the next album, the best songs were the songs I wrote, rather than the cover songs ... I've had a love of country music that goes back a long way.  I think about what I listened to growing up and the radio was really different than it is now. So many of the great songs that we may look back now and call country were played on the radio right next to Elvis Presley and the Beatles...As Pete Seeger's influence and celebrity rose in the '50s, my mom was very much a fan, and I began to hear these songs like 'If I Had a Hammer.' I was lucky because there was the folk boom in the '50s. My mother took me to several folk festivals in Berkeley. So you're sort of being exposed to lots of music, lots of philosophy.  Folk music by nature tends to be kind of left-leaning because it's about the downtrodden and trying to better the condition of unfortunate people or people who are being taken advantage of, which tends to be a liberal point of view. I've long wanted to, maybe in disguise, make what might be a conservative political folk album but you'd have a hard time writing a song about 'Where Do I Put My Diamond Necklace?' ... I would sit in my little apartment – which was very sparse – and stare at the wall. That’s how I wrote. I would stare at it all night. There was nothing hanging on the wall, because I didn’t have any money for paintings. It was just a beige wall. It was a blank slate, a blank canvas. But it was also exciting. I could go anywhere and do anything, because I was a writer. I was conjuring that place deep in my soul that was me...I was greatly influenced by the early records of Elvis Presley and I just thought that was the way that music should sound.  I also loved Carl Perkins’ great records from that era. And also Roy Orbison’s ‘Ooby Dooby’and ‘Go Go Go’...This statement holds true for everybodyin Creedence: simple is better, less is more.  But even though it’s simple rock’n’roll, everybody will have a certain role within the framework. Tom’s guitar playing may just sound like a guy in a garage strumming away, but it’s awfully specific.”





'Willy and the Poor Boys' was recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California with producer and arranger John Fogerty on vocals, lead guitar, piano, and harmonica on "Poorboy Shuffle";  Tom Fogerty on rhyhm guitar;  Stu Cook on bass and washtub bass on "Poorboy Shuffle";  and Doug Clifford on drums and washboard on "Poorboy Shuffle".   The sound was a deliberate counterpoint to the excess of the psychedelic movement as the group adopted a pseudonymous band name to underscore the differences between their own vision and the excess of overblown concept albums like 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'.  


'Willy and the Poor Boys' was the third album the group released in 1969.   Clifford considers:  “We worked on a 12-week cycle.  John’s theory was that if we ever went out of the charts, our career would be over and we’d be forgotten. None of our peers thought that way. It put a lot of pressure on John. A lot of pressure on all of us."


'Willy and the Poor Boys' went to twenty-five in Germany;  eleven in Japan;  ten in Finland and the UK;  four in the Netherlands;  three in the US; and number two in Australia, Canada, and Norway.  It has been certified double-platinum.  Cook says:   “1969 was one of those very special years in music and one I’m glad I got to be a part of...John was good at writing songs - no doubt about it, but he was not so good at business, at least not as good as he thought he was ... People called it swamp-rock. We never called it that. We just called it rock’n’roll.”









http://www.creedence-online.net/

http://www.johnfogerty.com/

http://creedence-revisited.com/

http://www.kolumbus.fi/~w419755/ccr-jcf/index.htm





"Down on the Corner" went to number three in the US.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJAjOlp4Tas


Early in the evenin' just about supper time,
Over by the courthouse they're starting to unwind.
Four kids on the corner trying to bring you up.
Willy picks a tune out and he blows it on the harp.

Down on the corner, out in the street
Willy and the Poorboys are playin'
Bring a nickel; tap your feet.

Rooster hits the washboard and people just got to smile,
Blinky, thumps the gut bass and solos for a while.
Poorboy twangs the rhythm out on his kalamazoo.
Willy goes into a dance and doubles on kazoo.

Down on the corner, out in the street
Willy and the Poorboys are playin'
Bring a nickel; tap your feet.

Down on the corner, out in the street,
Willy and the Poorboys are playin'
Bring a nickel; tap your feet.

You don't need a penny just to hang around,
But if you've got a nickel, won't you lay your money down?
Over on the corner there's a happy noise.
People come from all around to watch the magic boy.

Down on the corner, out in the street,
Willy and the Poorboys are playin';
Bring a nickel; tap your feet.

Down on the corner, out in the street
Willy and the Poorboys are playin'
Bring a nickel; tap your feet.

Down on the corner, out in the street
Willy and the Poorboys are playin'
Bring a nickel; tap your feet.






"Fortunate Son" charted at number fourteen in the US.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33qUqdZapw


Some folks are born, made to wave the flag
Ooo, their red, white and blue
And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief"
Ooo, they point the cannon at you, Lord

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no

Some folks are born, silver spoon in hand
Lord, don't they help themselves, y'all
But when the taxman comes to the door
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yeah

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no

Yeah, yeah
Some folks inherit star spangled eyes
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord
And when you ask 'em, "How much should we give?"
Ooh, they only answer "More! More! More!", y'all

It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no military son, son
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, one
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate son, no, no, no





'Willy and the Poor Boys' 
full album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sjLbxj1niw


all songs written by J. C. Fogerty, except as noted.

0:00 Down on the Corner
2:46 It Came Out of the Sky
5:42 Cotton Fields (Huddie Ledbetter)
8:45 Poorboy Shuffle
10:58 Feelin' Blue
16:10 Fortunate Son
18:31 Don't Look Now (It Ain't You or Me)
20:42 The Midnight Special (Traditional, arr. J. C. Fogerty)
24:56 Side o' the Road
28:20 Effigy