Jimmy Cliff, the charismatic reggae pioneer and actor who preached joy, defiance and resilience in such classics as “Many Rivers to Cross,” “You Can Get it If You Really Want” and “Vietnam” and starred in the landmark movie “The Harder They Come,” has died at 81.
Cliff, born James Chambers, was a native Jamaican with a spirited tenor and a gift for catchphrases and topical lyrics who joined Kingston’s emerging music scene in his teens and helped lead a movement in the 1960s that included such future stars as Bob Marley, Toots Hibbert and Peter Tosh.
By the early 1970s, he had accepted director Perry Henzell’s offer to star in a film about an aspiring reggae musician, Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin, who turns to crime when his career stalls. Henzell named the movie “The Harder They Come” after suggesting the title as a possible song for Cliff.
“The Harder They Come” was the first major commercial release to come out of Jamaica and now stands as a cultural touchstone, with a soundtrack widely cited as among the greatest ever and as a turning point in reggae’s worldwide rise.
For a brief time, Cliff rivalled Marley as the genre’s most prominent artist. On the “The Harder They Come” album, Cliff was the featured artist on four out of 11 songs, all well placed in the reggae canon.
“Sitting in Limbo” was a moody, but hopeful take on a life in restless motion. “You Can Get it If You Really Want” and the title song were calls for action and vows of final payments: “The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all.”
Cliff’s career peaked with “The Harder They Come,” but, after a break in the late 1970s, he worked steadily for decades, whether session work with the Rolling Stones or collaborations with Wyclef Jean, Sting and Annie Lennox among others.
Meanwhile, his early music lived on. The Sandinistas in Nicaragua used “You Can Get it If You Really Want” as a campaign theme and Bruce Springsteen helped expand Cliff’s U.S. audience with his live cover of the reggae star’s “Trapped,” featured on the million-selling charity album from 1985, “We Are the World.” Others performing his songs included John Lennon, Cher and UB40.
Cliff was nominated for seven Grammys and won twice for best reggae album: in 1986 for “Cliff Hanger” and in 2012 for the well-named “Rebirth.”
His other honours included induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Jamaica’s Order of Merit.
In 2019, the Jamaican government renamed Montego Bay’s popular “hip strip” roadway Jimmy Cliff Boulevard. Two years later, Jamaican officials presented Cliff with an official passport in recognition of his status as a Reggae Ambassador.
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