Willy & The Poor Boys (20 Bit Mastering) [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Creedence Clearwater Revival | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 4, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Fantasy
• ASIN: B00004TBWR
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,463 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Down on the Corner

2. It Came Out of the Sky

3. Cotton Fields

4. Poorboy Shuffle

5. Feelin' Blue

6. Fortunate Son

7. Don't Look Now

8. The Midnight Special

9. Side O' the Road

10. Effigy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CCR In Their Prime, July 16, 2000

By 

Keith Hannaleck (Adams, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Willy & The Poor Boys (20 Bit Mastering) (Audio CD)

CCR's fourth album "Willy And The Poor Boys", and perhaps their most commercially accessible, pushed the group into the rock and roll stratosphere reserved for likes of the Beatles, Hendrix, and Joplin. This was the group's third platinum album. Success seemed as though it came naturally for the group. John Fogerty's down to earth from-the-street vocal style endeared him to a large cross section of fans. Sounding as if they were from deep in the Louisiana Bayou rather than El Cerrito, California, they had plenty of rhythm and blues in there soul. They successfully combined those blues and r & b influences with rock music to come up with an irresistible sound that literally possessed your feet.

With Fogerty belting out anthems like "Fortunate Son", CCR won the hearts of Vietnam Veterans and protesters of war all across the star spangled land. The classic blues song "Cotton Fields", lets people know just how important blues music was to the group, as well as indicating where the heart and soul of their music emerged from. "The Midnight Special" was a chart stopper, and easily one of the most well known songs by the group to this day. "Down On The Corner", with it's funky and irresistible bass lines to start things off, really draws you right in and holds you mesmerized throughout the entire song. Besides being a wonderful foot stompin' boogie (and now classic song), it has become an enduring rock staple for the ages. Songs of this nature tend to easily hold their unwavering appeal without the ravaging effects of time changing anyone's opinion. "Effigy" is my personal favorite, it ends the album leaving you with a feeling of wanting and emptiness inside. The only thing that could possibly fill the void is more of the same music blaring out of your speakers.

Creedence Clearwater Revival held music lovers everywhere in the palm of their hands. While ruling the Top 40 airwaves and satisfying the anti-establishment in one powerful stroke, America embraced CCR. After all, they seemed to need each other.

The analog 20 bit K2 coding process renders a sparkling effect to this timeless music. No doubt, one of the most popular and successful remastering processes today. The eight albums chosen from the CCR catalog are given their due by the first class re-release program headed up by Fantasy.

Always impeccably tasteful, Fantasy never pulls any punches and never sacrifices a thing when it comes to quality. This series is a must addition for any CCR fan, or any serious rock and roll fan for that matter. Stay tuned for the next installment. This writer felt that starting off with the most important album of their career was most appropriate.

Keith Hannaleck July 10, 2000 MuzikMan's Sound Script

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meet Willy And His Poorboys!, June 10, 2002

By 

Brent Evans (Rockhampton, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Willy & The Poor Boys (20 Bit Mastering) (Audio CD)

By this time(1969-70), Creedence Clearwater Revival, under the leadership of John Fogerty was nigh on unbeatable in the singles charts(and their albums were pretty darn good,too). WILLY AND THE POORBOYS is an album based around the concept of a street corner band led by Willy (John Fogerty?). Tom Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug 'Cosmo' Clifford, naturally, portray the Poor Boys.

DOWN ON THE CORNER - An introduction to Willy And the Poorboys. Down home funkiness by a band that strangely had never been down south.Great harmonies on the chorus.

IT CAME OUT OF THE SKY - A humorus rocker of a something falling out of the sky,landing on a good'ol boy's farm and the American public's knee jerk reactions to it. Love the line, "And Ronnie the popular said it was a Communist plot"!

COTTON FIELDS - Country rock version of the Leadbelly folk standard. This version walks all over the Beach Boys' attempt at it around the same time.

POORBOY SHUFFLE - Willy and crew having a washboard jam session.Makes you think it is a real band on the corner playing for pennies and dimes.

FEELIN' BLUE - Rock blues number with a swampy kick. Bass is low and muttering, courtesy of Stu Cook.

FORTUNATE SON - Raging anti war stormer about how the wealthy seemed to be contributing less to the Vietnam war effort than the poor, in men and money. You can feel the scorn and fury directed at the 'fat cats'in Fogerty's voice. Still packs a punch over thirty years later.

DON'T LOOK NOW - Pure country ditty basically stating, "If you want something done,do it yourself; 'cause no one else is gonna do it".

THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL - Another Leadbelly tune that Fogerty makes all his own. This is down south folk rock with a swamp rock twist and the harmonies are spellbinding.Good to sing along to.

SIDE O' THE ROAD - Blues shuffle jam session that shows the band's chops off to great effect.

EFFIGY - This could be about the Vietnam war and the power of the protest movement: "Silent majority weren't keepin' quiet anymore!" Whatever the case,this is a powerful way to end a powerful album. A must for your collection!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poor sound enriched by remaster process, August 27, 2000

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Willy & The Poor Boys (20 Bit Mastering) (Audio CD)

It's about time this classic album got its due! The previous version released by Fantasy (and remastered by George Horn) sounded pretty pittiful. The poor quality Fantasy CDs were finally revealed as the shoddy mess they were when the gold editions were released by DCC. I paid the price for the import of this classic album. The sound is cleaner, criper and the definition superior to all previous versions (the DCC version excepted).

This is CCR (and Fogerty's) most complete, consistent album the band made. Cosmo's Factory is a close second although a bit less consistent than this classic. Pendulum marked the decline of the band in the quality of the songwriting (Mardi Gras is possibly one of the worst albums by a major rock band--equal to the Stones Emotional Rescue in its lack of creativity and depth). Clearly it was time for Fogerty to take flight and start his solo career (the John Fogerty album is a marked improvement over this and most of Pendulum. At least it sounds like he's having fun).

The addition of the liner notes puts the album and the band's early reputation into perspective. Although it may seem obvious now, when CCR were at the peak of their powers most music critics dismissed the band as a top 40 sell out. Ironic, then, that they are finally recognized as the premiere US rock band of the 60's.

Complaints, well I have a few. For the additional money (the mastering was already done by the Japanese for their reissue series last year) Fantasy could have added some outtakes or alternate versions of the songs included here. Hell, they could have added live tracks that haven't appeared on vinyl or CD. While the packaging is an improvement on the previous skimpy version, this classic warrents the deluxe treatment given to Marshall Crenshaw's debut by Rhino.