Swamp rock charms continue, inevitably, for Creedence Clearwater Revival on Willy and the Poor Boys. Their fourth album has the obvious standout of Fortunate Son, a song where the name will stand out before the beat, that incredible effect on a generation of listeners. But true to form, and it’s a constant for Creedence Clearwater Revival, the songs around it, those greats preceding it, are as strong and recognisable as Fortunate Son. Opening track Down on the Corner is by no means a hidden gem, it’s one of the band’s most popular and very best songs, but it’s easy to forget just how many hits the John Fogerty-featuring group were responsible for. Had it not been clear by this point in their careers, Creedence Clearwater Revival were a voice of the everyday American, or at least what was perceived as those who were being stomped on by the classes above. It works well for Willy and the Poor Boys, it keeps that fighting spirit alive even in the lowest moments.
The Vietnam War is the obvious indicator of what Fogerty and the band are writing about here. Songs like It Came Out of the Sky and Cotton Fields, in name alone, are enough to conjure muddied and bloodied battlefields in far-off lands. But it’s how these messages and brutal images are used, that’s what defines Willy and the Poor Boys. Creedence Clearwater Revival uses this horror to expose how the suffering made it back to the US, and it did so through poor boys, as Poorboy Shuffle alludes to. It’s the suggestiveness of Willy and the Poor Boys that keeps it so fresh. Harmonica thrills and the usual run of solid bass, guitar, and drumming mean there is both the no-frills experience but a complete overhaul of what these instruments can do. Poorboy Shuffle being an instrumental driven by harmonica feels more like a lament to those about to be lost.
Follow it up with Feelin’ Blue, a neat little segue into a swampier rock tone that’ll be familiar to returning listeners, and you have a real strong flow to Willy and the Poor Boys. Flip the record over, or just let the Spotify stream carry on, and you have the song that will define not just Creedence Clearwater Revival and Fogerty too, but the late 1960s and early 1970s of protest rock. It is a truly inspired piece of work that, despite how much airtime it still gets, has not gotten old. A perfect song that rallies the real troops, those who want to take a stand against skiving Senators and silver spoon dodgers. Anything to follow it will pale in comparison, and the short straw is drawn by the solid but soft sounding Don’t Look Now (It Ain’t You or Me). It works, though, the rest of the album follows suit.
Take The Midnight Special, for instance, a song which works only because of the hit Don’t Look Now (It Ain’t You or Me) takes. A brilliant song with the swampy sound taking hold brilliantly. That slower tempo is what makes the B-side such a success, and not just because it opens with a barnstormer of a song. It’s the laid-back suggestiveness but the brutal commentaries made on the likes of Side O’ The Road and closer Effigy that brings this feeling together so well. What Willy and the Poor Boys does is plant Creedence Clearwater Revival on the clear, right side of history when it comes to opposing war, particularly in Vietnam and the sacrifice of those who had no say in the matter. It’s a brutal message which still echoes through history now, and it’s made all the more painful by the brilliance of the playing, the writing, the stylishness the band always carried.
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