Recently in Reggae Music Category
Music Journalism's Urban Outfitters presented their Top 100 of the 70's this week. They described the 97th best album, the soundtrack to the Jamaican move The Harder They Come, as "one of the saddest albums of the decade" and take to patronizing and pitying Jamaicans, which comes across pretty yucky. This soundtrack is full of powerful and uplifting beautiful music. It does hold some sadness but it is the sort of sadness that comes with complex depth. Oh man, I admit it, I guess I agree with the pitchfork man, the music is totally sad, but also happy and hopeful. It is very reminiscent of American gospel music and blues. The Jamaicans of the early 70's or today are not to be patronized or pitied. The Harder They Come is a beautiful collection of songs and a wonderful introduction to Jamaican music in the early 1970's.
Jimmy Cliff plays the lead character, Ivan, in the movie and he also dominates the soundtrack with half of the songs (counting two which are repeated at the end). I really no nothing of Jimmy Cliff's career beyong this album but his songs on here are amazing. The album kicks off with Jimmy Cliff singing "You Can get It If You Really Want," an upbeat song explaining the vibe of a youthful Ivan (the character in the film) coming to Kingston from the countryside with the goal of making it big being a reggae star. Prepared to face hardships and tribulations but believing if you try hard that you will get what you want is the message. Ivan finds it harder than that, though. After living in poverty for quite some time he finally is able to record some songs in a studio, but the producer refuses to allow the song to be played on the radio unless Ivan signs away all rights. Ivan turns to selling ganga. Which works out pretty well for awhile, but he is then set up by his supplier and gets in a terrible situation and he kills a policeman. He becomes a heavily wanted man and goes on a killing spree. He quickly becomes the most famous man in Jamaica and his song becomes a hit on the radio. Ivan finally has the fame he desired, but there is no escaping the police. He goes mad and his madness lends too sloppiness in evading the police and he is gunned down by the police. It is a well told tragic tale, that amazingly is also based on a true story.
The second song by DJ Scotty, "Draw Your Brakes" is a great example of the version principal in Jamaicaan as it is the rhythm from a song called "Stop That Train" by Keith & Rex which was actually a cover of an earlier Spanishtonians hit. "Draw Your Brakes" lets you into the complexity of Ivan's character. He continues down the path but he knows that's it's not the right thing he wishes to stop the train and get off. Tracks 3 & 4 take you to such a deep gospel place with The Melodians bringing "Rivers of Babylon," which is one of my favorite songs of all time, and can sound good in almost any setting and performed by anyone, but this is the definitive version and it sounds spectacular here. Something about "Rivers of Babylon" just gets me, makes me feel so reverent, so open, so spiritual, so hand holding awesome. Check out these truly wicked lyrics: "By the rivers of babylon/Where he sat down/And there he went/When he remebered zion.//For the wicked, carry us away/Captivity require from us a song/How can we sing king alpha’s song in a strange land?//So let the words of our mouth/And the meditations of our hearts/Be acceptable in thy sight/Over i." MMMM. Are you feeling it?? FEEL IT! Then it is straight into Jimmy Cliff's version of the hymnal "Many Rivers to Cross." It's Cliff wailing sorrowfully over a church organ for the first verse and then a very tasteful guitar and light drums come in low in the mix. It sorta feels like D'angelo but more churchy than sexy, but churchy in such an awesome way. Track 5, "Sweet & Dandy" is the first of two Toots & Maytals tracks on the album and is a really fun bouncy song. Jimmy Cliff is back with the title track ("The Harder They Come") at track number 6. "The Harder They Come" is a representation of the thought process of Ivan late in the movie when he is killing cops and running from cops and near the end of his life: "And I keep on fighting for the things I want/Though I know that when you're dead you can't/But I'd rather be a free man in my grave/Than living as a puppet or a slave." 
Track 7 and 8 are by The Slickers and (legendary)Desmond Decker respectively and both interesting songs. The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad" talks about respect for a classic western style outlaw, and Decker's "007 (Shanty Town)" speaks of the shanty towns of Kingston. Toots & the Maytals bring it back with "Pressure Drop" on the next track. One of the greatest vocal performances ever on "Pressure Drop" by the always exciting Toots, who is still rocking it so hard, as evidenced by their exciting performance on Saturday Night Live this year. "Pressure Drop" is a song about an overwhelming and powerful love that fills you with so much excitement that you are almost speaking in tongues. Jimmy Cliff's "Sitting in Limbo" follows and is by far the most contemperary american pop music influenced song on the album by far. It sounds like it could be like a Carole King song or something, with a prominent flute. The album closes with "You Can Get It If You Really Want" and "The Harder They Come" again, they are ever so slightly different versions ("The Harder They Come" has a really mellow nice violin on the second version). The songs are really rad and don't grow old and so important to the story that a second appearance of these songs is welcome.
The songs are raw, ragged, and gorgeous. They sound like 1971 Kingston Jamaica in tone, texture, and lyric. They speak of struggle, and hardship, but maintain hope. The movie is a classic and the soundtrack turns out to actually be not the saddest music, but The Greatest Album Of All Time.
