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 colored
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. That joy runs throughout the album, from the gleeful single "Down on the Corner" and the lazy jugband blues of "Poorboy Shuffle" through the great slow blues jam "Feelin' Blue" to the great rockabilly spiritual "Don't Look Now," one of
Fogerty's overlooked gems. The covers don't feel like throwaways, either, since both "Cotton Fields" and "The Midnight Special" have been overhauled to feel like genuine
CCR songs. It all adds up to one of the greatest pure rock & roll records ever cut. [Willy and the Poor Boys was re-released on LP in 2014.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine