Easter Egg A: Jimmy Cliff 70

Happy Ishtar to you all and welcome to the first of two posts in as many days, each dealing with milestones for two heavyweight musical figures.

Let's lead things off with one of the people most responsible for bringing Reggae music from the island of Jamaica to the world at large.

He was born this day in 1948 and began making noise in the 1960s, as part of the Ska revolution that overtook his native country and metamorphosed into the modern iteration we call Reggae.

The legend has it that he forced his way into the industry, harassing famed proto-producer Leslie Kong so annoyingly that the man agreed to record a single with him, just to get him off his back.

That record went nowhere, but he persisted and eventually began to have hits on the island. This proceeded into a contract with (it's becoming a theme, isn't it?) Island Records at the close of the Sixties.

He had several epochal songs in the early 1970s -- Bob Dylan famously referring to the track "Vietnam" as the "single greatest protest song" he'd ever heard -- but his watershed moment would come as the featured figure in a film.

It was starring in the Kingston-gangland epic The Harder They Come in 1972 -- in which he played the lead role and wrote almost  all the music -- that broke him to superstardom and, essentially, set the art form of Reggae music on the path to the world domination it would enjoy by the decade's end.

And so we see, there can be little argument of the primo place in the musical firmament occupied by today's celebrant, Jimmy Cliff.

To honor his 70th, I have seeded to the cloud two sparkling performances from the heyday of the Reggae explosion, largely indistinguishable from official live documents yet never issued to the masses by our friends in the "industry".

Jimmy Cliff

1978+1982

i.

Park West

Chicago, IL

11.11.1978

01 Wanted Man

02 Johnny Too Bad

03 Rivers of Babylon

04 She Is a Woman

05 Lonely Streets

06 The Love I Need

07 Universal Love

08 Let's Turn the Tables

09 Stand Up and Fight Back

10 Meeting In Afrika

11 You Can Get It If You Really Want

12 Sitting In Limbo

13 The Harder They Come

Total Time: 1:01:56

Jimmy Cliff - vocals, guitar & percussion

Ronald "Ronnie" Murphy - drums

Leebert "Gibby" Morrison - bass & vocals

Leonard Smith - guitar & vocals

Uziah "Sticky" Thompson - percussion & vocals

Paul "Pablo" Smith - keyboards & vocals

Ernest Ranglin - guitar

Earl "Chinna" Smith - guitar

Reebop Kwaku Bah - congas

digital capture of an HD 24/96 webcast from 2015, rendered to 16/44

423 MB FLAC

ii.

Bob Marley Performing Arts Center

Jamaica World Music Festival

Montego Bay, Jamaica

11.25.1982

01 Originator

02 Give the People What They Want/Let's Turn the Tables/African Chant

03 Roots Radical

04 Treat the Youths Right

05 Rock the Children

06 Music Maker

07 Many Rivers to Cross

08 Special

09 Love Is All I Have to Give

10 Peace Officer

11 The Harder They Come

12 Rub-a-Dub Partner

Total time: 1:25:42

disc break goes after Track 05

Jimmy Cliff - vocals

Bo Richards (Sly Dunbar) - drums

Raunchy McLee (Robbie Shakespeare) - bass & vocals

Uziah "Sticky" Thompson - percussion & vocals

Sleepy Woods - African drums, percussion & vocals

Ersta "Double Barrel" Dallas - keyboards & vocals

Rastoogy Brennen - guitars

Earl "Chinna" Smith - guitars

Dean Fraser - saxophones

Junior "Chico" Chin - trumpet

David Madden - trumpet

Brother Neville - trombone

Charlie Miller remaster of a sbd master tape
541 MB FLAC

both shows are in the same folder/April 2018 archive link

These shows sound incredible -- the former comes from a digital, HD rebroadcast and the latter is remastered by Charlie Miller, just like that colossal Aretha tape from last weekend -- and will provide the one-drop to your Easter Egg Hunt with little difficulty.

I shall return tomorrow with a tribute to another charter member of the Tune Luminary Club you won't wanna miss, but for now put this little bee in your bonnet and thank providence for the birth and continuing life of Jimmy Cliff!--J.