Cliff of the Rock
Gord Wilson | Bellingham, WA USA | 04/02/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The liner notes say this is Sir Cliff's third gospel album. I don't know if that counts the soundtracks from His Land and Two a Penny, but it's his first gospel rock album. Released in 1978, it resulted from a collision of worlds: a visit to Mother Teresa in India and a visit from Larry Norman to England. This potent combination revealed the best of Cliff: his eager desire to change the world and his equally eager desire to rock.
Like Johnny Rivers, Cliff is a stylist, not a songwriter, so it's all about finding good songs and singing them with passion. This is what makes his musicals, The Young Ones and Summer Holiday, so eminently watchable over and over, when most other youth films from the period have staled. This album begins with the kids' song, "Small Corners" which segues into Cliff's excellent cover of Larry Norman's "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music," named from a phrase by Salvation Army founder William Booth (also on the Cliff Richard: 1970s CD).
Cliff called the three Norman songs on the album "fantastic"; the other two are "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" from Norman's solo debut, Upon This Rock, and "Up in Canada". There's an extant Larry Norman CD called Rock, Scissors, and Papier containing a Cliff/ Norman duet of Norman's "Rock That Doesn't Roll" which Cliff introduces by saying that when he became a Christian he thought the music was terrible until he discovered Larry Norman. He may date the first event to when he stood up to be counted at a Billy Graham rally in England, and the second to when Norman played the Royal Albert Hall.
Most of the cuts on Small Corners were produced at Abbey Road and have a '60s pop sensibility. Some even feature Bryn Haworth on guitar. The other cuts include Malcolm and Alwyn's "I Love", not, as Mark Allen Powell points out, the best cut on their excellent album, Fool's Wisdom (or it may be from their next album, Wildwall), followed by "Why Me," a charting country ballad then popularized by Elvis Presley and written by Kris Kristofferson about and for Johnny Cash. "I've Got News for You" comes from Randy Stonehill's classic Norman- produced album, Welcome to Paradise. "Hey Watcha Say" is by the little heard, but excellent and wittily- named gospel rock band, Second Chapter of Acts (either from With Footnotes or In the Volume of the Book). The ninth cut, "Going Home," is also by Annie Herring of Second Chapter.
"Yes He Lives" (Terry Britten)/ "Good on the Sally Army" (Alan Shiers) were released as a single in the UK and are classic Cliff. "Joseph" was also penned by Britten, who has written widely for Cliff and other artists including Tina Turner. The original record ends with Cliff's take on the hymn, "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross," which echoes the opening "Small Corners" as a call to surrender and service. Like Amy Grant, Cliff is in the forefront of reintroducing hymns to a new generation.
The three bonus tracks are: "More to Life", "There's No Power in Pity", and "Peace in Our Time". The first two were both released as CD singles with other songs and charted in Britain. "Peace in Our Time" is best known as one of Eddie Money's biggest hits. Cliff's version is subtitled "Gospel Mix" and includes back-ups by The London Community Gospel Choir.
Some listeners will likely debate my five stars, but when this record, available in the US as a British import, was released myself and my college pals went wild. We had Cliff's albums released on Elton John's Rocket Label stateside, including Green Light, Every Face Tells a Story and Rock and Roll Juvenile, which I think was the original title of the album later rereleased as We Don't Talk Any More to take advantage of the hit single. But when Small Corners came out, it soon became one of a handful of favorite records which also included Larry Norman's Only Visiting This Planet. If the production seems dated, the passion does not. Cliff was born again in more ways than one, and stands as the eternal voice of youth, flushed with excitement, discovering, as did others so long ago and running to share the news, "yes He lives!""
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1