Jimmy Cliff

• Born: April 1, 1948
• Place of Birth: St. Catherine, Jamaica

JAMAICAN REGGAE SINGER AND SONGWRITER

A major figure in the ska music of the 1960s and in the reggae of the 1970s and beyond, Cliff was influenced by a variety of musical styles, from pop and soul to African and South American folk traditions.

The Life

Jimmy Cliff was born James Chambers in a small village in Jamaica to working-class parents of Pentecostal origins. By age thirteen, the ambitious Cliff had changed his name and moved to Kingston. In 1962, at the age of fourteen, he recorded his first ska-influenced hit, “Hurricane Hattie,” with producer Leslie Kong.

Beginning in 1964, Cliff spent four years in England, working for Chris Blackwell of Island Records. This was a difficult and confusing time for Cliff, who had to alter his Jamaican patois toward the cosmopolitan ambitions of the label.

After a six-month stay in South America, in 1969, Cliff released his first international hit, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People.” In 1972, director Perry Henzel approached Cliff to play the title role in Jamaica’s first feature film, The Harder They Come. The soundtrack, coproduced by Cliff, was one of the most successful reggae albums ever and helped popularize the genre around the world.

To capitalize on the success of this soundtrack, Cliff toured and recorded constantly, although the US market was especially elusive, and his career remained more popular outside the United States. During the 1970s, Cliff traveled to Africa to seek a deeper understanding of his Muslim faith, and he continued to pursue his interests in film, in both music and acting. This led to roles in Bongo Man (1980) and Club Paradise (1986) and to a hit single with “I Can See Clearly Now” for the film Cool Runnings (1993). Cliff moved to Paris, and from this base, he continued to tour worldwide.

The Music

Cliff began his recording career in the early 1960s, during the high point of Jamaica’s ska period, a precursor to reggae. His time in England and South America was fertile because he was introduced to samba and rock, and he honed his songwriting abilities to adapt to the more universal style of soul music. With the release of The Harder They Come, Cliff’s early reggae style, for which he would become recognized, was celebrated.

Toward the end of the 1970s, despite commercial pressure to remain with his roots, Cliff embraced the influences of artists outside Jamaica, redefining his style. In fact, his first Grammy Award nominations came for work that was collaborative with artists outside the field of reggae: two lush, party pop albums with Kool and the Gang in the mid-1980s, Power and the Glory (1983) and Cliff Hanger (1985; which won the Grammy for best reggae album), and Black Magic (2004), a compilation record produced by Dave Stewart, with guest artists Annie Lennox, Sting, Wyclef Jean, Kool and the Gang, Yannick Noah, and Joe Strummer (in one of his last recordings). Cliff later won another Grammy for best reggae album with the solo effort Rebirth (2012).

Wonderful World, Beautiful People. This album from 1970 is among Cliff’s finest, showing great musical diversity and emotional depth. Well known is the deeply moving “Many Rivers to Cross,” which was written during Cliff’s troubled period in England and which is sung in a simple, spiritual gospel style. It tells of being lost and “washed up for years,” with only pride to hold on to. A devastating protest song, “Vietnam,” has a deceptively easy arrangement that serves to underline the terror of the theme: a letter telling a mother about the death of her son. Legendary songwriters such as Paul Simon and Bob Dylan have held this work in great esteem. There is, however, light among the grim themes, particularly in the title track, which manages to have an island quality with lush symphonic additions. The buoyant opening track, “Time Will Tell,” with its prominent and active bass guitar, preaches timeless Cliff themes of patience, strong will, and hope for the future.

The Harder They Come. This compilation album put reggae and Cliff on the international stage. Among the eighteen tracks by artists such as Toots and the Maytals and Desmond Dekker, Cliff contributes five, including “The Harder They Come,” “You Can Get It If You Really Want It,” and “Sitting in Limbo.” The title song is one of Cliff’s best. Its energy lies between Cliff’s soaring vocals and the no-nonsense arrangement of crisp double-time riffs between bass and organ. This film, about an impoverished young man who travels to the ghettos of Trenchtown to try to make it in the exploitive Jamaican music industry, was quoted in the song “Guns of Brixton” by the punk band the Clash (which would later be covered by Cliff on Rebirth), and it remains a popular underground film in the United States.

Jimmy Cliff: Anthology. There are quite a few Cliff anthology records, but many are incomplete because Cliff recorded with so many different labels. This double album includes works from the 1960s, with three early ska works from Cliff’s days with Kong, through 1993. This compilation features the major hits as well as the Brazilian hit from 1969, “Waterfall,” the title song from the film Club Paradise (1986), and the Johnny Nash cover, “I Can See Clearly Now.” The cover of Cat Stevens’s “Wild World,” however, is not the wonderful live version from the brilliant 1976 album In Concert. The infectious “Reggae Nights,” which was a huge hit in Europe, is also missing.

Musical Legacy

With the release of The Harder They Come in 1972, Cliff was responsible for introducing reggae to an international audience and for paving the way for Bob Marley and others. Cliff, however, would never achieve the prominence of Marley. This is perhaps because he transitioned through many record labels, or because he decided not to adopt the Rastafari movement, or because he made music with a crossover nature. Nevertheless, Cliff continued to tour throughout his career, and he found much popularity beyond the United States, especially in Africa, South America, and Europe. He and his music are held in high esteem by other artists, as evidenced by the collaborators on his album Black Magic, and he helped make reggae appealing to pop and rock audiences. In 2022, Cliff released his first album in ten years, Refugees. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.

Principal Recordings

ALBUMS: Hard Road, 1967; Give Thanx, 1969; Jimmy Cliff, 1969; Wonderful World, Beautiful People, 1970; Another Cycle, 1971; The Harder They Come, 1972; Struggling Man, 1973; Music Maker, 1974; Brave Warrior, 1975; Follow My Mind, 1976; Unlimited, 1977; Oh Jamaica, 1979; I Am the Living, 1980; Give the People What They Want, 1981; House of Exile, 1981; Special, 1982; Power and the Glory, 1983; Can’t Get Enough of It, 1984; Cliff Hanger, 1985; Sense of Direction, 1985; Fundamental Reggae, 1987; Hanging Fire, 1987; Shout for Freedom, 1987; Images, 1990; Breakout, 1992; Jimmy Cliff, Vol. 2, 1995; Many Rivers to Cross, 1995; Higher and Higher, 1998; Humanitarian, 1999; Journey of a Lifetime, 2001; Fantastic Plastic People, 2002; Sunshine in the Music, 2003; Black Magic, 2004; Rebirth, 2012; Refugees, 2022.

SINGLES: “Hurricane Hattie,” 1962; “King of Kings,” 1962; “Pride and Passion,” 1962; “I Can See Clearly Now,” 1993.

Bibliography

Brown-Martin, Graham. “Black Magic Man.” Air Jamaica: SkyWritings 153 (July/August, 2004): 38.

Chang, Kevin O’Brien, and Wayne Chen. Reggae Routes. Jamaica: Ian Randle, 1998.

Davis, Stephen. Reggae Bloodlines: In Search of the Music and Culture of Jamaica. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992.

"Jimmy Cliff." Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2024, rockhall.com/inductees/jimmy-cliff/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

"Jimmy Cliff and His New Album 'Refugees.'" UNHCR US, 2023, www.unhcr.org/us/get-involved/jimmy-cliff-and-his-new-album-refugees. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

Larkin, Colin, ed. The Virgin Encyclopedia of 70’s Music. London: Virgin Books, 2002.

Thomas, Fred. "Jimmy Cliff." All Music, 2024, www.allmusic.com/artist/jimmy-cliff-mn0000295276#biography. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

Thompson, Dave. Reggae and Caribbean Music. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2002.