Track Listing: 1. I Am the Living 2. Another Summer 3. All The Strength We Got 4. It's The Beginning Of An End 5. Gone Clear 6. Love Again 7. Satan's Kingdom 8. Morning Train
With the sheer volume of Jimmy Cliff albums and the willy nilly manner in which I bought/listened to them, it's somewhat hard to get a handle on Mr. Cliff's artistic trajectory, but I think I got it...You're free to disagree with me:
He initially finds worldwide fame with a series of essentially flawless reggae releases. Innovative in their omnivorousness and pleasing to the ear due to Jimmy's sweet vocal tone and earthy instrumentation. Then he goes into a downcast series of slower, soulful albums that aren't widely acknowledged classics but the diehards go crazy for. Then he goes through a somewhat fascinating stage where his albums are grab-bags of brilliant reggae, paranoid musings and desperate bids for hits. Then comes "Give Thankx" where he seems to find some peace of mind with gentle African rhythms and mellow reggae and this is where "I Am the Living" picks up...
First off, I love the cover..
The black & white photo with the red text reminds of Jimmy Cliff's version of "The Slider."
After the excellent title track, which is such a prime example of the kind of straight-up, life-affirming reggae anthem that Jimmy does best, we quickly settle into an album that emits a soothing easiness. Songs like "It's the Beginning of the End" and "Another Summer" feature shimmery electric pianos and gospel vocals. In the soft category I tend to prefer the more roots-based "Love Again" and "All The Strength We Got" which are lilting but still have a bit of that reggae fire igniting certain moments.
There are some awesome exceptions though, "Gone Clear" is one of Jimmy's toughest funkiest moments. It almost reminds me of a Jamaican James Brown(!) at times. And I had to flinch a bit when I saw the title "Satan's Kingdom" because I suddenly had flashbacks to the paranoid/persecuted Jimmy Cliff of the mid-to-late 70s'...But it's actually a pretty killer example of righteous reggae and possibly one of the best song on here...
The album ends with "Morning Train" which is so singular, I can't really think of another song like it...Chugging reggae with an ominous soft-rock feel...The song says "morning" in the title, but I get a darker "just before dawn" feel from it...You can clearly picture the last of the stars fading as the rickety morning train choogles down the tracks...Damn, I love this song. It's become one of new favorite Jimmy Cliff tracks...
Again, Jimmy is difficult to pin down...Reggae, soul, rock, he can do it all and blend it together until the individual ingredients become almost indistinguishable...I often hear the complaint that reggae all sounds the same, but I doubt those people have seriously listened to a Jimmy Cliff record. This isn't his best album or anything, but it's pretty solid and comes at an interesting period in his career. Shortly after this, he 80's-ized his sound and became very squarely an 80's pop artist...What I'm trying to say is "just buy it"...It's an interesting album and it's hard to find the entire album anywhere online but it's probably waiting in a used record bin near you for about 3 or 4 bucks...
Here's "Morning Train" by Jimmy Cliff...Enjoy it...
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...
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)...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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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 a few other albums I've picked up since I wrote the previous Jimmy Cliff posts last year....
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
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*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)
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"The Best of Jimmy Cliff" is a mighty fine greatest hits double-record set that covers the years he spent with Island Records, where he did a lot of his best work. A quick glance at the track listing reveals all 4 of the legendary "The Harder They Come Tracks"...
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?!...
I should also mention the liner notes located in the inside cover...I don't think I've ever read liner notes so critical of their subject! They really paint an unflattering image of Jimmy as a sort of despairing has-been who could be popular again someday if he'd stop screwing around...And this was written during what is now considered his golden era! No pleasing some people, I guess...
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!!!
Track Listing: 1. World Upside Down 2. One More 3. Cry No More 4. Children's Bread 5. Bang 6. Guns of Brixton 7. Reggae Music 8. Outsider 9. Rebel Rebel 10. Ruby Soho 11. Blessed Love 12. Ship is Sailing 13. One More (Alt. Version)
It was late 2012 and we were in dire times...The Great recession lingered on...
Twinkies disappeared from Store Shelves...
...and there was no hockey to be found on TV...
The only ray of light was the release of Jimmy Cliff's "Rebirth"...
I wonder why it took so long for someone to get the bright idea (apparently the late Joe Strummer's ) to pair the old-school reggae/ska artist and with Rancid's Tim Armstrong who excels at invoking the classic Jamaican sounds... He's not just some guy in a Bob Marley shirt, paying lip-service to reggae ...No, he's consistently nailed the genre in ways that true
Ska fans can appreciate. This makes a lot more sense than the normal strategy of teaming up a Reggae icon with tired-sounding rappers over chintzy digital backing or having them wreck once-classic songs just for the sake of having a duet with Sting or Gwen Stefani to sell an extra album or two...
This is so striking because there's none of that here...If someone played me "Children's Bread" or "One More" and told me they were unreleased 70's tracks I probably wouldn't question it much...When I first heard "One More" I figured it must have been a re-recorded
classic I had missed out on, or maybe a cover of an obscure chestnut, but no, it's a recent composition, meaning that one of the greatest 60's ska songs I've ever heard was written and recorded in 2012. It's almost impossible to process that this song came out the same year as "Gangnam Style"...
There's a lot of goods here..."Bang" threatens to erupt into punk rock but it never quite happens, still it's easily one of the hardest-hitting moments in Jimmy's discography...A menacing surf-rock riff hovers menacingly, as Jimmy pushes his falsetto to their ragged limits...
I also love "Our Ship is Sailing." It actually reminds me of the spiritually uplifting lighter reggae that he was doing in the mid-to-late 70's, but with a chorus hook that's sharper than anything he was doing at the time..."Rebel Rebel" also has an ridiculous abundance of catchy melodies...I can only describe it as "Jimmy Cliff Concentrate" as it's everything you've ever loved about him but compacted into the tightest three minutes possible...
I should probably talk about the cover songs here, since they seem to get most of the attention...The opening cover of Joe Higgs' "World Upside Down," although incredible, isn't a surprising choice, but watch the world fold into itself as Jimmy covers a song the Clash wrote about a movie he starred in...
Although it might sound a bit gimmicky in theory, once you put it on, and hear that skanking acoustic guitar and hear Ivanhoe himself sing those lyrics, it's a gamble that paid off big...Same with his cover of Rancid's "Ruby Soho." The punk guitars are extracted and replaced with a gentle bounce, and it's a lot of fun to hear Jimmy sing the song's wordy melody...
If you're into early 70's Jamaica (or Tim Armstrong's "A Poet's Life) don't miss out on this one. You don't get reggae albums like this anymore, so take the time to appreciate it. Let's hope the other living greats of reggae got word of "Rebirth"'s Grammy win and team-up with Tim...I'm looking at you, Toots Hibbert!
I hope this isn't the end of the Cliff/Armstrong collaboration...Please, "One More...One More"...
