Jimmy Cliff

The good and the great continue to depart- Jimmy Cliff died yesterday at the age of 81. His voice, often described as mellifluous- I'll go for mesmerising and a joy to listen to- is one of the sounds of reggae for me. When I first began to buy reggae records, via covers by The Clash and interviews in the weekly music press, Jimmy Cliff and the soundtrack to The Harder They Come was one of my entry points. The soundtrack to that film is hit after hit. Jimmy sang the title track and recorded it specifically for the film, as well as Many Rivers To Cross and You Can Get It If You Really Want alongside songs from The Maytals, The Melodians, The Slickers and Desmond Decker. Jimmy played the lead role in the film too, Ivan. 

Way back in the early 90s I bought a Jimmy Cliff compilation at a record fair in Buxton which had these two songs on it...

Wild World

Vietnam

I was already familiar with Wild World due to the Maxi Priest cover version from 1988. Good as that is, Jimmy Cliff's version is sublime. Vietnam was called 'the best protest song I ever heard' by no less an authority than Bob Dylan. 

In 2012 Jimmy released a cover of Guns Of Brixton, Jimmy returning the tip of the trilby to Paul Simonon who references Ivan in the lyrics. Jimmy's version was produced by Tim Armstrong of Rancid, a massive Clash fan- Jimmy later covered a Rancid song too. 

'You see he feels like Ivan/ Born under the Brixton sun'

Guns Of Brixton

A life well lived and a giant of Jamaican music. Jimmy Cliff RIP. 

Forty Minutes Of Covers Of The Clash

To follow last week's post of The Clash sampled, edited and remixed, this week has a a forty minute set of covers of Clash songs by other artists. When I started to put a shortlist together I realised there's enough material for two or three editions. I thought of theming it- a dub mix, rock mix and so on but then in the spirit of Sandinista! decided to sling different styles together, so we go from dub to rockabilly and back again with several other points visited in between. The Clash's songs stand up well to being covered- the sheer variety is testament to their songs and the distance they travelled between White Riot in 1977 and Death Is A Star in 1983. 

Forty Minutes Of Covers Of The Clash

• Terry Edwards And The Scapegoats: Version City
• Megative: Ghetto Defendant
• Infantry Rockers: Rebel Waltz
• The Afghan Whigs: Lost In The Supermarket
• Citizen Sound ft. Prince Blanco and Ammoye: One More Time
• Hinds: Spanish Bombs
• Jimmy Cliff: Guns Of Brixton
• Lily Allen and Mick Jones: Straight To Hell
• The Pistoleers: Bank Robber
• Dub Spencer and Trance Hill: Train In Vain

Punk trumpeter Terry Edwards recorded covers of the Mary Chain, Bowie and The Fall with his Scapegoats as well as being a member of Gallon Drunk. It is typically punk of him to decide to cover Version City, a Sandinista! side 6 song and hence unlikely to have been heard by many but the most committed. 

Megative are from New York City. Their cover of Ghetto Defendant (a Combat Rock highlight, rocking dub with Allen Ginsburg on board) came as a bonus song on their 2018 album No Fear. 

The Afghan Whigs use Topper's Train In Vain drumbeat for their cover of one of Mick's greatest London Calling era songs, a single that never was. Greg Dulli et al recorded it for a tribute album that came out in 1999. 

Shatter The Hotel came out in 2009, a reggae/ dub album of Clash covers with Don Letts doing London Calling and Creation Rockers, Dub Antenna and Chomsky Allstars all feature. It's a really good album, good versions from start to finish. For this mix I included Infantry Rockers doing Rebel Waltz (a real lesser known Clash gem) and Citizen Sound's One More Time. Infantry Rockers are from Wisconsin with members from Venezuela, Sierra Leone, Costa Rica and Jamaica, which couldn't be more Clash if it tried. I can't find much info about Citizen Sound. Prince Blanco featured in last week's mix with 22 Davis Road

Hinds are four young women from Spain. In 2020 they kicked the living daylights out of one of London Calling's best songs, Joe conflating 70s mass tourism, the Spanish Civil War of 1936- 1939 and the terror campaign by ETA. If you're going to cover The Clash, do it properly. As Hinds do. 

Jimmy Cliff's cover of Guns Of Brixton came out on his Sacred Fire EP in 2011. Paul Simonon's lyrics refer to Ivan, the lead character in the Harder They Come. Ivan was of course played by Jimmy Cliff. 

Lily Allen and Mick recorded Straight To Hell for a War Child album in 2009. Lily's Dad Keith was a friend of Joe's and he was a regular visitor to their home. 

The Pistoleers covered Bank Robber in rockabilly style for a 2003 tribute album, This Is Rockabilly Clash- I'm fairly sure the first time I heard this was when it was played by Andrew Weatherall. 

Dub Spencer and Trance Hill are a Swiss dub outfit who released an entire album of dub versions of Clash songs back in 2011. It's quality stuff from top to tail not least when they tackle the less- dub oriented songs, like Train In Vain. 

Yesterday I Got A Letter

The evergreat Jimmy Cliff and his 1970 song Vietnam, with a soldier getting ready to come home, his sweetheart with 'golden lips as sweet as cherries' and then his mother receiving the telegram giving the news of his death. Sorry if that spoilt the ending for you. I'm pretty sure New Order had been listening to this when they recorded Love Vigilantes (and they covered it at some point in the late 90s).

Vietnam

Jimmy's new e.p, Sacred Fire, recorded with Tim Armstrong and including two versions of his cover of Guns Of Brixton (posted here in September) and a cover of Rancid's Ruby Soho among its five songs is out now and you should get it. Emusic have it here for download if you're a member though you (and I) should really go looking for a copy we can actually hold in our sweaty mitts.

You See He Feels Like Ivan

Cover version of Guns Of Brixton returns, in fine reggae style. This is very good- Jimmy Cliff with Tim Armstrong from Rancid producing, a taster for a forthcoming album. Jimmy's voice sounds great still, the acoustic guitars swing and there's some lovely trombone.

Guns Of Brixton

Thursday Reggae

One of the great things about reggae is the super heavy, critic friendly, leftfield dub stuff and the fluffier pop-reggae are, to my mind, equally good. Davy H posted Susan Cadogan's Hurt So Good the other day, a pop-reggae tune that is surely as good as anything by King Tubby or Lee Perry, just poppier. This is Wild World, the Cat Stevens song, given the treatment by Jimmy Cliff's honey coated voice. Also contains very nice piano. Probably will not cause drowsiness. May make the user feel better, possibly even mild euphoria.

Wild World.mp3