Cro-Mags: The Age of Quarrel

Cro-Mags: The Age of Quarrel

1986

Brass City Boss Sounds Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. We Gotta Know  2. World Peace  3. Show You No Mercy  4. Malfunction  5. Street Justice  6. Survival of the Streets  7. Seekers of the Truth  8. It's the Limit  9. Hard Times  10. By Myself   11. Don't Tread On Me  12. Face the Facts  13. Do Unto Others  14. Life of My Own  15. Signs of the Times


Sorry I haven't posted much lately, I was in Tucson over the weekend and I've also been going through a lot of...Y'know, what?! I don't have to explain myself to you! I'm a grown man! If I want  spend a week watching Planet of the Apes and reading Thundercats comics, I can, dammit!

Sorry to get so defensive...It must be this Cro-Mags record..It makes me want to lash out at people and scold my pets...I remember first hearing this band after taping the "We Gotta Know" video  from 120 Minutes waaaay back when...

I must have watched that videotape 10 krillion times...What I remember most about it was the bass-player constantly doing what I can only describe as a "full-body grimace"...

 A grimace that somehow started at the top of the head and extended all the way down the neck and chest region...And the music? It sounds a lot like that face! Tough, sinewy, heavily-tatted...Real grit and gravel shit! Tough-guy hardcore that occasionally slows down and congeals into street-metal...The kind of music that makes you wanna stab a bandmate or two...

"Hey! I was acquitted, Motherfucker!!"

God, maybe I shouldn't fuck with this guy...Anyway, I still think "We Gotta Know" is one of my all-time  favorite hardcore tracks...It's as good as it gets...Kicking off with an extended (relatively speaking) chunk of oppressive, asphalt-crunching, slowly churning metal, you just have to nod your head, appreciating the moment, dreading the moment when some Dio-voiced vocalist is going to ruin the whole thing...But then something happens...It suddenly revs up and we have a hardcore classic on our hands...The vocals are a taaad indistinct, but I think it might be a matter of other bands aping this style so much down the road... The "whole incredulous bark highlighted by cartoonish inflections and gang-chants" thing...Still, there's something transcendent about the song for some reason...Its universality forming a cosmic circle pit..I can't exactly put my finger on it, and it doesn't really happen again on the album, not that the rest of the album isn't great (it is) but in my mind, "We Gotta Know" is just such a fucking perfect hardcore song...It seems like if you're in a NYC/tough-bro/Sunday matinee/hardcore band this would be the ideal to strive for...

The remainder of the album seems to explore "We Gotta Know's" twin halves...Thrashing full-speed on  songs like "Street Justice" or slowing down to a crushing trawl on "Malfunction" or "Seekers of the Truth," coming back together every once in awhile ("Hard Times")... Still, I've never gotten over the feeling that the opening track is the reality-shattering main event and the remainder of the album is an extended denouement...Still, it's great stuff if you have a taste for it...But if you have a low tolerance for Mr. Tuffy shit and/or relentless hammering you might want to skip this...However, if the phrase "NYC Hardcore" means anything to you whatsoever, then this should be one of your first purchases, no doubt...Not many albums get the blood pumping like this one...Makes those long days at work go by a lot quicker...

Oh yea, this is totally unrelated, but remember earlier when I was talking about Thundercats comics? Well, after I finished reading reading the 80's Star Comics run, I moved onto the 2002 series and ran across an advertisement that blew my mind...

THE JVC TOWER OF POWER!! Good Christ! Look at that gaudy-ass thing! This is the type of stereo that will spit out any disc that isn't Limp Bizkit...I'm still not convinced that this doesn't turn into a giant robot...Anyway, I was so intrigued by this tribute to the x-treme era that I had to google it...Doing so, I ran across a couple of amazon reviews that made my year:

"THIS SYSTEM LOOKS LIKE A MILLION BUCKS. SHOW IT OFF, DONT HIDE IT IN A CABINET."

"Scoops, Vents, and Las Vegas Lighting.."

Oh my God! When I first read "Las Vegas Lighting" I seriously laughed so hard I was almost crying...I think this next reviewer cuts right to the heart of the matter, though...

"Trust me you hann't heard anything until you play Halo with this thing!"

Yes, that nails it...If you're going to hook up your Xbox to play Halo on a mini-stereo in 2002, then this stereo is the only logical choice...It's armor-plated, it's got too giant guns mounted on either side of the speaker and I think I see a couple of jet engines...Then I turned the page and ran into these clowns...

I think it's official...The early 2000's are now fucking hilarious...I probably wasn't equipped to laugh at this shit at the time due to some post-9/11 malaise or "red-alert fatigue" but I think I have the strength to do it now...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

Alright, let's listen to some music...Fire up your Tower of Power, cos here's  "All My Friends Crush You" by Neurotica...

No wait, I meant, here's "We Gotta Know" by Cro-Mags...Enjoy....

Elvis Costello: Out of Our Idiot

Elvis Costello: Out of Our Idiot

1987

Demon Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Seven Day Weekend  2. Turning the Town Red  3. Heathen Town  4. The People's Limousine  5. So Young  6. American Without Tears No. 2  7. Get Yourself Another Fool  8. Walking on Thin Ice  9. Blue Chair  10. Baby It's You  11. From Head to Toe  12. Shoes Without Heels  13. Baby's Got a Brand New Hairdo  14. The Flirting Kind  15. Black Sails in the Sunset  16. Imperial Bedroom  17. The Stamping Ground


Don't let the "Various Artists" emblazoned on the spine fool ya.... This is a collections of Elvis Costello's outtakes, B-Sides, collaborations, etc...Although this particular album is out of print, all this material ended up as bonus tracks on Elvis' CD reissues, but this is a case of where the presentation makes all the difference...Sure,  I heard all these tracks on the CD reissues but many of them seemed to go in one ear and out the other, buried under endless demos and draggy alternate takes...But when all the excess is pruned away and only the finest flowers presented, this is as listenable as any other prime EC disc...Which shouldn't surprise die-hard Costello fans, after all he pulled off a similar win with 1980's "Taking Liberties"...



Damn, just about everything on this is good...Even the freakin' Yoko Ono cover (" Walking on Thin Ice")  rules...Sure, there's a lesser track here and there...For example, I find the soul ballad "Get Yourself Another Fool" a taaad on the dull side, "The Flirting Kind" is a little fruity for my tastes, and I would point out "Baby's Got a Brand New Hairdo" as a prime example of  Elvis on upbeat autopilot, but  that's seriously what?  Three songs? Out of 17? That's means there's about 14 flat-out great tracks on here...I'll single out a few so this post is more than two paragraphs long:

Keeping with my month-long Jimmy Cliff theme, the album kicks off with an Elvis/Jimmy collaboration "Seven Day Weekend" from the "Club Paradise" soundtrack...


(Now, I know for a fact I've seen Club Paradise but I'll be damned if I can remember a single damn detail about it...I remember "Apeman" by the Kinks being in the film...I remember seeing Robin Williams mugging for an hour and a half, but the rest is a blur...)

You'd assume that a duet with Jimmy Cliff would be reggae/island-themed type of thing, but you'd be wrong...It's uptempo "Get Happy!" new-wave soul...See, I first heard this song on the bonus disc of "Blood & Chocolate" which is arguably Elvis' bitterest, dourest, most divorce-y album,...As a result,  hearing Elvis and Jimmy enthusiastically counting down the days of their vacation in the most slap-happy manner possible sounded ridiculously out of place in that context...But boy, as a rousing album opener it's a whole 'nother story...It psyches you up for the whole shebang...

"Heathen Town" is a song I would place in the pantheon of great Elvis tracks...It's the type of thing he does best: Wry, weary, wired, with an easy-flowing melody that you can't believe someone hasn't written before...Although to be perfectly honest, I kinda prefer the acoustic take that appeared on the bonus disc for "Punch the Clock" (so there's one score for the bonus discs I guess) but either way it's a can't-miss for fans...

The M.I.A title track for "Imperial Bedroom" is here too...I still maintain he should have replaced one of that album's more paint-drying moments with this track..A modest, acidic waltz that would have given that album a bit more of an edge...The "Imperial Bedroom" album starts out sharp but softens out as it stretches on...I think placing this near the end could have snapped it back into shape when it most needed it...Oh well, program your own track listing, I guess...

I also love the duet with T-Bone Burnett on "The People's Limousine" (credited to "The Coward Brothers")...A down-home roots rocker that brings back pleasant memories of my much-beloved "King of America"...Holy shit, it just struck me that T-Bone is biting Dylan so hard here...If I didn't see his name on the credits I might have  thought it was him...No wait, those harmonies on the chorus are too nice for Dylan...Never mind...Oh, and if you're a big "King of America" fan, there's also a cool alternate take of "American Without Tears" that's a bit closer to Elvis' usual new wave style...I never realized what a close relative this song is to "New Amsterdam" before I had heard this version...

Even if you have most (hell, even all) of these songs scattered amongst 10 or so bonus discs, I'd still recommend picking this up if you run across it cheap...Or better yet, burn yourself a custom copy from those bonus discs using your computer's disc drive (maybe toss "Shatterproof" on there too, while yer at it...)...It gives you a better overview of Elvis' 80's output than any greatest hits album on the market despite not having a single hit on it...

Here's "The People's Limousine" by Elvis Costello...Errr...The Coward Brothers...Whatever...Enjoy...

Jimmy Cliff: Hanging Fire 12" single

 Jimmy Cliff: Hanging Fire 12" single

1987

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Hanging Fire (Edit)  2. Hanging Fire (12" Mix)  3. Hanging Fire (Dub)


I should of just tacked this to the end of the last post I did. I doubt I'm going to have much to say about it...Three versions of the title track to an album I've never heard...Come to think of it, I still haven't heard the regular version of "Hanging Fire"...There's an edited version, an extended 12" mix and a dub version but no album version...

I guess I'll start with the edited version. This is pretty much what you'd expect a 1987 Jimmy Cliff song to sound like...Pleasant island-party vibes, lots of synths and a hair metal guitar solo tossed just cos it's the 80's...This might have sailed right past me if I hadn't just listened to the song for 20 minutes straight but after awhile the falsetto "FII-YAHH!!!" starts to burn itself into your memory banks...While there's no arguing that this 80's stuff is nowhere near his 70's heyday, I personally can't help but love this era...This actually sounds even a bit more "adult" than the "Cliff Hanger" stuff...Like the 80's pop it's drawing from is a bit more adult contemporary...Less Latoya Jackson...A little more "Cocktails: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack," if that makes any sense whatsoever...

Oh yea! Look at all those bottles in the background! That reminds me! It's Friday...I'll make the rest of this quick so we can get to escaping the unrelenting drudgery of daily existence...

The extended 12" mix is...well...longer...There's some funny splattery sounds at the end...BTW, does anyone know where the "Keyyy Ohhh-oh!" vocals at the end of this song originate? It's a vocal I've heard on songs by XTC and the Police prior to this, so that makes me think it's some old melody or something that I don't know about...Unless just a lot of artists rip off the vocal line from the end of "Making Plans for Nigel"...That seems unlikely, but...

There's a "Dub" version tossed in too but don't seek it out expecting some deep, earth-shaking, Lee Perry-style dub...A better description would be "extended disco mix with a bit more echo"...Nothing too exciting...Honestly, probably the best version on here is the plain ol' "radio edit"...Which means  it's very likely the best version of all would be the ever plain-er and ol'-er regular version I've never heard...

So let's hear it...(Besides, the radio edit, the extended mix and the dub version aren't on youtube) Here's "Hanging Fire" by Jimmy Cliff...Happy Fry-your-brains-on-cheap-beer-day...

Jimmy Cliff: Special

Jimmy Cliff: Special

1982

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Special  2. Love Is All  3. Peace Officer  4. Treat The Youths Right  5. Keep On Dancing  6. Rub-A-Dub Partner  7. Roots Radical  8. Love Heights  9. Originator  10. Rock Children  11. Where There Is Love


Keep in mind, there's a bit of a gap in my Jimmy Cliff collection...There were two(?) albums in-between "Give Thankx" and "Special" that I haven't heard, so I don't know exactly what happened in the gap..."Give Thankx" found Jimmy jettisoning the paranoia and bitterness, replacing it with a cool, spiritual calm and eclecticism on such a scale that there still isn't really a genre that "Give Thankx" clearly belongs to... 

"Special" finds Jimmy sounding like he's in positive mental health again, and while there's nothing here that has that spark of genius that his more unexpected, esoteric albums had (minus maybe "Originator" which would have worked brilliantly on "Give Thankx"), it's all very solid, light, Jamaican pop. Super professional, springy reggae instrumentation with Jimmy's always incredible vocals. I think it needs to be reiterated that every single Jimmy Cliff album has top-notch vocals. To this day, I've never heard the guy deliver anything close to a lackluster or phoned-in vocal performance...

And it's nice to hear sweet, lovey stuff like "Love Is All" and "Where There Is Love"...He still manages to work in a bit of righteous fire but this time it's not personal recrimination aimed at a specific individual that ripped him off...Now he's going for the more general social justice thang...Targeting the folks who have ripped everybody off...The plus here is that he comes across as not petty or bitter, but noble...This edge manages to put "Peace Officer" over the top, making an already hooky groove into something really special and memorable...And "Roots Radicals" is just flat-ass awesome...When Jimmy belts out, "I'm a true born Jamaican!" at full-force it really hits you where you feel it...It also provides a brief glimpse at how well synth can work on a reggae album...Fat, dirty and farty rather than fake and dinky....

And this is the last stop for a long while if you want some straight-up Jimmy Cliff reggae music...He would switch to 80's synth-pop after this record before falling into the abyss of re-recordings, duets and general blandness...He wouldn't fully recover until his recent team-ups with Tim Armstrong, so I recommend you take this one in and appreciate it for awhile...It's maybe not as immediately striking as some of the other material that preceded it, due to the relative sameness of the album, but it really is a rock-solid example of Jimmy Cliff at his Jimmy Cliff-iest...Just having fun, singing infectious anthems of universal love...If "Rub A Dub Partner" is a little too feathery, who cares? It's kind of a relief after some of the more psychologically harrowing Cliff albums I've been put through this past week...

To be honest, the first listen of this album was a bit underwhelming due to its lightness, but don't let that fool you...I suspect the public at large would probably really dig this album if they knew of its existence...This screams "summer reggae" like little else I've heard and is probably one of his most consistent albums...(P.S. don't let the "1982" on the cover scare you...This is far removed from "Cliffhanger"/Latoya Jackson/Robin Williams soundtrack stuff, again this a' reggae music)...

Here's "Roots Radical" by Jimmy Cliff...Enjoy...

 

Jimmy Cliff: Music Maker

Jimmy Cliff: Music Maker

1974

Reprise Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Brother  2. I Want to Know  3. You Can't Be Wrong and Get Right  4. House of Exile  5. Foolish Pride  6. No. 1 Rip-Off Man  7. Long Time No See  8. I've Been Dead 400 Years  9. Look What You've Done to My Life, Devil Woman  10. Music Maker  11. My Love Is Solid as a Rock  12. Money Won't Save You


Woah! To what do we owe the pleasure of the big-titted woman on the album cover? Was this Jimmy's attempt to cash in on the "Tighten Up" market?

Nah, I doubt Jimmy had much to do with this...This album was originally released as "House of Exile"...

I hate to say it, but I think I prefer the "House of Exile" album cover, with its side of a van-worthy painting of Jimmy Cliff in bitchen mirror shades...The more I look at it, the more I think it may be his best album cover (unless you're counting "The Harder They Come" which beats it by a narrow margin)...

Oh yea, remember about a year and a half ago when I did the post for "The Best of Jimmy Cliff" and marveled at the liner notes lambasting Jimmy Cliff for being a bitter has-been? I didn't understand it then because I hadn't heard his run of albums from '73-'74, culminating in "Music Maker" which is probably the pinnacle of Jimmy's bitterness...Damn, this is some bitter shit...Like washing a mouthful of coffee grounds and orange peels down with a gallon of industrial-strength espresso...But honestly, all this anger seems to light a fire under Jimmy's usual peaceful demeanor, making this one of my personal favorites...

Just good, earthy reggae topped with a (sometimes) healthy dollop of righteous anger. Although this is Jimmy Cliff we're talking about, so it's never anything less than tuneful and will probably sound pleasant if you ignore the lyrics...For example, track 6 is an uplifting good-time Motown rave-up until you realize that the song is called "No 1 Rip Off Man" and he starts listing off names... Pretty fucking bitter but also ridiculously entertaining...

 The only time he goes a bit too far is on "Look What You've Done to My Life, Devil Woman" where he blames a woman for tempting him away from his family....What?! You don't bear any of the responsibility of leaving your family for another woman? Again, it's amusing for its sheer hubris but you can't shake the feeling that this guy is a nothin' but a big jerk...

But on the flip-side this vitriol also results in flat-out amazing stuff like "Brother," the title track and best of all, "You Can't Be Wrong and Get Right" which is the album's big winner. Just a solid sing-song melody that makes great use of Jimmy's little-used lower register to memorable effect. Definitely one of those songs I've never played just once..."You Can't Be Wrong and Get Right" falls into that rare category of "automatic rewinder" for me...

It's not all venom, though..."I Want to Know" is a beautiful slice of gospel reggae that almost steals the show..."Music Maker" is a convincing tribute to the power of music...I guess "My Love Is Solid as a Rock" is pretty nice too, but it's a little too lightweight...

I wouldn't start here but for folks already well-acquainted with the classics, this shouldn't be overlooked...I like it much more than the follow-up "Follow My Mind" which usually gets the critical nod...For nothing else, buy it just to hear Jimmy mercilessly stick it to everybody who's ever wronged him in the most lilting manner possible...

Here's "You Can't Be Wrong and Get Right" by Jimmy Cliff...Enjoy...

Jimmy Cliff: Struggling Man

Jimmy Cliff: Struggling Man


Reprise Records

1973

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Struggling Man  2. When You're Young  3. Better Days Are Coming  4.  Sooner or Later  5. Those Good, Good Old Days  6. Can't Stop Worrying, Can't Stop Loving  7. 

Let's Seize the Time  8. Come on People  9. Can't Live Without You  10.  Going Back West

Love that cover...A beautifully detailed black & white drawing of a bustling city street-scape...If nothing else, buy this album for the cover and the phenomenal title track that's one of Jimmy's highest heights...Apparently this was released shortly after the death of Leslie Kong, who discovered Jimmy and acted as his producer and mentor...And it is true that you can hear Jimmy audibly going through a tough time...There's kind of a "seize-the-day-while-looking-over-your-shoulder-at-the-grim-spectre-of-death" vibe going on in the album...Occasionally lapsing into despair, best evidenced on "Going Back West"(which still seems to scan as "uplifting" if you pay no attention to the lyrics)...

"I met a businessman
Who said he got some friends back East
Said, 'Why don't you come along?
Well we could help you at least
Make you into a big star
By playing your guitar'
But the joke was on me
They left me flat to see...

'Bout a year has come and gone
And left me standing here
Thinking how it could have been
'Cause still I ain't nowhere
They surely took me for a ride
Trampled on my pride
But I'll hold my head up high
Got no more tears to cry..."

  Musically, the album carries on the same mix of roots reggae, deep soul, and sweet vocals that featured on the preceding albums...It definitely leans a bit more heavily into soul and gospel than usual...I'd almost go as far as saying that Jimmy was more of a soul artist than a reggae artist at this point...And some of it straight-up defies any sort of easy classification, such as the acoustic-reggae-soul-pop of album highlight "Going Out West." I should also mention there are no credits on the album so I don't know who to give the kudos to, but the horn charts on the first couple of tracks (the title track and "When You're Young") are on-point...A large part of their appeal are the exceptionally strong horn hooks...

There's not a lot to say here, because this album falls  smack dab in a run of super consistent, near-perfect albums...Jimmy's vocals are great as usual. The rhythm section is tight, funky and rootsy. I think it's one of those situations where if this is the first Jimmy Cliff album you purchase, you might trumpet it as his best release and if it's the umpteenth Jimmy Cliff album you purchase, then it's probably going to get lost in the shuffle...Such is the price of consistency...I can tell you this though, by the time you get to the 80's stuff you'll suddenly realize what a masterpiece this really is...

In conclusion, this isn't the sound of Jimmy turning the world upside down as he did on "Wonderful World, Beautiful People," but rather the sound of an artist quietly going about the business of being the greatest in his field....

Here's "Struggling Man" by Jimmy Cliff...Enjoy...

Jimmy Cliff: Unlimited

Jimmy Cliff: Unlimited

1973

EMI Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Under The Sun, Moon And Stars  2. Fundamental Reggay  3. World Of Peace  4.
Black Queen  5. Be True  6. Oh Jamaica  7. Commercialization  8. The Price Of Peace  9. On My Life  10. I See The Light  11. Rip-Off  12. Poor Slave  13. Born To Win


Jimmy Cliff still at his peak...If there's any drop-off in quality from "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" (as is often claimed) it's very slight...Maybe "World of Peace" and "Be True" are a little fluffy, but that's about it...The rest is sweet, melodic (yet tough) roots reggae...Although, I do detect a tinge of bitterness seeping into tracks like "Commercialization," "World of Peace" and "Rip-Off," it isn't a deal-breaker for me...If anything it gives the album a bit more of an edge (not to mention "Rip-Off" is pretty fucking hilarious, if you ask me)...

Plus, if you're talking all-time great Jimmy Cliff tracks,  a few of these are at the top of the heap..."Under the Sun, Moon And Stars" is probably the big one here...A quiet prayer of a song that crackles with cosmic consciousness...It's one of those tracks that turns a room silent when it comes on...You have to stop what you're doing to listen to the whisper then you're hooked for life when it decides to move mountains...One of the best reggae tracks I've ever heard, hands down...I also love "On My Life," which is just a good, catchy, should've-been pop hit featuring the album's most ear-grabbing melody...And if you look at the title of "The Price Of Peace" you might be expecting an uplifting anthem but instead it's the darkest, murkiest thing on the album, but I love it for its unsettling attributes...

You really can't go wrong with any of Jimmy's albums from the early 70's... Quintessential reggae and probably the first artist you should check out if you're wanting to explore the genre beyond Bob Marley...Late 60's-Early 70's Jimmy Cliff  always goes down easy...

Let's listen to some music...Here's "On My Life" by Jimmy Cliff...Enjoy...

Jimmy Cliff: Wonderful World, Beautiful People

Jimmy Cliff: Wonderful World, Beautiful People

1969

A&M Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Time Will Tell  2. Many Rivers to Cross  3. Vietnam  4. Use What I Got  5. Hard Road to Travel  6. Wonderful World, Beautiful People  7. Sufferin' in the Land  8. Hello Sunshine  9. My Ancestors  10. That's The Way Life Goes  11. Come Into My Life


Like Captain Beefheart, Jimmy Cliff is one of those artists whose discography I started to buy up right around the time I started this blog...As a result, these posts are kind of all over the place, which is fitting since I'm having a hard time figuring out Jimmy's discography...What exactly is his first album? I'm still not really sure...Dating back to 1969, "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" is the oldest one I've been able to find so far...Complicating things, this album was originally released under a different title (in fact, it was a self titled album simply called "Jimmy Cliff)....

This is also one of the best albums I've heard by him..Just straight up everything that's great about  Jimmy Cliff is contained here...The handful of the albums from the late 60's-early 70's are the benchmark and the stuff before and after it always have some sort of qualifier to denote that it's not from the late 60's-early 70's......Example: This album is from the early ska Jimmy Cliff era. Or this album is from the synth-y 80's Jimmy Cliff era. Or this album is from the comeback Jimmy Cliff era. See what I mean?

And what's odd for an album so representative of an artist's sound is the diversity on display...Not to mention the genre he's most closely allied with (reggae) isn't generally synonymous with musical diversity...But you get Jimmy's signature reggae ("Use What I Got,"), soul ballads (career highlight "Many rivers to Cross"...Which if you catch me at the right time, I might proclaim to be the greatest song of all damn time), and even psychedelic rock ("That's the Way Life Goes")...Yes, you heard me...If you want to hear Jimmy Cliff get all Steppenwolf on us, you might need to check this out...

This is also where you can find the phenomenal "Vietnam." I love this song. Mainly because it's hard to find another song that matches such grim subject matter with an astoundingly life-affirming, jubilant performance... Jimmy sounds so deliriously happy delivering the bad news:

"It was just the next day, his mother got a telegram,
It was addressed from Vietnam.
Now mistress Brown, she lives in the USA,
And this is what she wrote and said,
 'Don't be alarmed', she told me the telegram said
 'But mistress Brown your son is dead'..."

It kinda works...It makes the bitter pill go down mighty easy...Usually heavy-handed message-songs fill me with a sort of dread that makes me want to avoid them all together...Not this! The message sinks in even deeper somehow...Probably due to the fact that you can't get the bouncy hook out of your head...

 Oh yea, one odd thing about the album is the presence of lush strings on some of the songs (the title track and " Sufferin' in the Land" fer example).  I know it was a common practice during the early reggae era for the international releases to have strings added after the fact. I don't know if this was the case or not, but if these were later additions I have to hand it to whoever did the arrangements. Usually I'm against this practice but in this case the orchestration sounds great to me...Not overdone whatsoever. Subtly enhancing the material. Maybe Jimmy's angelic vocal approach suits this style...Maybe the songs were written with the strings in mind...Who knows...Not me. I just write stuff on the internet with zero idea what I'm talking about...Here let's make up some other baloney...Ummm...

Starting June 26, 2015, you will no longer be able to buy Bologna in North America!

BETTER RUN TO YOUR LOCAL GROCER! BUY UP ALL THE OSCAR MAYER YOU CAN BEFORE IT'S ALL GONE! THOSE DAMN LIBERALS HAVE REALLY GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME, BY GOD!!

Alright, I better start reeling things in...If you're in the market for Jimmy Cliff albums, then this is the safest of all possible choices...Probably better than most of the Jimmy Cliff's Greatest Hits albums you can find. Not a single weak track on the thing...

Here's "Use What I Got" by Jimmy Cliff...Enjoy...