Jimmy Cliff is a legendary reggae singer from Jamaica.

I remember hearing some songs by Jimmy Cliff when I was living in Guyana in the early 1980s.

One song that I particularly like was Remake the World. The song spoke out against racial prejudice and talked of a hopefuly rebuilding of attitudes, institutions, society (what each person would call their own world.

I recorded the song some 25 years later in Guangzhou, trying hard to remember the lyrics and melody. I don't think I could find the original song on the internet at that time, but now we finally have it on youtube.

So, I give you first the original song sung by Jimmy Cliff in 2 versions (which I think are actually from the same LP)

1) the less clear, slightly more scratchy LP version (probably recorded using microphone instead of direct cable) but with LP cover as the only visual content in the video-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA3W-e-PEow


2) the clearer version but with rather bodacious representation of Jamaica's swimsuit crwowd --

Here are the lyrics:

Remake the World by Jimmy Cliff Too many people are suffering Too many people are sad Too little people got everything While too many people got nothing Remake the world With love and happiness Remake the world Put your conscience in the test Remake the world North, south, east, and west Remake the world Gotta prove that you're the best, yeah Too many people are suffering Too many people are sad Too little people got everything While the good suffer for the bad Remake the world Promote human dignity Remake the world Wipe out strife and poverty Remake the world Get racism from your sight Remake the world Be you black, be you white, yeah Too many people are suffering Too many people are sad Too little people got everything While too many people got nothing We will remake the world With love and happiness Remake the world People, people put your conscience to the test Remake the world And this is no jest, sir Remake the world Come on, come on, mister Remake the world Come on, come on, brother Remake the world I said this is no jest, sir Remake the world So, come on, brother Remake the world So, come on, sister Remake the world Come on, come on, mister Remake the world And don’t think you are too small Remake the world I said, this is no jest, Sir Remake the world

Now I give you the slightly modified stedawa version. There is no comparison between the original and stedawa's version. In fact, Jimmy Cliff is in an entirely different sphere of calibre than stedawa. stedawa is still trying to find his voice and groove and genre (possibly also gender), and swinging a serious musical hobby along with the more serious writing of philosophical works (the upcoming 5M plus the land or crust-breaking Symphonic Assemblage tomes plus managing a few websites is enough to almost make me totter under the unwieldy load, like a waiter carrying several platters stacked atop each other.