Hard Road To Travel (first done on the previous LP) opens it.
White cliffs of dover guitar jonny rivers plus#
Wonderful World Beautiful People, Many Rivers To Cross, Viet Nam … three essential Toppermost tracks, plus Come Into My Life. It was an extraordinary album, a fully-formed masterpiece, though being a reggae LP it compiles singles … or rather it generated singles. Listen out, as in every Jimmy Cliff song, for the drums, and the treble tom-tom sound. I defy anyone to get through without a smile appearing on their face. This song defined the style though and remains a perfect example. Trojan started the style of taking a Jamaican track and sweetening it with string arrangements recorded in London. It was actually composed while Jimmy was in Brazil, and there’s a touch of that in it, as well as a belated summer of love vibe. Wonderful World, Beautiful People was exactly the kind of Trojan record that the general public loved and deep reggae fans get sniffy about. If it was good enough for Paul, it was good enough for me and I started buying them. At the time Paul McCartney was enthusing about Trojan’s Reggae Chartbuster compilation series, as well as pastiching it in Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da. Wonderful World, Beautiful People was a very early reggae hit (UK #6 in late 1969). Jimmy’s UK record releases switched to Trojan, then back to Island in late 1970 when the labels parted ways. Island and Trojan Records were closely linked in the late 60s … Island co-owned Trojan and divvied up its existing reggae and rock between the labels. In the meantime, back in Jamaica, reggae had appeared. Like Jackie Edwards, he wasn’t sounding Jamaican and was trying for chart material. He had spent some time in the UK and Brazil trying these different styles, with no hint of his ska beginnings. Keep Your Eyes On The Sparrow was produced by Paul Samwell-Smith of The Yardbirds. It would have been perfect for The Foundations or Hot Chocolate a few years later. A year later, Jimmy recorded Waterfall by Alex Spyropoulos and Patrick Campbell-Lyons, aka Nirvana (the UK group).
Let’s save it for a potential Jackie Edwards ten.
White cliffs of dover guitar jonny rivers free#
Set Me Free is magnificent, and with its swirling organ would sound fine next to Spooky Tooth, and was a long-considered near miss from the ten. Island tried him on duets with Millie (Hey Boy Hey Girl) and Jackie Edwards (Set Me Free). It also includes a cover of A Whiter Shade Of Pale. I’d sum the album up as soul … but Brit-soul. Aim And Ambition sounds like the Rolling Stones with an Atlantic horn section. Pride And Passion is an impassioned pop ballad … that was reggaefied in 1971 when he produced it for The Pioneers (and I think greatly improved it). His first album, all produced by Jimmy Miller, was Hard Road To Travel and includes Pride And Passion, Aim And Ambition, Let’s Dance, The Reward, Give And Take, I Got A Feeling and the title track. In 1971, Jimmy Cliff produced a new reggae version by The Pioneers, which was a #35 hit. It was very nearly a hit, bubbling under for weeks. It’s a stomper, and should have been a natural addition to those Jackie Edwards’ penned Island hits (Keep On Running, Somebody Help Me). Give And Take (aka Give A Little Take A Little) is from 1967, Rolling Stones’ producer Jimmy Miller recorded it. We should include an example of Jimmy Cliff as a credible straight soul singer. Island’s Chris Blackwell had launched the major success of first Millie, and then the Spencer Davis Group, by issuing via the major Fontana label rather than on his own, still small, indie label, Island, and tried Jimmy Cliff on the same route. In 1966 his Pride And Passion appeared on Fontana. Verden Allen and Mick Ralphs, later of Mott The Hoople, were in one of his bands, The Shakedown Sound. Island always saw his potential, and brought him over to England in 1965, where he spent the next two years with soul-oriented bands. Jimmy did not see himself as exclusively ska or Jamaican in style. Hearing it live in 2015 with the huge lion roars at the start, it’s Haile Selassie, Lion of Judah that comes to mind rather than The Jungle Book. Doolittle because of the youth in his voice. King Of Kings was from 1963, and the original single all sounds a bit Dr. He’s still singing King Of Kings and Miss Jamaica from that era in his 2015 live shows, in the ska section. At fourteen, Dearest Beverley/Hurricane Hatty was only the twelfth single on the Island label. Jimmy Cliff made his first record in 1961 at the age of thirteen … I’m Sorry on the Blue Beat label.
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