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Make no mistake, Willy & the Poor Boys is a fun record, perhaps the breeziest album CCR ever made. Apart from the eerie minor-key closer "Effigy" (one of John Fogerty's most haunting numbers), there is little of the doom that coloured Green River. Fogerty's rage remains, blazing to the forefront on "Fortunate Son," a working-class protest song that cuts harder than any of the explicit Vietnam protest songs of the era, which is one of the reasons that it hasn't aged where its peers have. Also, there's that unbridled vocal from Fogerty and the ferocious playing on CCR, which both sound fresh as they did upon release. "Fortunate Son" is one of the greatest, hardest rock & rollers ever cut, so it might seem to be out of step with an album that is pretty laid-back and friendly, but there's that elemental joy that by late '69 was one of CCR's main trademarks.
Tracklist
1 Down On The Corner
2 It Came Out Of The Sky
3 Cotton Fields
4 Poor Boy Shuffle
5 Feelin' Blue
6 Fortunate Son
7 Don't Look Now
8 The Midnight Special
9 Side O' The Road
10 Effigy
*CD Bonus Tracks
11 Fortunate Son (Live In Manchester, England; 9/1/71
12 It Came Out Of The Sky (Live In Berlin, Germany; 9/16/71)
13 Down On The Corner (Jam With Booker T. & The MGs At Fantasy Studios, 1970)