So... Alright - Jimmy Cliff and Hockey Hate

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

Geoff memorializes Jimmy Cliff, and discusses his deep seeded and brand new hockey hate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. So I went from not being sure what I was going to talk about today to being a little overwhelmed with how much I have to talk about today. Because one of my favorite musicians died and I want to talk about him a little bit. I have been doing a lot of reading about him in his life today and listening to a lot of his music. and it's all kind of rattling around in my head. So I'm going to try to make sense of it all. But also, I think I hit a milestone last night on Monday, November 24th.

It's the day I discovered. I hate an NHL team. Yeah, I've been watching the Red Wings now for since about, you know, since last season. And I've been getting into it more and more. Burn Dog and I have been watching almost every game together. Last night was no different. They came over. And we sat down to watch the Red Wings,

the fucking New Jersey Devils. Fuck them. I hate the New Jersey Devils. It happened yesterday in the game. It just manifested. Third period, I wasn't a fan of the New Jersey Devils in the first two periods, but by the third period, I was seeing red. And we lost that game, but holy shit, did we come back?

And the last three minutes of that game were, fucking thrilling and holy shit, did it make me not like those mingy little pricks, the New Jersey Devils with their fucking mustaches. Fuck those guys. I cannot wait till we play them again. I think it's not for a while. I don't think it's till next year. I cannot fucking wait till we play them again.

If they play in Detroit, I think they play in Detroit in March or April maybe, I'm going to that game. I'm going to fly to Detroit just to see them. play these fucking devils at home. Oh, I hate him so much all at once out of nowhere. I can't believe it, but I feel it in my core. And that's how you know you've achieved a level of fandom in a sport. That's how I feel about Auburn football. That's how I feel about the Golden State Warriors and the Philadelphia 76ers and the fucking Lakers and the fucking Spurs who are making it really hard not to like them right now because they have an incredibly likable team so I'm

softening a bit on them. I can't believe I'm saying. But that's when you ascend into real sports fandom. It's one thing to love a team. It's one thing to get behind and support and think about and put all of your positive energy into a team succeeding and enjoying that ride. But it's a whole other level when you find the opposite of that, the team to pour all of your hatred into, right? The team that becomes the focal point of everything that's wrong with the sport you're watching. And to me, that is now, at least as of right now, the New Jersey Devils. I may learn to hate another hockey team sooner or later, but right now they're the only ones that I kind of have my sights set on. And, oh, yeah. Speaking of being overwhelmed,

I've been meaning to talk about television and stuff that I'm into right now, but there, it's, I went from, it's the fucking, it happens every year, right? It happens every year. It's like there's a fucking drought and then the rains come, the content rains come. I went from having nothing to watch on television to having to resort to like episodes of Love is Blind Sweden or whatever just to entertain myself, which by the way, not a bad show. It shouldn't be shit talking Love is Blind Sweden. All of the Love is Blind franchises are fine and I enjoy them all. But went from having not a whole hell of a lot to watch just maybe a survivor and amazing race to

Real Housewives, Mormon Housewives, Love Island, Australia, UK celebrity traders, pluribus, task, the chair company, physical Asia, squid games, reality show, whatever they're called, the Squid Games, whatever the fuck they're called, Southern Charm, New Vanderpump, and probably a ton of other shit that I'm missing right now. It is, we sit down, we sit down to watch TV at night. Not a lot of time to watch TV these days. You know, I tend to have a ninja movie or something on during the daytime in the background, but like focused, like my wife and I sitting down to enjoy television time. Not a ton of time at the end of the night. So you get to watch maybe a show, show and a half. And I feel like we're just getting further behind every day.

It was like kind of like the early days of rooster teeth when I would get up, I would go to work at telenetwork. I had to be at work at 7 a.m. And I'd work until 4 p.m. Then I would come home. And from 4 to 6 or 6.30, I would hang out with my wife at the time. And I would stuff DVDs and T-shirts into envelopes. This is before we hired a fulfillment company, right? So about the first year and a half that I was doing it out of my house. And I would do that. And then I would drop a bunch

of stuff off in post office boxes and then go record RVB or do whatever work we did down at Bernie's house. Come home, two or three in the morning, go to bed. But I would wake up and I would look and I'd be further behind than I was yesterday, even though I did a bunch of work. And it's just like, I could never get ahead. It's part of why we moved to a fulfillment house was the best decisions we ever made as a company because it freed us up to make more content and to not be bad at shipping merchandise. But regardless, that's kind of how it feels with television right now. I feel like every day, no matter how much work I put into watching TV, I'm further behind

the next day, just feel like I can't watch enough TV to keep up right now, which is not a problem at all. I also figure with my Britbox going, there'll probably be new seasons of Ludwig and some of those shows that I'm really into, so I've got to keep my eyes open for that. Hell, for all, I know they're already out. I haven't even enough to check. God damn.

And then there's all the ninja movies, right? Although I must admit, I'm at a bit of a ninja impasse. I've made my way mostly through the show Kasugi films. I still need to watch nine deaths of the ninja and maybe one or two more. But I've made a way over to American Ninja, which is, actually,

interesting. Michael Dutnikov, I talked a lot of shit about on this podcast in the review of the movie I did for 3 a.m. Theater called, I think it was called River of Death. And I just thought he was so wooden and uncharismatic in it. And he's a delight, an absolute delight in American Ninja 1 and 2. I got to say, so far in this walk down my childhood ninja memory lane, I feel like Revenge of the Ninja is probably the best film but American Ninja 2 is ludicrous but incredibly enjoyable it's ninjas on a remote Caribbean island

fighting the army and the Marines and it is delightful I gotta say but the next movie American Ninja 3 replaces Michael Dutikoff with a new dude and still has the sidekick Jackson in it but it's some new karate guy now and I just don't know I don't know

And he might be awesome, I don't know, but just something about it makes me not want to watch it, you know, or makes me a little reticent to watch it. But I know I got to get through it because American Ninja 4 has the return of Michael Dudukov and he teams up with this new guy. So clearly they're cooking something up here. By the way, this is like 1987. So whatever they cooked was eaten before I graduated high school. But regardless, I will get through American Ninja 3 because I'm excited about American Ninja 4. And then after that, I'll have to, honestly, I'll have to circle my wagons. and do some investigating and see what other ninja fare there is for me to enjoy from my childhood,

because I might be getting close. I mean, there's a million kung fu and ninja movies that I could watch, but I'm kind of going for a vibe and an era, you know, and so I don't know how much, I don't know how much ninja is left in that well, but I'm going to do some research and find out. The main focus of today's podcast was originally going to be inspired by Byrndog. we were watching Red Wings the other night and he started telling me interesting

when that dude falls in love of something he falls hard. He was telling me where different hockey teams got their names like the origin of different hockey teams named like the Bruins for instance or the Rangers and they're all funny. And that got me thinking one of the most interesting team name origin stories so I did a bunch of research on that

and was all prepared to go into that with you today. But But yesterday, November 24th, 2025, Mr. Jimmy Cliff died at 81 years old. Jimmy Cliff was, I guess I say was now, yeah. Jimmy Cliff was one of the most successful musicians to ever come out of Jamaica. He is one of only two Jamaican musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. number one, you could probably guess, it would be Bob Marley, or Mr. Marley, which is what he called him in all the interviews I was reading this morning. He had a Titanic career that spanned

ska, rock steady, reggae, arena reggae, and a million other musical genres and influences. He dabbled, whereas Bob Marley kind of took influence from other kinds of music and incorporated it into reggae, I think Jimmy Cliff just took the themes of reggae and Ska and just spread them out in every genre that he could find to perform in. He was very eclectic with his music. And I very, very much connected with and loved his earliest stuff. He didn't create Skaa. That was Laurel Lakin, would be considered the godfather. I mean, no one person created Skaa. But I think Laurelaken is considered the godfather of Ska. And then, of course, There's guys like Prince Buster and Desmond Decker and stuff.

But he was there kind of at the beginning as Scott was becoming popularized. And he was this incredibly talented, driven, aspiring young musician who just had doors slammed in his face left and right and wouldn't give up and kept trying to find success and to find people to produce his music. And eventually he did and became a worldwide phenomenon. If you're not familiar with Jimmy Cliff, maybe you are. He's in my world, he's incredibly famous and incredible. influential. He was huge

in the punk rock world in the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s. Skah and rock steady and reggae and punk all share audience and themes and you know we've got some of the best, like the best hardcore band of all time is bad brains, a Jamaican

hardcore band. But they also played reggae, right? And even the first, even the very first Bad Brains album had the yellow album had three reggae songs on it that were fucking phenomenal. I love a ja Jacques Hauling, and I don't know what the third one was. Hold on. Let me look at that. Oh, right. How can I forget it? Leaving Babylon. I'm some of my favorite songs.

By the way, not going to be the song of the day or anything, but listen to Leaving Babylon by Bad Brains. That is a tremendous song. Anyway, there's a lot of crossover between reggae and ska and punk, and obviously, you know, the skinhead movement began in ska. and it's just a milieu, if you will, of crossovers between genres. So Jimmy Cliff was always considered very cool and very revered, and his movie, The Harder They Come, which we can talk about in a minute, is beloved in my world, even though I've never seen it. But we will rectify that soon. He was born one of nine children in, oh gosh, when was he born?

I should look that out, the 44, 45, I think. think. This is the information I should know ahead of. Here we go. He was born James Chambers on July 30th, 1944 in St. James, Jamaica. He was the second youngest of nine kids and was a musician from the start. His mother wasn't around much. He was raised by his dad and his grandmother and his siblings. And I guess they were pretty religious and disciplinarians. And so he was dissuaded from playing devil's music a lot, but his grandmother stood up for him, and I guess was a pretty positive influence in his life. He changed his name at 14 to Cliff because his dad moved him to Kingston, Jamaica so that he could, I don't know if that's why, but he moved to

Kingston, with his dad, and tried to become a musician, basically from that moment. He changed his voice to sound older and gruffer. He changed his last name to Cliff because he wanted to allude to the heights he hoped to climb in his career. So he literally named himself after the cliff that he wanted to ascend, which I think is very fucking cool. He bounced around, he cajoled, he had a lot of doors shut in his face,

he never gave up, and he eventually found someone to produce music for him. I think his first hit was a song called Hurricane Hattie, which is really good. I think he made that when he was 17. It was produced by Leslie Kong, who I think produced all of his music up until he died in the early 70s. But Kong took a chance on him.

And when Hurricane Haddy took off, he was, I wouldn't say he was set, but he was on his path, right? He then had a bunch of other songs. Dearest Beverly, Pride and Passion was one. He got to be chosen as Jamaica's representative or one of Jamaica's representatives at the World's Fair in New York, which would have been, I think, the late 60s. He got signed to Island Records and moved to the UK to try to get to the, the next level of his fame. Scott was very popular at this time in the UK. I think reggae was kind of sort of a niche thing that wasn't taken as seriously. But he helped popularize it over there.

And in 1969, he released an album called Wonderful World Beautiful People. That was a pretty big hit. It had a song called Vietnam in it, which is a great song, by the way, if you listen to its protest song. And Bob Dylan actually called it the best protest song he had ever heard. He also, he had a song called Mini Rivers to Cross, which is very popular and covered by a million people, and it's talking about the racism he experienced in the UK and in the record industry in general. And it became like an instant classic. So then he's kind of becoming established in the UK as this musician. And he's starting to dabble. He's starting to get more into reggae and lessen to Scott at these points. He then signs on and does this film where he

plays, it's kind of an interesting role. He plays a character who is sort of, of inspired by his life, like there's a lot of parallels in his childhood, but it is actually based off a different dude who was a real guy. So it's like this mix of a movie based on a guy who had a similar childhood and life and upbringing and story to Jimmy Cliff, so it was very easy for him. I don't know if it was easy for him, but, you know, I think he fit the character very well. Anyway, this movie, the harder they come, follows a young Jamaican kid who's born in the countryside or, you know, in a small town in Jamaica, moves to Kingston. at a young age, early teens, to become a singer, and then gets the door shut in his face

over and over again, gets taken advantage of, gets exploited. So he then turns to a life of crime to help fund his career and becomes, uh, and has this journey to become a successful musician. And I've never seen it all the way through, mostly because back in the 80s and the 90s, when I was trading in this kind of music and super into the scene, all I ever, ever had access to was really shitty VHS copies. And the Heart of the Come was already a pretty low budget movie. It was kind of built on a shoestring budget. And so quality wasn't great to begin with. And then watching like a fifth generation VHS copy, it was just always so bad that I couldn't follow the story. I had trouble hearing it. And I just, I never made it through. I always

intended to finish the Harder They Come and I never did. And obviously, now that he has died and it has been brought to the forefront of my mind again, I am absolutely going to sit down and watch. And watch the entirety of the harder they come this week. So I can finally have seen it. Everybody that I know that watched it loved it. All my friends loved it. It was an instant classic. Like I said, in the punk world. And it's a travesty that I haven't watched yet. I have, however, listened to the soundtrack one billion times because it had great Jimmy Cliff songs on it. You can get it if you really want it. Many Rivers to Cross, obviously. Sitting in limbo, the harder they come, which is, you know, the titular,

But it also had music from Desmond Decker, who's one of my favorites. He has a song called Shantytown that's fucking amazing. I think Toots and the Metals is on it. The Melodians, the Slickers. There's a bunch. It's a great soundtrack. And it's full of amazing music after the harder they come, which was, I think, don't quote me on this, but I think it was the first international film to come out of Jamaica.

And it was a pretty big hit in that it helped people see that. I think there was a perception of Jamaica as being kind of a vacation island paradise and he showed a lot of the grim reality of crime and violence in Jamaica and I think that opened a lot of people's eyes to the realities of Jamaica but it also helped spread the popularity

of Scott and Reggae throughout the world and really helped legitimize reggae. Obviously, Bob Marley then came in and ran with it, right, and took over and became the face of all of us. But Jimmy Cliff was right there with him in the early days. They actually even, who knows how true this stuff is.

But apparently in an interview he did for a book called Bass Culture When Reggae was King written by Lloyd Bradley, Jimmy Cliff, reminisced that he actually helped Bob Marley secure his first recording session. I guess as a teenager in Kingston,

you know, he had a million jobs as he was trying to make it as a musician. And one of those was the scout acts for the producer. I talked about earlier, Leslie Kong, who produced most of his early music, or I guess maybe even all of his early music. And apparently he met Bob Marley and encouraged Bob Marley to audition with Kong, and they actually

even played a couple of tracks together, although I've never looked those up and I don't know how to find them, or maybe they're readily available. Apparently, Jimmy Cliff was blown away by Bob Marley at the beginning and said that he was immediately struck about how he wasn't nervous or anything. He walked in and was confident and said that he, it was very clear from the beginning, the second Bob Marley started playing music that he was special. and seems to have a lot of reverence and respect for Bob Marley, which I think is really cool.

As I said, they're the only two Jamaican artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To this day, I believe. He also appeared, and I didn't know this until this morning, and I have to go back and watch it as well, the 1986 movie Club Paradise, which starred Robin Williams and Peter O'Toole, which I know I have seen.

I think it's about some Americans or Westerners going and trying to build like an island, like a hotel resort or something. I know I've seen it, but I would have been probably 11 when I saw it, so I have zero memory of it. But he's co-stars with Robin Williams and Peter O'Toole, and that's which is fucking crazy. He also sang a song with Elvis Costello for that film. He's also in one of my favorite Steven Seagall movies, March for Death, which came out in 1990.

I think he performs in that movie, which I got to go back and watch again. He also collaborated with every musician on a song. Earth, from Sting to Joe Strummer, to Annie Lennox, to Elton John, to Tim Armstrong from Rancid. He just has this amazing catalog of music. And by the way, he died from, I think, I think he died from pneumonia. Like I said, he was in his 80s. So it's pretty dangerous when you're up there, when you're in your, where you're an octogenarian, something like pneumonia can take you out pretty easily, unfortunately. And it is an absolute shame. And it is an absolute that we lost Jimmy Cliff. I feel like I should list my favorite Jimmy Cliff songs for you.

Even if you don't know Jimmy Cliff off the top of your head, I bet you have heard him and are familiar with his music and are a fan of it. He has created amazing original music, but also did some really fucking great covers. He covered I Can See Clearly Now, which was the, who's the guy that wrote that? Johnny Nash. Yeah, the Johnny Nash version. He covered it in the 90s for cool runnings. It was a hit again after that. He also covered, I discovered today, he covered, I never realized it, he covered synthetic world by Swamp Dog, who is one of my favorites. And I have to admit, I think the Swamp Dog version is a little bit better. He's saying you can get it if you really want, which is a phenomenal song. The harder they come, fucking fantastic

song. Many Rivers to Cross, one of his, probably his most covered song. Obviously, Vietnam, I mentioned earlier. It was a huge protest song. Hard Road to Travel. That might be our song of the episode, maybe. Hello Sunshine. I realize at this point, I'm just listing

song names to you, at you. But these are all really wonderful songs that span the genre of ska and maybe even a little like Calypso and Minto and rock steady and reggae and rock and roll. And

He had the most beautiful voice. I think there's something in there that you would like. Hopefully, he was a really phenomenally talented guy and really interesting. I learned a million things about him today. It's all kind of rolling around in my head. I'm sure that I'm forgetting some stuff that I wanted to talk about and that I'll realize tomorrow and kick myself for it. If that's the case, I'll bring it up in a future episode of So All Right.

But please, if you get a chance, listen to Jimmy Cliff. I guess I should pick a song of the episode for that. It doesn't seem like we're going to get to the sports team origin stories today. We'll have to do that in the future. I'm going to pick for today's song of the episode a happy song. Let's pick Hello Sunshine. Thank you to Jimmy Cliff for a tremendous amount of music. Thank you for sitting through another episode of So All Right.

Thank you in advance for listening to Mr. Jimmy Cliff. I hope you like him as much as I do, or even a little bit. I hope you like him even a little bit. And, oh, you know what, before I let you go, I've been thinking a little bit about doing another email episode. I haven't done one in a while. A lot of the emails I have are dealing with previous subjects that we've talked about at length right now.

So if you have any new questions or things you want me to talk about or look into, go ahead and send me an email at Eric at jeffsboss.com. I kind of want to do a clean slate email episode where we talk about all new stuff. That doesn't mean that I won't get to the other emails that you've sent. I definitely will. We'll still discuss all that.

But I think it'd be fun to just do a fresh start email episode. So if there's any subject matter itch you want me to scratch, let me know. And once again, thank you for listening to another episode of So All Right. Thank you for the support. Thank you for listening to the Regulation podcast and the Clutch My Pearls podcast.

and I hope everybody has a fucking awesome holiday. Of course, you're listening to this after Thanksgiving, so I should probably reframe that. Congratulations on having an awesome fucking holiday. Can you believe how great it was? Universally across the board, we all had a good time. And what a relief that is. I'll see you next week.

All right. This is the end of the show.