Vinyl Me, Please Unboxed – Creedence Clearwater Revival ‘Willy and the Poor Boys’

Good things comes in 12 inch packages. Delivering limited edition vinyl pressings of new and classic albums directly to your doorstep, VMP operates under a simple philosophy: The Album Lives! With a carefully curated catalog of new and hard to find releases, the subscription service is more than just a record club, it’s a lifestyle choice for folks who wish Record Store Day could happen every month… in their living room.

Here’s how it works. You send Vinyl Me, Please some of your hard-earned money and they send you one carefully selected album they feel is Essential to any record collection. Yes, it truly is as easy as it sounds. You even get FREE SHIPPING. Each custom pressing (often on colored vinyl!) also comes with killer extras like original artwork and informative listening companion booklet.

You’ll have membership privileges in the VMP store too, which means you can grab a copy of previous VMP selections from the archives – including their reissue of Junior Wells' bluesy rocker It's My Life, Baby! – or choose from a slate of super-limited releases pressed exclusively for Vinyl Me, Please. The store is open, and Team VMP are dropping fresh new selections to their stock every week. Do not miss out.

Word to the wise, while the store is open to the public, subscribers are privy to reduced “Members Pricing” as well, so joining the club definitely has its rewards. If you’re peckish about relinquishing control of your record collection to complete strangers, know that VMP’s Swaps Program is in full effect. That means you can flip any VMP pick you’re not interested in for a past featured album from any track (including Essentials, Jazz Blues Funk and Soul, and Hip-Hop). My advice? Don’t overthink it. Do your turntable a favor and sign up today.

As for the album in this month's box, I'll be ringing in the holidays with a Dude approved rocker from the one and only Creedence Clearwater Revival.

For The Love Of Vinyl, Please DO NOT BEND

Looking back at the last few months of Vinyl Me, Please unboxings, I was a little surprised to see it had been a while since I opted into the Essentials track. But there was zero chance I was gonna swap this one, because I've been a long, long time fan of Creedence Cleaerwater Revival. As such, I was stoked and then some that VMP not only tapped the band for the Essentials treatment, but also picked a CCR album that I didn't already have in my collection.

If you're at all familiar with Creedence Cleawater Revival's output, you know that 1969 was a particularly busy time for the band, who somehow managed to release three full-length albums in that single calendar year. Willy and the Poor Boys was the third, arriving in the wake of Bayou Country and Green River respectively. The album also arrived just before what was, arguably, CCR's first legit masterpiece, 1970s Cosmo's Factory.

While Willy and the Poor Boys hardly marks a seismic change in the band's overall sound, with the addition of harder-edged tracks like “Fortunate Son,” the album, perhaps, signaled that the band had more on their minds than just blues-tinged good times rock and roll amid the late-1960s turmoil. But make no mistake, there's plenty of good times to be had on Willy and the Poor Boys, with album opener “Down on the Corner” setting the release's easy-going overall tone to the T.

Rumor has it that CCR had initially intended to perform the entire album as the album's titular jug band. As fun as that might've been, the band ultimately dropped the concept, with only the jug-styled “Poorboy Shuffle” making the final track list. Given the tracks that did make the cut, that was likely a wise decision, as John Fogerty and Company might've otherwise deprived their fans of CCR staples like “Effigy,” “Cotton Blues” and “The Midnight Special,” the latter two tracks of which were, of course, already made immortal by blues legend Lead Belly.

Side A and B openers “Down on the Corner” and “Fortunate Son” are undoubtedly still the biggest draws on Willy and the Poor Boys, and each song continues to rank among the biggest of Creedence Clearwater Revival's many hits. Even as many times as CCR fans have likely heard those radio-friendly anthems, a case could be made that they sound as good on this VMP pressing as they ever have. The same goes for every other track here, for the record.

Cover Matters

The street corner band that inspired the title Willy and the Poor Boys is, of course, fictional. But CCR are clearly having a blast playing the part of the band for the cover shoot, and I am totally here for it.

Checkt the back cover for more photographic fun with the fictional band, as well as a full track list and album credits.

While Vinyl Me, Please is no longer foil-stamping their releases, they still come with a VMP seal of approval.

Out of the box, you'll find an OBI strip cradling the spine of Willy and the Poor Boys. And on that strip, there's a few vital stats about why VMP selected this album, and what makes this pressing the one most worthy of a space in your vinyl collection.

As noted in last month's unboxing, Vinyl Me, Please is no longer packing an album-specific listening companion booklet with every release. They are, however, delivering a comprehensive zine covering their selected albums, and are even offering teases about what releases are on deck. If the back cover shot is any indication, it seems an album from El Guincho is coming in the near future. Check it out.

As Willy and the Poor Boys is a Vinyl Me, Please Essentials pick, it comes with the requisite artwork. This piece is an archival photo of Creedence Clearwater Revival taken in 1970.

I'll get to the vinyl in just a second. But before I do, I wanna give the VMP gan a big time hi-five for moving to archival-quality rice-paper sleeves this month. Good call, team!

And yes, that sleeve is protecting a lovely, marbled slate slabe of wax worth of preservation.

In case there's any quistion, that wax is set to bring some classic rock crunch to the deck of every Vinyl Me, Please Essentials subscriber.

Give Vinyl Me Please a Spin

How does it sound? Like a band a the height of their power seizing the moment and dropping a crackling collection of songs as unforgettable as any in their already legendary catalogue. Of course, how you feel about the tracks on Willy and the Poor Boys will no doubt be directly effected by how you feel about Creedence Clear Revival in general. Rest assured that, if you love the band with a Dude-like revery, you're not likely to hear a better pressing than this one.

A big THANK YOU to our friends at Vinyl Me, Please for sponsoring this subscription. Don’t forget to check out the Vinyl Me, Please website and sign up to get some choice wax delivered right to your door every month! Be sure to check back next month to see what vinyl treasure Team VMP sends our way!