Jimmy Cliff: The Best of Jimmy Cliff
1975
Island Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: Disc 1: 1. Hard Road To Travel 2. Sooner Or Later 3. Sufferin' In The Land 4. Keep Your Eyes On The Sparrow 5.Struggling Man 6. Wild World 7. Vietnam 8. Another Cycle 9. Wonderful World, Beautiful People
Disc 2: 1. The Harder They Come 2. Let Your Yeah Be Yeah 3. Synthetic World 4. I'm No Immigrant 5. Give And Take 6. Many Rivers To Cross 7. Going Back West 8. Sitting In Limbo 9. Come Into My Life 10. You Can Get It If You Really Want 11. Goodbye Yesterday
"Hi, you're just in time...We were about to knock off early...You see, the ladies behind me have agreed to participate in a wet powersuit contest (if they value their jobs)...Anyway, let's welcome the latest addition to the 2014 Friday Night Record Party Wallpaper Catalog..."
Catalog No. 00000000000420
Mango Tango (formely Last Mango in Paris)
Now everyday can be Hawaiian Shirt Day! So put on your starchiest, stiffest khaki shorts, have your secretary mix you a Mai Tai and put on some Bob Marley* music while you stare at our relaxing, new wallpaper design for hours and hours this weekend.
*This wallpaper is not endorsed by the Bob Marley Estate, LLC. This evocation is legally protected under North American Fair Use Laws ( Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107, Article 56, Section 2, Paragraph 8, Sub-Article 254, Page Number 73, Lot 49)
- Slick Snailman, CEO and Head Waitress for Cashco Wallpaper Chemical Corp. LLC, Inc
(Note: Mr. Snailman's signature is not legally binding)
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Oh yea, speaking of "glancing at the track listing," my copy has little dots next to certain tracks. This is a very common theme when I buy used records...Can someone who was around in the 70's shed some light on this practice? Did people routinely mark off their favorite tracks, or did it have something to do with radio? I don't know...(for previous record cover scrawls, check out my AC/DC "Highway to Hell" section and my Jimmy Cliff" The Harder They Come' section).
If you're one of those people who think all reggae sounds the same, then Jimmy Cliff might be a good choice for you. I almost hesitate to label him a "reggae" star, and tend to think of him more as a Jamican pop artist, since he's just as likely to do uptempo R&B ("Goodbye Yesterday," "Give And Take"), soul ballads ("Another Cycle," "Sitting in Limbo," "Many Rivers to Cross"), epic rock ("Keep Your Eyes on the Sparrow") as ska or reggae. His angelic voice seems to suit any genre just fine, I bet he could bust out a Post-Harcore/Pre-Math/Spuzz-Fusion track and it'd sound pure and lovely.
Oh, and if these dots represent choice cuts on the album, Mr. Marks-His-Records really missed out on "Goodbye Yesterday." I'm struggling to think of how the song could sound any happier, it's the kind of bright sunshine soul that makes you happy to be alive...If this song would just automatically start as soon as I opened my eyes every morning, I think it might actually curb the 10-15 minutes of early morning scowling and bitterness that comes with each new day...
I picked this up at Eastside Records and while it cost me a little bit ($10), it was totally worth it to get my hands on some of the tracks I've missed out on (many of the Island era records are ridiculously out of print)...Oh, and I loved the insert sleeve showing the other Island records available...Here, I scanned the insert so you can see it too...Nice stuff, a lot of classic reggae and...Swamp Dogg?!...
Anyway, here's "Goodbye Yesterday" by Jiminy Cliffit...Enjoy...
Jimmy Cliff: Follow My Mind
1976
Reprise Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. Look At The Mountains 2. The News 3. I'm Gonna Live Im Gonna Love 4. Going Mad 5. Dear Mother 6. Who Feels It Knows It 7. Remake The World 8. No Woman No Cry 9. Wahjahka Man 10. Hypocrites 11. If I Follow My Mind 12. You're The Only One
Yea, this record! I spent years searching for this one...My obsession with it started in 2006 when I purchased the Saturday Night Live season 1 dvd...
On the January 31, 1976 episode Jimmy Cliff was the musical guest, and he performed the familiar "The Harder They Come" selections, but wait...What was this third song? I had never heard it, and my God it's AMAZING! I was able to ferret out an answer online (what did I do before the internet? I used to just walk around, plagued by questions and had no way of finding out, until I accidentally came across the answers years later....) and immediately hit the record stores in search of the album that housed "Wahjahka Man," but to no avail. I couldn't find it, and online copies were too damn expensive.
A few months back I walked into the new Zia Records location and came across a vinyl copy for four bucks...SOLD! I took it home and spent the day spinning the record...
This record sees Jimmy trying to reconnect with his roots...This is almost all squarely roots-reggae, however, I kind of miss the adventurous spirit of the surrounding albums. Remember this was shortly after "The Harder They Come" film, and I think it seemed like Jimmy could be the next Bob Marley for a moment, so he really goes for it here...Going as far as covering Bob's "No Woman, No Cry." I think this gambit might have worked if Jimmy had gone for a more unvarnished sound, but the slick pop production blunts its impact somewhat (and the claustrophobic paranoia of "The News" shows that Jimmy might not be cut out for super-stardom anyways)...So I don't think this album made him the #1 reggae star as intended, but it really is a nice, slick collection of 70's pop reggae...
"Wahjahka Man" is absolutely the album highlight...That exultant, globe-spanning chorus hits me every time, if he had manged a few more songs of this caliber "Follow My Mind" would have easily stood as one his best albums, but it ends up being characterized by more humble pop anthems like "Look At The Mountains," where you certainly feel good while listening to them, but you don't quite feel the heavens opening up...I know that's asking a lot of a song, but Jimmy at full power is often capable of delivering these transcendent moments, so it's hard not to make these demands of him...
Other notable are tracks are "Dear Mother," which is a lovely tribute to his Mom...Man, what a nice song...I think other artists should follow his lead and sing songs about their Mothers...As far as I know, the only other musician of note who wrote as loving tribute was Mr. T, in his hip-hop masterpiece "Treat Your Mother Right."
"You're The Only One" also distinguishes itself by being the only non-reggae track on the album...This song is the type of serene, reflective soul that had become a large part of Jimmy's sound by this point. This really is a good album, full of beautiful singing (although beautiful singing is pretty much a given on a Jimmy Cliff album) and I think it might actually work okay as an introduction to his work, since it's probably the most generically "Jimmy Cliff" album, seeing that it's all straight-ahead reggae, tailor-made for an easy-going Sunday afternoon...
Here's "Wahjahka Man," the song that hit me between the eyes, lo, those many years ago...
Jimmy Cliff: The Power and the Glory
1983
Columbia Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl
Track Listing: 1. We All Are One 2. Sunshine In The Music 3. Reggae Night 4. Piece Of The Pie 5. American Dream 6. Roots Woman 7. Love Solution 8. Power And The Glory 9. Journey
Whenever I showed this record to anyone, they would always look at it and say some variation of the line, "Ooo. Weird/Scary...Look at his eyes..." I would be somewhat confused and say, "Uhhh...yea..." not really understanding what was wrong with his eyes...
But then a few weeks ago I was looking at it and I suddenly saw what they were seeing!
See, I was looking at it correctly, and saw Jimmy's pupil's looking to the far right and blending into the shadows along with his eyebrows....
But everyone else I'd showed it to saw the black specks in the middle of his eyeball as tiny, evil pupils, giving the impression of this being a zombie Jimmy Cliff...
So if you look at again now, in this light, it is a bit spooky and hilarious...
Okay, enough with the cover, let's get down to the music...We're definitely in 1980's territory here, with all the usual signifiers (synths, pristine plasticky sound, drum machines) but as far as 80's albums go this is pretty tasteful, and waaay better done than the other 80's Jimmy Cliff album I previously covered (1986's "Cliffhanger") Although it doesn't have a song as great as "Arrival," some of these come pretty damn close...
Opening track "We All Are One" is wonderful, and it's the exact type of thing he should have been doing in the 80's (since gritty roots-reggae was apparently out of the question during this era)...A slick, light-funk sound with a seemingly low-key chorus that manages to stay burrowed in your head all day...
"Piece Of The Pie" is a surprisingly powerful reggae track full of righteous indignation, and along with "American Dream," gives the album a much needed touch of grit and social consciousness that reminds us that reggae was once more than relaxing vacation music (although, to be honest, even the most furious of reggae songs seem to function as relaxing vacation music...)
I should probably also mention the album's big hit, "Reggae Night," which is a soft-pop tune that manages to cheese itself into your head...Sort of a close relative of the uptempo stuff that Lionel Richie did around the same time, but with an island twist...I know I shouldn't like it, but goddammit I do...This is another La Toya Jackson co-write, and just like her contributions to "Cliffhanger" it manages to steal the show. So wait, if I picked up a La Toya Jackson album is there a chance I might actually...gulp...Enjoy it? Boy, there's a lot of hard questions I have to ask myself...Go ahead and contemplate this while I post another picture of La Toya's big boobs...That seemed to get my blog a lot of hits last time...
What?! You say the Friday Night Record Party objectifies women? Alright...For all our female readers here's a cowboy with rock hard abs or something...
See, we don't just objectify women, we objectify men too! The Friday Night Record Party views all humans as objects, period. Yep, objects for our debased amusement...
Anyway, toss in the sprightly soul-pop of "Love Solution" and you've got a supremely enjoyable album that should appeal to pop reggae fans and 80's pop fans alike...Doesn't have the gravity of the 70's albums, but it's easy to forget about gravity for a moment when the pop is this sweet...Here's the video for "Reggae Night" by Jimmy Cliff...Listen to this! JAM IT!!!
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