Welcome To The Cruel World (Remastered) Ben Harper

• 1 The Three Of Us 02:35
• 2 Whipping Boy 05:31
• 3 Breakin' Down 04:00
• 4 Don't Take That Attitude To Your Grave 04:25
• 5 Waiting On An Angel 03:53
• 6 Mama's Got A Girlfriend Now 02:29
• 7 Forever 03:23
• 8 Like A King 04:18
• 9 Pleasure And Pain 03:44
• 10 Walk Away 03:49
• 11 How Many Miles Must We March 03:07
• 12 Welcome To The Cruel World 05:36
• 13 I'll Rise 03:35
• Total Runtime 50:25

Info for Welcome To The Cruel World (Remastered)

A quarter-century later, Ben Harper's Welcome To The Cruel World remains an especially welcomed auspicious debut that let the world at large know a singular singer/songwriter had fully arrived on the scene.

Ben Harper recalls the story behind Welcome To The Cruel World: “Claremont, California is a small town hidden in Southern California. Some have it mapped as the last town on the eastern shoulder of Los Angeles County, most know it as the first town in the Inland Empire.

“It is in this town that in 1958 my grandparents opened up a small musical instrument shop called the Folk Music Center. From the outside it may be a music store, but from the inside it is where music, culture and political activism converge.

“The Folk Music Center is still open today, 62 years later. Taj Mahal, David Lindley, Leonard Cohen, Chris Darrow, Louis Meyers and Ry Cooder is the beginning of a long list of musicians who I met while growing up in the shop, but none more important than my co-producer JP Plunier.

“JP was a local on the Claremont music scene with a global perspective that was critical in introducing the music to an international audience. I was 23 years old and had recently come off the road from playing lap steel guitar in Taj Mahal’s band. Touring with Taj helped draw significant attention to my own music. There were a couple of managers around at that time showing interest, but JP was the only person who shared with me a near identical creative vision, which was a love of folk, blues, rock, soul, reggae and hip-hop, as well as a fearlessness to blend them all in one body of work.

“Today this may seem like standard practice, but in 1992 it did not exist. If you wanted to get through the door of a major record label, you had to pick a lane and stick to it. Having a song like ‘Waiting On An Angel’ and ‘Like A King’ on the same album was not going to fly, and we were reminded of this daily as we were turned down by every major label in Hollywood. All except Virgin Records.

With one record’s worth of material to my name, with JP able to get us through the front door at Virgin Records, and with Jeff Ayeroff and Jordan Harris (co-chairmen of Virgin at the time) willing to take a risk on an eclectic songwriting lap steel guitar player, Welcome To The Cruel World was born.”

Harper has since released over 20 studio and live albums collectively to date, including collaborations with longtime heroes and inspirations like Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Harper also continues to tour as both a solo artist and with his longtime band, The Innocent Criminals, in front of packed audiences far and wide.

“The full range of Ben Harper’s influences would not come to bear until later albums, but his debut, Welcome to the Cruel World, lays a strong foundation. Like a King and Take That Attitude to Your Grave burn with a political conviction rarely heard during the 1990s. “Forever” has a tenderness which demonstrates Harper’s emotional range. Lackluster hippie jams that cultivated his early following may have served a purpose but feel fluffy by comparison when compared to the meatier tracks. Ben closes the album with a song that frequently closes his concerts, I’ll Rise. This song, built around Maya Angelou’s 1979 poem And Still I Rise, reminds one of art’s ability to pierce through society, self, and the soul” (AMG)

Ben Harper, vocals, acoustic guitar, Weissenborn guitar, dobro
Richard Cook, Uillean pipes on "Pleasure and Pain"
Rock Deadrick, percussion, drums, backing vocals
Suzie Katayama, cello on "Pleasure and Pain"
John McKnight, bass, accordion on "Mama's Got a Girlfriend Now"
Tommy D. Daugherty, drum programming
Gail Deadrick, piano on "I'll Rise"
Clabe Hangan, backing vocals
Clarence Butler, backing vocals
John Taylor, backing vocals
Kenneth McDaniel, backing vocals
Clyde Allen, backing vocals
Jelanie Jones, backing vocals
Kevin Williams, backing vocals

Produced by Ben Harper, Jean-Pierre Plunier

Digitally remastered

No biography found.

This album contains no booklet.