Little Jerry Williams was an iconoclastic singer with some minor hits like “I’m the Lover Man” and “Baby You’re My Everything”, and a ‘60s career as a producer, engineer, and songwriter for Atlantic under his belt. Not long after recording “Vietnam” and “Synthetic World”, Cliff’s career broke wide open when he played the hard luck reggae singer turned to crime in The Harder They Come the film helped deliver reggae music to the world.īut Cliff must’ve really liked something he heard in Swamp Dogg’s songs: In “The Harder They Come”, there’s a shout-out to him when Cliff sings, “as sure as the sun will shine,” the very words that Dogg used on his track, “Total Destruction to Your Mind.” A bit nonsensical lyrically, “Total Destruction to Your Mind” is nevertheless a serious musical burst of country-soul, from the album of the same title-the same one on which Cliff heard “Synthetic World.” Total Destruction to Your Mind was Williams’ debut as Swamp Dogg, with an album cover you can’t miss: It’s the one where he’s riding on the back end of a garbage truck with some kind of pot or pan on his head. He wrote “Vietnam”, a pretty heavy-hitter when it comes to anti-war songs, and a story circulates that Bob Dylan called it the best protest song he ever heard. Cliff was no hack in the message music department. I can see through to the other side.” The great reggae singer Jimmy Cliff heard something in “Synthetic World” and cut it around the same time it was released. “Hey you, I’m up from the bayou, where wild life runs free, you could say that I’m country,” is how Swamp Dogg begins, and then he hits it: “But let me tell you what I see: Your world is plastic. Thanks to the miracle of polycarbonate, you can still get “Synthetic World”on a disc. Plus, he was dropped early on from his label Elektra for getting “too political.” The whole mess conspired to make his titles hard to find, but through the years they’ve slowly become available again and this month Kent released It’s All Good, A Singles Collection 1963-1989. Most folks have left Swamp Dogg’s records out in the cold based on their eccentric cover art alone. His 1970 album, Total Destruction to You Mind, is his own slice of rage against the madness, and his song “Synthetic World” is one of his greatest “hits” of the era, a kind of personal excellence/eco-conscious statement, compassionate and ready to blow, though you can’t be blamed if you haven’t heard of it or him. He’s one of those singer-songwriters who’s got it all, from melody and message, to rock and righteousness. Lesser known is the story of Jerry Williams, also known as Swamp Dogg.
#MARIE SWAMP SONG PROFESSIONAL#
The way Gaye, for example, created a mood for his masterpiece What’s Going On (based on his brother’s experience in Vietnam) and delivered it to a less-than-excited Motown is a dramatic story of personal and professional challenge that’s been well-documented. Ambitious, self-contained songwriters making meaningful music in a time of political upheaval was business as usual back then, though how the big statement records got made often leads to a story itself. Think of rock ‘n’ soul, social and political protestations, and song-cycles from the ‘70s, and there’s a catalog of music by Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder that fits the bill.
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