The 500 - #309 - Willy And The Poor Boys - Creedence Clearwater Revival

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 309

Album Title: Willie And The Poor Boys

Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival

Genre: Rock, Folk Rock, Southern Rock

Recorded: Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco, California

Released: November, 1969

My age at release: 4

How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, 193, Moving up 116 places

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Fortunate Son

I watched a lot of television as a kid, much to the chagrin of my parents. "The Goggle Box" was a pejorative I often heard bandied about by my father. In my defence, I also spent plenty of time outside with my friends. Growing up in a farming community in southwestern Ontario, I put hundreds of miles on my bicycle every summer. I swam (in Lake Erie and in friends' pools),played hockey (road and ice), baseball, soccer and football. I was an active kid. Television was, in a time before the internet, one of my few windows on the world and I devoured the information it provided.

Even television commercials were part of my media literacy education in the 70s. When I try to explain to my students that some commercials were up to two minutes in length and we couldn't fast-forward them, I am greeted by befuddled stares. After all, they live in a world of commercial-free streaming services and social media sites where a ten-second commercial  is  an exhausting inconvenience. Imagine their surprise when I tell them that my TV received stations via an antenna and  limited to about six  channels.

The location of our home, on the northern shore of Lake Erie helped us receive several U.S.-based stations, including a UHF (Ultra High Frequency) channel from Lorain, Ohio -- WUAB TV.

The station catered to kids and pre-teens in the early afternoon, with plenty of sitcom reruns (Gilligan's Island, The Monkees) and my favourite, the Marvel Comics Superheroes Animated Series.

Among the many commercials I watched between the adventures of Iron Man or the hijinks of Gilligan were advertisements for Greatest Hits record compilations by artists from the previous generation. I saw ads for Roger Whittaker, Frankie Vally & The Four Seasons and Engelbert Humperdinck, but the one that stood out most for me was this commercial for a three-record set by band Creedence Clearwater Revival.

It was the first time I had heard of the band and the song snippets from the commercial had me hooked. This was great music. I'll admit, I was confused by the band's name. I was familiar with the word "revival", but it had negative religious connotations for me. I could only think of  evangelical hucksters preaching the Gospel while bilking their congregation of money.. Even at the age of 12, and long before their eventual arrests, I knew that Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker were sleazy fraudsters. Was this a record by a religious group?

Bakker being arrested for fraud in 1998

Creedence Clearwater Revival (often shortened to either Creedence or CCR) was an American rock band formed by three high school students near the San Francisco area in the late 1950s John Fogerty (guitars and vocals), Stu Cook (piano and bass) and Doug Clifford (drums). Eventually, John's older brother, Tom, joined the band and they began playing instrumentals and "jukebox standards" initially under the name Tom Fogerty and The Blue Velvets.

Tom Fogerty and The Blue Velvets (1961)

Prior to settling on the name CCR, they, unfortunately in retrospect, temporarily called themselves The Golliwogs. As a child, particularly during my time in England, the golliwog was a ubiquitous soft cloth doll. Much like CCR, those British schoolchildren had no idea of its racist roots and the pain it caused the black community.

"The Golliwog" was a character created by children's cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton (1873-1922). Inspired by the black-faced minstrel performers at the turn of the last century, it was a racist caricature of African Americans, and was ultimately decried

Wisely, the band changed their name to CCR in January, 1967, and released their debut, self-titled album in 1968.

The following year, 1969, was a busy one. The group released three records, Bayou Country in January, Green River in August and this week's title, Willy And The Poor Boys, in November. This productive period and a string of hit singles quickly established the group's trademark "swamp rock" sound -- a distinctive genre of music created by CCR that borrowed heavily from the Louisiana blues of the 1950s. Although he was a California native, singer John Fogerty sounded like a Cajun, straight out of the Mississippi backwaters.

John Fogerty (1969)

When I first heard CCR on that television commercial, it was the raspy, high tenor of Fogerty that grabbed  me. It’s  a voice I enjoy hearing today. I selected the track Fortunate Son for my "500 Spotify Playlist" because it captures the raw, fiery power of Fogerty's bayou-esque voice. It is also a powerful anti-war and counter-culture protest song that, for some odd reason, politicians (including Donald Trump) keep mistaking as a "pro-American" anthem to play at their rallies...until, invariably, Fogerty sends them a cease and desist letter.

The band released three more records before breaking up in 1972. Tom died in 1990 from AIDS complications, contracted from a tainted blood transfusion during back surgery. Cook and Clifford eventually formed a tribute act dubbed Creedence Clearwater Revisited, which kicked off a personal and legal battle that continues today between them and John.

Creedence Clearwater Revisited - Stu Cook in the middle
Doug Clifford to his left, flanked by new bandmates

When the surviving members were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993 John Fogerty created some controversy when he refused to play with Cook and Clifford at the ceremony. In his autobiography Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music, John Fogerty detailed the acrimonious relationship with the pair.

John Fogerty speaking at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony

John was disappointed Cook and Clifford had continued to work with record executive Saul Zaentz, who controlled many of the distribution rights to the original music. To bring this full circle, it was why their hits were available, inexpensively, as a Greatest Hits package through television commercial offers on TV in the seventies.  These releases generated less income for John than he felt he deserved. Additionally, he wrote in his autobiography:

“The truth was, they had turned their backs on our group, dishonored the music, and sold out to Saul Zaentz, taking money and making a side deal that didn’t include me.”

Why and how was that ever allowed? he continues. “Stu and Doug had a letter from Trisha (Tom’s wife)  giving Tom’s vote to them; it gave them a majority, and in business a majority vote wins. But we’re not IBM; we’re four guys who made a vow, a pact. Try explaining that to a judge.”

It must be frustrating to have such a powerful musical fellowship end in legal battles and acrimony. However, even the lyrics from the title track from on week’s record remind us that it’s still show business …without the business, there is no show.

"Down on the corner,

Out in the street,

Willy and the Poor Boys are playin'

Bring a nickel, tap your feet."