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Jimmy Cliff
Goodbye Yesterday: The Legendary Lost Album
Jimmy Cliff is a reggae legend with more longevity than most. His professional career began over forty-five years ago and shows no sign of slowing despite his age; moreover, he continues to record material that wins accolades and regularly headlines major music events all over the world. Though Bob Marley has been crowned reggae’s king, Cliff was an icon first; it was Cliff who brought Marley to the first proper audition that would result in the recording of his first single.
Anyone who’s had the pleasure of meeting the man knows that Cliff is a humble and clearly thoughtful individual. Born James Chambers in the small town of Somerton, he worked the land before moving to Kingston in an effort to improve his learning opportunities. “I grew up in the countryside,” the singer explains, “about twelve miles from Montego Bay, and I enjoyed that period of my life because there were rivers to go to and the beach. My parents were Christians and I enjoyed the singing of the church, but when the preaching came on I slept. My father was a tailor, my mother is a housewife and I also spent a lot of time with my father’s sister and her husband, who were farmers. By the time I was twelve, my father decided that I should go to Kingston; there was a college there to learn the technical things of radio and television, so I went to Kingston to do that, but in my mind, I had started writing songs, so I just thought that by the time I get to Kingston, I’ll have an opportunity to record them.”
The singer explains that he took his stage name at this young age in an effort to stand out on talent contests. “Prior to going to Kingston I used to go to Boy Scout camp and at the camps they used to have little concerts. I was born in the mountainous part of Somerton, up in the cliffs, so I thought, why don’t I use cliff, it’s the heights. There was a talent show called Opportunity Knocks that happens once a week, so I tried that for quite a few weeks before I finally got a chance to audition, and the way I got the chance was the man from the show, his name was Vere Johns; once I got close to the stage I said, ‘Mr. Johns, my name is Jimmy Cliff,’ and he looked down over his glasses and looked at me, so I found like the name rang, it sounded like something to him, so he said, ‘OK, you come on up.’ I went up and I started to sing Fats Domino songs; the artists that I really loved were Fats Domino, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles, and in my mind, I thought if I could be as good as them all put together, I would be really great, so I used to sing their songs. They booed me off, but I tried again at this other theatre in west Kingston and the first night I had an opportunity there, I won with a song called ‘Sinners Weep’ by Owen Gray.”
In the late 1950s, Cliff checked the sound system proprietors that were entering into music production but Duke Reid, Coxsone Dodd and Simeon “Little Wonder” Smith all turned him down. He cut his first song, “Daisy Got Me Crazy,” for sound system proprietor Count Boysie, who retained the disc as an exclusive acetate for his sound system. He then briefly formed a duo with a certain Keith Smith as Cliff and Swift; although the duo did not last, Swift brought Cliff to the Sir Cavaliers sound system, for whom Jimmy cut the single “I’m Sorry,” which failed to make any real impact. The breakthrough came in 1962 when Cliff convinced Leslie Kong, one of three Chinese-Jamaican brothers who ran a downtown restaurant, ice cream parlor, record shop and real estate office, to enter into record production. “One night I was just walking and frustrated, going back home in west Kingston and I saw this place called Beverley’s and I saw records in the shop, but it was also a ice cream parlor and a cosmetics shop, so I just thought, maybe if I write a song called Beverleys, I could probably get my foot through the door. I went and they said they are closed and I said I have a song, and they said, ‘We don’t do recording,’ and I said, ‘But I think you can get into recording,’ and I sang the song, ‘Dearest Beverley.’ The two other brothers, they laughed, but the other one, he said, ‘I think he has the best voice I’ve heard in Jamaica.’ I had written a song called ‘Hurricane Hattie’ based upon a hurricane that blew in Belize; he recorded it and then I got my first hit.”
Recording exclusively for Leslie Kong, Cliff became one of the biggest names in ska and traveled with Prince Buster and Millie Small to perform at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. It was there that the singer met Chris Blackwell, who brought him to England the following year, beginning a long and fertile working association. Initially, Cliff found his British backing band had trouble grappling with the ska form; Blackwell also encouraged the singer to broaden his sound to appeal to rock and soul audiences, but success was elusive. In 1968, Blackwell sent Cliff to represent Jamaica at a song contest in Brazil with his original composition “Waterfall,” which Island issued as a single in the UK. His time in Brazil proved to be particularly fruitful, his popularity resulting in very strong new material. “When I went to Brazil the people really loved me there,” he recalls, “and it’s like my whole career turned around. I was inspired just due to the fact that they loved me in Brazil and a lot of songs came out of that turn-around there.”
To make the most of this newfound inspiration, Cliff returned to Beverley’s to record the basics of the Wonderful World, Beautiful People album. A pattern was then established where Cliff recorded his new works at Beverley’s, most of which would later be altered in Britain to increase their pop appeal. Then, around the time of Leslie Kong’s untimely death in 1971, Cliff traveled to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to record the forward-looking Another Cycle album, which blended elements of R&B with reggae.
This compilation collects uncommon material from the influential period of 1968-1972; selected by an Island staff member in 1975, it has not been released in this form until now. Much of the work comes from the international version of singles Cliff cut with Leslie Kong in 1970-71, including the optimistic “Goodbye Yesterday,” defiantly critical numbers like “I’m No Immigrant” and “Synthetic World,” and the heavily spiritual “Bongo Man,” which Cliff says was influenced by his closeness to Rastafari leader Prince Emmanuel Edwards during his early days in Kingston. “Trapped” is a rocking number produced by Cat Stevens in 1972, emphasizing the two singers’ common ground, while “Keep Your Eyes On The Sparrow” is a gospel-influenced number from March 1971 that shows how well-suited Cliff’s voice is to the idiom; the closing “Waiting In Line” is a previously unreleased ballad that is firmly in soul territory.
Although Cliff achieved major international fame as the star of cinematic epic The Harder They Come, he subsequently split from Island in 1973. He has since recorded dozens of albums, appeared in a couple of Hollywood hit films and contributed to high-profile soundtracks; he has also recently been given a major award by the Jamaican government for his cultural contributions. Cliff says he is presently working on a book that will collect interviews and photographs to highlight his many achievements; he emphasizes that his ultimate goal is to use his music to stimulate and motivate people to appreciate life.
— DAVID KATZ
David Katz is author of People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, published by Canongate, and Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae, published by Bloomsbury.
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