Jimmy Cliff (studio album) by Jimmy Cliff

Quality reggae album for a nice sunny morning listening

From Repo 11/20/2017 18:08

HAVE A NICE DAY!

Hey there sunshine!
Don't let me down
Hey there sunshine!
Please come around
Hey there sunshine!
My friend! (Hello Sunshine)

As anyone who’s seen The Trolls movie knows, moods are contagious. And no one knew this better than Jimmy Cliff. His early career was one giant happy face emoticon. Bursting with positive vibrations. He was the perfect artist to christian the 70s as the decade of Sunshine Pop (just stole this from Baystate. Thanks, Baystate! Go Pats!). At the time when The Smiley Face icon beamed from a thousand coffee mugs and the parting phrase “Have a Nice Day” greeted you from virtually every bumper sticker on that family truckster station wagon just in front of you. These icons became ubiquitous parts of the 70s culture. Hell, even my cookie jar was one big giant yellow smiley face growing up (typically filled with my Dad’s homemade oatmeal raisin cookies! Yum!). Before the 70s, no one said “Have a Nice Day” as a parting remark. It’s true!. It was just “Goodbye.” Or maybe “See you later”. Have a Nice Day and the Smiley face were inescapable & quintessential pieces of 70s culture. Like the guerrilla art of those Andre the Giant stickers in the late 80s, you just couldn’t escape it.

I'm gonna use what I got
To get what I need
I'm gonna use what I got, use all I got
To get what I need, yeah (Use What I Got)

And Jimmy Cliff was the embodiment of this 70s spirit. That a smile & a healthy dose of moxie could make your life better. Make your dreams come true. As the real life Don Draper ingeniously framed it - “Have a Coke and a smile.” And suddenly all things are possible. This was the ethos of the 70s. 60s Hippies culture made accessible, commodified & mass marketed. Making the world feel better about themselves and their possibilities while collecting a tidy profit on the side. Everybody wins. Everybody smiles. And Jimmy Cliff was the embodiment of this - part happy go lucky shaman, part cunning, street smart rude boy.

I've got a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go
Said it's a hard road to travel
And a rough rough way to go
But I can't turn back, my heart is fixed
My mind's made up, I'll never stop
My faith will see, see me through (Hard Road To Travel)


For the 1972 film The Harder They Come, you were initially hired to write the films score. How is it you ended with the lead role?

When Perry Henzell [films director] saw me, and I answered him to one question, he asked, Do you think that you can write some music for a movie I am making? I answered him, What do you mean if I think? I can do it.” [Laughs.] So, that answer made him say, This is the man that I want to do my movie.

And that, ladies & gentleman is Jimmy Cliff in a nutshell. Eternal optimism. Despite living in abject poverty and being from the “cliffs” of Jamaica, he totally believed in himself. In his possibilities. And there is immense spiritual power in that. If you ask any star athlete if they’re the best [enter position here]. They all unreservedly boast “YES!”. And they all believe it. Really, really believe it. Most may sound at best a tad delusional and at worst like total cocky assholes, but without that belief , they wouldn't be a professional athlete to begin with. The day they lose that belief is the day they’re no longer kicking field goals through the uprights from 60 yards out (Go Gostkowski!). If you don’t think you can guard Steph Curry… well you can’t. And Jimmy believed. Really, really believed. And basically browbeat record store clerks up and down the streets of Kingston to produce him at the age of fourteen until he at last found someone who believed in him as much as he did.

“He was the one who said to me first, Youve got the best voice that Ive ever heard in Jamaica. And when he said that to me, I said somebody believes like I believe. [Laughs.]”

And that’s the secret to success for anything. Not having any doubt. And finding kindred spirits. Finding people who believe in you. People who can pick you back up when the tides knock you down. People who can put you on a whole new beach & gift you an entirely new horizon. (Thanks, Komo!) A whole new way of seeing yourself and your situation. Because if a hayseed from the cliffs of Jamaica could become a movie star and inducted into the rock n’ roll hall fame, what’s to stop YOU!

2 Timothy 1:7 … For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Grade: A-. I actually own two versions of this album. They’re both entitled Wonderful World, Beautiful People (its title for its American release). But they have completely different track listings. One it turns out is a hodgepodge comp of Jimmy’s work during this period with Leslie Kong released on the Castle Pie label in 1999. And ya know what? I just ordered more. That’s right. I just splurged twenty bucks for yet another CD comp entitled Harder Road To Travel: The Collection (Truth be told I thought I was getting a double LP of all his 60s singles AND this album! Read the fine print, Repo!!! (Or really. Just read!)) for even more of his work with Leslie Kong. And this is on top of already owning the super deluxe double cd collection of The Harder They Come soundtrack. Overkill? Not even close. Because this stuff is maybe the most life affirming, positive thinking music out there.

The album that epitomizes the Have a Nice Day, Smiley Faced mind state that I need to be all about. Songs about prevailing. NO MATTER WHAT. Staying positive. NO MATTER WHAT. So find your Leslie Kong, people. Believe in yourself. No matter what. Because that’s not just half the battle. It is the battle.

And this ray of sunshine pop beams down to to somewhere in the 30s on my Essentials chart. Along with The Harder They Come soundtrack, this is the Jimmy Cliff album that every fan of 70s rock should own.

An essential album for any Reggae enthusiast. It met my expectations going in. It's an enjoyable listen. If you were to whip this out at a party, you'd still have a good time.
Don't miss: "Many Rivers To Cross", "Wonderful World, Beautiful People", and the song Bob Dylan called the best protest song he'd ever heard, "Vietnam".