So why is Jimmy Cliff’s Wonderful World, Beautiful People on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
This clasThis classic 1970 roots reggae album brings me right back… to 1999.
I’ll explain.
I moved from New York City to San Francisco’s East Bay in late 1998, and by early 1999 I was settled into a wacky first floor of a house along with my housemates, Adam and Felice, in Berkeley. In exploring Berkeley – a truly eclectic and wonderful college town, at least back then – I soon discovered Amoeba Records, which was a vast two-story space filled with a treasure trove of album racks to sift through.
I worked the used CD bins heavily, and brought home a stack of albums one day that included Jimmy Cliff’s Wonderful World, Beautiful People. I was trying to educate myself on reggae music at the time, and with this one I struck pure gold.
It soon became a tradition that I would pop on Wonderful World, Beautiful People while sipping coffee and eating brunch at home on the weekend. Listening to this album always takes me back to that time, particularly sunny Sundays when the pressures of “real” adult life hadn’t quite settled down on my shoulders just yet.
If “Vietnam” isn’t my favorite reggae song of all time, it’s easily in my Top 5. It’s bright and buoyant and catchy and deeply pleasing, at least from a musical perspective. It took me some time to realize how poignant the lyrics are, detailing the story of a mother who receives a telegram telling her that her son has died fighting in the Vietnam War.
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
Oh, but mistress Brown your son is dead
And then comes the simple and straightforward as can be message:
Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam
Somebody please stop that war now
The title track, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” follows a similar model, with its gorgeous, bouncing rhythm and fantastic vocal performance from Cliff mapped against an earnest call to make the world a better place.
Instead of fussing and fighting
Cheating but biting
Scandalizing and hating
Baby, we could have a wonderful world, beautiful people
The smashers keep coming, too, with songs like “Sufferin’ In The Land,” the ballad and hit number “Many Rivers To Cross,” and “Time Will Tell.”
Some stats & info about Jimmy Cliff – Wonderful World, Beautiful People
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Reggae, Roots Reggae
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Wonderful World, Beautiful People released? 1970
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #245 out of 1,000
Jimmy Cliff’s Wonderful World, Beautiful People on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Jimmy Cliff’s Wonderful World, Beautiful People that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Take a look at the world and the state that it’s in today. I am sure you’ll agree we all could make it a better way.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.