I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES— an exhibition entitled Hue & Cry: French Printmaking and the Debate Over Colors— as color prints were disdained in France until the 1890’s — is at the Clark Art Institute in northwestern Massachusetts through March 6th.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #1 is this (quite lengthy) essay on Jason Isbell— a former member of the Drive By Truckers who is doing his part to make the Nashville music scene as racially inclusive as possible .. though he’ll have to do so from the sidelines for a bit (after testing positive for Covid).
THURSDAY's CHILD is named Max the Cat— one of a troika of British Columbia kittehs who will not allow a couple to open the box with the new blender they bought to make smoothies with … and the company has agreed to send some empty boxes… to see if the overlords will relent.
YOUR WEEKEND READ #2 is this (much shorter) essay by Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect, who is delighted with the three new Federal Reserve Board of Governors appointees, “creating the most progressive and diverse Federal Reserve ever”.
FRIDAY's CHILD is named Noodles the Cat— an Illinois kitteh (who liked to sit on the family’s horses) that went missing three years ago … then was located less then five miles away at a farm … where he also liked to sit on horses.
BRAIN TEASER— try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC ...… and the usually easier, less UK-centered New York Times quiz.
DIRECT DESCENDANTS?— the Three Stooges’ Larry Fine and British comic (the former writing partner of John Oliver), Andy Zaltzman.
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… while he is not as famous as the late Bob Marley: reggae’s first international star (and its greatest living performer) would have to be Jimmy Cliff– whose fifty-plus year career has taken him around the world and has sung three reggae standards that audiences would recall. He was on the charts before Bob Marley yet to non-reggae audiences may be better known for his acting. Still, his life story parallels the spread of reggae to the wider world.
Born as James Chambers in St. James, Jamaica in 1948, he was a childhood performer at local shows. Moving to the capital city of Kingston at age fourteen, he adopted an ambitious stage name of Jimmy Cliff to signal the heights of the music world he was determined to climb. He was fortunate enough to be brought to the attention of music producer Leslie Kong (who oversaw Cliff’s career until his death in 1971) as Cliff released several singles in Jamaica. Jimmy Cliff was one of those chosen to represent Jamaica at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 (and I wonder if yours truly saw him there, as a seven year-old)?
Within three years he was signed by the UK’s Island Records– whose owner Chris Blackwell had already stared the label moving away from purely Jamaican music into crossover pop – and he convinced Cliff to relocate to Britain to further his career. His 1968 debut album achieved some chart success and 1969’s Wonderful World, Beautiful People cracked the UK’s Top Ten – including the song Many Rivers to Cross– my favorite song of his.
The following year he performed a cover version of Wild World– with its composer Cat Stevens himself accompanying him on piano – and another pioneering Jamaican musician (Desmond Dekker) had a #2 hit recording of You Can Get It if You Really Want– one of Jimmy Cliff’s signature tunes.
In 1972 Jimmy Cliff had a starring role in the film The Harder They Come– one of the most internationally successful films to have been produced in Jamaica since independence – and the soundtrack album (and its title track especially) brought Jimmy Cliff’s music to a wider audience. By all rights, Jimmy Cliff should have been a household name in North America.
Inexplicably, the film was not released in the US until three years later. By that time the music industry had turned its attention to Bob Marley, whose band had the added aura of Rastafarian influences/references to ganja … neither of which were part of Jimmy Cliff’s lifestyle or music. Thus, he was overlooked by some.
Still, Jimmy Cliff had some well-received recordings and his 1972 song “Trapped” was later covered by Bruce Springsteen and in 1985 was included in the landmark We Are the World charity album. He expanded his repertoire to include an album of soul/pop (recorded at the noted studio of Muscle Shoals, Alabama) and his 1978 Give Thankx album included his popular Stand Up and Fight Back. He also had a well-received live album during this time.
In the 1980’s, he recorded two albums along with Kool & the Gang: the first of which received a Grammy nomination and its follow-up Cliff Hanger won that award. He also returned to acting with a role in the 1985 Robin Williams comedy Club Paradise set in the Caribbean. That same year he was one of the musicians on the protest song Sun City– against apartheid.
He reached the Top Twenty in 1993 with his cover of the Johnny Nash hit I Can See Clearly Now– as part of the soundtrack album for the film Cool Runnings (about the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team).
In this new century, he had something of a comeback album in 2004 with Black Magic– that featured duets with Sting, Wyclef Jean and the Clash guitarist Joe Strummer. At that time he released a deluxe re-issue of The Harder They Come as well as the two-disc Jimmy Cliff Anthology career retrospective. In more recent years he partnered with Rancid frontman Tim Anderson for two albums – with 2012’s Rebirth receiving a Grammy nomination. And just last year he released the single Human Touch … on Jamaican Independence Day.
Jimmy Cliff is age seventy-seven, was awarded the Order of Merit by Jamaica’s government in 2003 and inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
To show the inclusiveness of his music: his very popular song You Can Get It if You Really Want was used by two political campaigns: during the 1990 election campaign by the Sandanistas in Nicaragua and in 2007 in Britain by … hold on to your hats … the Conservative Party (about which he said, “I’m from the lower class of society and I tend to support them, rather than the upper class”).
Looking back on his career, Jimmy Cliff sums it up thusly:
My role has always been as the shepherd of reggae music. When they wanted to bring reggae to America, they sent Jimmy Cliff. When they wanted to bring reggae to England, they sent Jimmy Cliff. When they wanted to bring reggae to Africa, they sent Jimmy Cliff.
While Many Rivers to Cross is my favorite tune from him (which at this link you can hear) … I’d like to feature two other of his songs.
His 1970 single Vietnam– #6 in the UK and #25 in the US – was referred to (at the time) by Bob Dylan as the best protest song he had ever heard.
Yesterday, I got a letter from my friend fighting in Vietnam And this is what he had to say: “Tell all my friends that I’ll be coming home soon My time’ll be up some time in June Don’t forget”, he said, “to tell my sweet Mary Her golden lips are sweet as cherry”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” And it came from Vietnam, Vietnam Vietnam, Vietnam Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam
If that was a bit heavy … perhaps his most fun tune is a duet he sang with Elvis Costello (part of the soundtrack to the aforementioned 1986 film “Club Paradise” in which he acted) and Seven Day Weekend has Jimmy Cliff on harmonica/vocals.
Monday’s calling you too early when you’re sound asleep Bells are ringing by your bedside and out in the streets You say Monday’s long enough, but this is just the start Tuesday’s just the same as Monday without the surprising part Wednesday’s point of no return When you’ve squandered all you’ve earnedOne, two, three, four, five, six, seven-day weekend