That's not to say there aren't any originals on here, of course; it's just that these suckers are nowhere near classics. I get some midtempo basic blues-rock (maybe vaguely poppy, but not really) jollies out of "Working Man," and I admit that the guitar breaks are pretty nice in their minimalist efficiency, but they don't particularly enthrall me. "Get Down Woman" is more basic blues-rock but less interesting, and "Porterville" actually makes a stab at seriously integrating the pop side into the sound courtesy of the "I don't care! I don't care!" chorus, but it's a really crummy stab, not even remotely suggestive of the notion that this band could produce "Proud Mary" within a year's time. The closing "Walk on the Water" is somewhat better, though, as it has a neat set of simple riffs that compliment the (kinda silly) lyrics in a way that gives it an "anthemic" sound, and not in a bad way either.

The covers, fortunately, help things out quite a bit. I'm not hugely impressed with them; I mean, as nice as this version of "Suzie Q" is, I'll take the Stones' cover of it over this one any day of the week. This one's still a blast, though, as the instrumental breaks have such a subtle intensity that they manage to almost make me forget that they're taking a very basic (albeit great) blues-rocker and making it eight-and-a-half minutes long. Plus, it helps that there's a bit of a "singing through a tape recorder" effect on some of the vocals, which helps add to the illusion of variance during the track. Of course, I would also point out that some of the backing vocals are sufficiently off-kilter that they almost border on "psychedelic," which seems kinda odd given that seemingly every fan or critic in the world likes to harp on how they were the "psychedelia-free" alternative for late 60's music. But whatever, it's great, largely courtesy of the guitar sound.

The opening "I Put a Spell On You" also deserves some serious recognition, not so much because of the song itself (done as a pretty standard gospelish/rock cover), but because of the mighty slow building of intensity in the guitar parts during the instrumental breaks that culminate in a layering of several majestic strumming parts that sounds absolutely terrific when studied closely. Hey, if you're gonna do a basic sound, you may as well do at least some part of it in as imaginative of a way as possible, and Fogerty and co. definitely succeed with that here.

The other two covers are basically ok, too ("Gloomy" at least matches its title in mood and yet has some neat ecstatic guitar parts near the end, and "Ninety Nine and a Half" is a passable blues-gospel-whatever piece), and thus fill out a pretty decent (but not really more) album. I don't even remotely hate any of the tracks on here (except for coming close with "Porterville"), and there are some tracks here I'd put as CCR classics, so I'd definitely say that I like this album much more than not, but ... there's a lot of albums about which I can say that. A diehard CCR fan would probably love this, though.

And look, there's three other terrific songs and a cover done in a way that makes it seem like the song had always belonged to CCR! "Bootleg" can be easily overlooked amongst the obvious standouts of this album, but man, that minimalistic rhythmic groove is unfairly hypnotic, even if there really isn't that much else to the song. And sheesh, there's "Proud Mary," which every person in America should have to know and like in order to qualify for citizenship. Throw in the amazing blues pop-rock of "Penthouse Pauper," where John does the "If I were a *so and so* I would *so and so*" routine to absolute perfection (I especially dig the instrumental passage after "And if I were a guitar player, (I'd) play the blues"), and the ridiculously enjoyable cover of "Good Golly Miss Molly," and you have yourself CCR bliss.

Unfortunately, the album has a problem. Actually, it has two problems, and these problems are about half the length of the album. For whatever reason, the band put out this album before they had a full allotment of great songs, and as a result they filled the rest with more of the lengthy jamming that took up the second half of "Suzie-Q" on the previous album. And oh boy, it's not done as well here as it was there. Three minutes of each of these would be fine, as I can dig on the minimalist repetitive guitar passages for that long, but 8-and-a-half minutes is way too long for something as simple as "Graveyard Train," and 7-and-a-half minutes is way too long for something as simple as "Keep on Chooglin'" (even if this did become one of their calling cards). Why these guys couldn't just wait a while, borrow some of the songs that they'd end up doing for Green River, and release one of the greatest albums ever made I don't know, but you'd better believe that disappoints me.

Still, I really like this album overall, because the jams are decent at least for a little bit, and because the normal songs are out of this world. A sign of good things to come? Yes, that's what those songs are.

The opening title track is (at least, in my observation) less renowned than "Born on the Bayou," but it captures the swamp atmosphere just as effectively, except that instead of the dreamy guitar lines of its predecessor we get a sharp, driving set of guitar lines and a punchy (yet echoey) vocal delivery that I just adore. The other more "rocking" tracks are also fabulous; "Commotion" is an almost punkish (for the late 60's, anyway) rocker that shows the band at its punchy, rhythmic best, "Tombstone Shadow" is great mid-tempo blues-pop-boogie (with some of the best one-note guitar soloing you'll ever hear), "Bad Moon Rising" is so great and infamous that it basically speaks for itself (and besides, it's nice of John to be directing his listeners to the nearest toilet for those moments when they really need to go), and "Cross-tie Walker" is just a lot of fun. They're all extremely simple, yes, but they're all so full of bits of subtle emotional power and clever hooks and great guitar sounds that I can't help but enjoy them quite a bit.

Strangely enough, though, it's two of the ballads that I enjoy the most of anything on this album. I really don't think that "Wrote a Song for Everyone" gets as much credit from people as it deserves. Ok, it could be argued that it's a little too long, and I guess I can see the off-handed comparisons to Lynyrd Skynyrd, but it still digs really deep into me. I just sense so much sadness in John's voice when he sings about being able to communicate easily to the masses but still not being able to effectively express himself to just one person, and maybe it's because I so often feel the same way that I rate it so highly. After all, it gets really frustrating at times to be able to feel so much more at ease in writing than in actually talking to and interacting with people, seeing how I can't exactly run home and jot down some notes on paper everytime I try to get into a conversation with people in a social setting.

Arguably better, though, is "Lodi," which has one of Fogerty's best singing performances ever, featuring him taking a fairly decent melody and making its lyrics about being perpetually stuck in a SF suburb despite trying to make it out using his musical talents into one heck of an experience not really found in any other CCR song. Simply put, this is one of those songs that makes me understand why so many people consider Fogerty to be one of the greatest songwriters in the history of rock and pop music.

So for all of that, why is the album only getting a C? It's because the last two songs suck to high heaven, that's why. "Sinister Purpose" is an original, but I get a feeling of irritation in all aspects of the song (riff, verse melody, chorus, whatever) that's an almost shocking dropoff after I've so thoroughly enjoyed the first seven songs of the album. And the closing "The Night Time is the Right Time" is just pathetic, with Fogerty at seemingly his absolute worst and the backing vocals (which I guess are John too, come to think of it) on the same ick level as the "I don't care! I don't care!" chorus cries on Porterville from the debut. At least this one is a cover, so it doesn't annihilate my faith in John's songwriting abilities, but still ...

Regardless, this album is (mostly) awesome, and an absolute essential for any casual CCR fan. Never again, not even on Cosmo's Factory, would CCR have a stretch quite as perfect as the stretch of good songs on here, and that definitely says something.

This isn't to say that there isn't some tremendous material on Willy, of course. "Fortunate Son" probably accounts for half of the excessive praise for this album all by its lonesome, as it's just a thoroughly awesome garage-pop-rock number that features Fogerty as angry in a much more direct way than he'd ever shown previously. It's totally lacking in subtlety, but it's all the better for it, because somebody had to come right out and say this in song. If this album was titled Willy and the Squadron of Poor Infantrymen, this would serve as a fine conceptual centerpiece, that's for sure.

The album also starts off very strongly, first with the wonderful hick-pop (meant in a good way) of "Down on the Corner," then with the fantastic driving rocker "It Came out of the Sky" (which would have fit in fantastically on either the previous or the subsequent album), the kind of rocker that CCR just couldn't screw up even if they tried. And then, of course, there's the terrific cover of "Cotton Fields," which is one of the times on this album that CCR does "authentic" Southern music at a high enough quality level to match the gushing that so many critics do in relation to this album. Beautiful, just beautiful. Throw in a later cover of "The Midnight Special," which is heartwarming in all sorts of ways, and the mildly driving pleasant uptempo "Don't Look Now," and you have the outline of a potentially classic album.

Unfortunately, the other tracks keep this from happening. "Poorboy Shuffle" is one of the least interesting instrumentals I've ever heard, a bunch of midtempo harmonica playing over seemingly noteless acoustic guitar strumming, and the instrumental "Side O' the Road" hearkens back to the bad sides of the band's extended jams just a little too much for my taste. "Feelin' Blue" almost sounds like a mocking parody of CCR's sound, with all the energy and pop flair sucked out, all but leaving just a barebones "Feelin' blue blue blue blue blue Feelin' blue blue blue blue blue" for five minutes. Meh.

This leaves "Effigy," which I'm fairly split about. I can tell that this is essentially supposed to be a reminder of sorts that, for all the glorification of the South that supposedly happens on this album, the South is still largely an ugly and backwards place, and the music (especially those dissonant plucked bassnotes) conjures up images of burning KKK crosses almost instantly. I don't particularly like the song, but I find it at least somewhat interesting, and I can definitely see how critics would want to go ga-ga over a "strong political statement" like this, which gives an "epic sweep" to the album. That said, after all the joy of the previous nine tracks, this track seems kinda superfluous and extraneous, no matter how "profound" it might seem on its own. It kinda strikes me the same way as would sticking an extra chapter to the end of The Lord of the Rings revealing that Bilbo Baggins was a child molester; inevitably some critic somewhere would comment on Tolkien being bold and noble in his social critique of an issue largely skirted in fantasy literature, but in reality it would just be something that made absolutely no sense in the context of the whole and was tacked on for no decent reason.

So in the end, that's six good-to-great songs, three that irritate me, and one I'm ambivalent about. And, guess what, I basically end up as a George clone again, except that I love "Fortunate Son," so a slightly better rating seems appropriate. This is a good album, and in parts a great album, but when it stinks, it evokes a lot of the fertilizer smell from the more rural lands of the South. Of course, 99% of the world loves this, so just ignore me if you want.

It also helps (in a major way) that I completely enjoy the two occasions on the album where the band goes into its extended guitar-led instrumental passages (so much that the two tracks in which these occur are my favorites on the album), whereas on previous albums the execution of this type of playing wasn't really able to enthrall me that much. The first of these comes in the opening "Ramble Tamble," which would otherwise be a perfectly fine classic in the CCR "grit-pop" vein, but with the lengthy passage becomes something even greater. To be honest, the mid-section doesn't completely fit with the rest of the song, which is why I think the song would be wonderful even without it, but it's so beautifully anthemic in its simplicity that I can't help but be thrilled. The first part is basically just a simple upwards arpeggiated line repeated many times over, and the second is basically just a simple upwards melody snippet repeated many times over the (ever accelerating) gruff rhythm guitar; I know of some people who aren't really too pleased with it because of its combination of length and "rudimentary" nature, but it's one of those cases of well-crafted minimalism that makes me understand why so many people call Fogerty a masterful guitar player, even though he's nowhere near a gifted "technician" on his instrument.

The other infamous example of the band's great jamming on this album, of course, is in their cover of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine." True, most of the credit for the track needs to be given to the original writers for coming up with such a genial bassline, one which is so hypnotic that it can be repeated seemingly forever (which the band comes close to doing here) without getting boring, and John also does the song credit by delivering a solid vocal performance (given that it was a Motown song intended for talented black singers like Marvin Gaye, whereas John is close to the quintessential west coast honky, not that there's really anything wrong with that). But it's the guitar soloing, so simple that any decent guitarist could imitate it note-for-note without a tremendous amount of effort, yet so memorable and so hypnotic (there I go using that word again) that truly distinguishes this song, and allows it to justify going on around 11 minutes. The jams on the previous albums (even in the case where I basically liked them, a la "Suzie Q") just didn't have so much, I dunno, mystique (or whatever) around them as this one does, and where those tended to bore me fairly quickly, I could listen to what the band does in this track for an extra five minutes and not even notice or show any concern.

The bulk of the rest of the tracks aren't as earth-shattering as those two 'epics', and mostly fall into the "average great" CCR tier, but since none of them suck, they're enough to ensure the album the mark of the band's best. Three of the remaining nine tracks are covers, which might have been a problem if they weren't done pretty well, but they sound fine here, so no big complaints. "My Baby Left Me" and "Ooby Dooby" are fairly primitive even by CCR standards, but the former has some fine slide work, and the latter is such basic 50's rock fun that I can't really be bothered. "Before You Accuse Me" is significantly better (which says something), a fine rendition of an old blues piece that's so perfect that Eric Clapton basically did it the exact same way when he later covered it.

Among the originals, the major standouts are: "Who'll Stop the Rain?," an OUTSTANDING romantic/country/pop/epic ballad with one of the very best vocal melodies I've ever heard from CCR and some terrific backing vocals in the chorus; "Lookin' Out My Back Door," the kind of number that would have fit in quite snugly on Green River and would have been able to make that album an easy D, a shining example of CCR's pop-country-blues-rock amalgamation; "Run Through the Jungle," which has a gruff, menacing power not really rivaled in the rest of CCR's catalogue, a power that comes from Fogerty's growl and actually seems greater because of the relatively laidback feel of the instrumental track. I'm also fond of "Travelin' Band," a 50's-style rocker with one of Fogerty's most distinctive bellowings, "Up Around the Bend," which is centered around a FABULOUS upwards slide riff (and has a terrific vocal melody as well) and, to a lesser extent, the closing "Long as I Can See the Light," which is a bit too mellow and 'soulish' for my tastes (given that Fogerty isn't an extremely great soul singer, in my opinion) but which nonetheless works perfectly as a closer.

All in all, then, this really strikes me as just about the perfect CCR listening experience. It's largely missing the "swamp" factor, which might make some people a little iffy on its quality (I know that that kinda put me off at first, and I wasn't too sure about this album when I first started listening to it), but in terms of hooks, power, drive and groove, I can't see any of the band's albums coming close (well, the first seven songs of Green River could, but they weren't released as their own standalone album, now were they). If you're going to get all of the band's albums (as opposed to just getting Chronicles) this should be your first or second buy.

The thing about his attempt at a more serious sound that's particularly sad, in my opinion, is that all he's (mostly) able to do is take the usual ingredients of the band's sound, and then (a) add some organs and saxophones, (b) subtract the usual amount of spark and energy and (c) make the songs longer than they should be. I will admit that the opening "Pagan Baby" does a good job of justifying its length, as it features a mid-song jam that has Fogerty pulling out one great, simple guitar line after another, but even then it seems kinda forced, whereas the guitar lines in "Ramble Tamble" felt like they'd come through divine revelation. Otherwise, though, the two best songs on the album are each less than 3 minutes long, and while I'm hardly a stickler on song length in general, I'm nonetheless a bit irritated that those are the only two songs that sound like Fogerty completely knew what he was doing, whereas the others feel like the work of somebody who's out of his element.

Anway, those two songs are really quite nice. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" inevitably must suffer from comparisons to "Who'll Stop the Rain," both because of the title and the way they're both mid-tempoish ballads, but it's a wonderful song in its own right. The way Fogerty sings those "I KNOW ..." lines in each verse sounds very moving to my ears, and the chorus can rightfully take its place as one of the alltime great Fogerty choruses (chori?). The other great song is "Hey Tonight," a mildly uptempo 50's based rocker with some great chiming, distorted guitar lines and a gravelly, rough Fogerty vocal delivery. It would get lost in the shuffle on Cosmo's Factory or Green River, but here it stands out like a sore thumb (or, I suppose, a non-sore thumb on a totally bruised hand).

As for the rest, though ... can somebody tell me what kind of use I'm supposed to be making out of something that's as wimpily "rocking" as "Born to Move" (even though the ending jazzy organ 'jam' is pretty decent, totally unlike the actual song)? Why should I have any reason to listen to something as thoroughly plodding as "Sailor's Lament" or "Chameleon" or "Molina" (which is mildly better, but whatever)? Can somebody help me find the beauty in "Wish I Could Hideaway," which has (arguably) the most awkward Fogerty vocal delivery in the band's whole catalogue? Ok, I'll be fair, "It's Just A Thought" is a decently lovely ballad, and the organs really contribute to the mood on this one, but it's hardly worth a special listen after the album's over.

And finally, what is with "Rude Awakening #2?" Why is the band that was supposed to be an alternative to psychedelia, and thus does a piss poor job in performing this, doing a song like this in 1970, when psychedelia was no longer looked upon favorably by anybody? With the exception of John deciding to allow the other band members to write and sing on the next album, this track has to be the biggest lapse of judgement he ever showed in his CCR stint, as this song is just embarrassing.

Gargh. Ok, there's three tracks that are really good, five which are basically ok, and two which basically suck. I actually considered bumping this up a point, but then I realized I was just bowing to the fact that a lot of people essentially say, "Well, this is very different, but it's still quite good, since after all, this is still Fogerty." I just don't buy that, and I just don't like this album very much. Get the good songs on a compilation and ignore the rest.

Ok, before we get to the obvious part of the review, ripping the Stu and Doug songs like everybody else in the world does, the question needs to be asked: how are the John songs? Well, truth be told, they're not so hot, though they're clearly better than everything else here. They're firmly entrenched in the same mediocre hard-core country-western mold as the other songs, but there are at least little nuggets of competency to be found in them, which is definitely not the rule on this album. My favorite song on here isn't very good to my ears, but "Someday Never Comes" nonetheless has a nice mournful vocal, a melody that a good songwriter would take more than five minutes to come up with, and something resembling a fast/slow contrast. On a good CCR album, this would be one of the worst songs, but here, it's vaguely competent, and that says something. As for the other songs, the opening "Looking For a Reason" is sluggish, mediocre C-&-W (though I've heard worse melodies), and the closing "Sweet Hitchhiker" at least has some crunchy distortion and a vocal that at least somewhat calls back to the glorious days of "Proud Mary" and "Green River" and whatever. Again, not genius, but not abominable either.

The rest, however, falls squarely in the "abominable" bin. Neither Stu nor Doug can sing worth a damn (I forget which is which, but one of their voices is just really dull, whereas the other should never step within 50 feet of a microphone ever again), and their songs are so lacking in anything to make them at all interesting that it's just pathetic. It doesn't help that the band has basically moved into pure country-western mode, which is (despite the band's "rootsy" reputation) basically nothing like the sound the band had made for itself (and the only sound it had proven itself capable of doing well). Now, I don't have a beef against country in and of itself, but when it sounds like it's being done by people who just read "The Second Grade Primer on Authentic Country Music Writing," I'm gonna get a bit irritated. There's all sorts of variations I could post on the theme of "These guys sound like morons," but instead I'll just let what I've said suffice.

Truly, this was a sad, sad end to a good band. Not even a completist should get this.