“Well, they tell me of a pie up in the sky
Waiting for me when I die
But between the day you’re born and when you die
They never seem to hear even your cry
So as sure as the sun will shine,
I’m going to get what’s mine.”
—Jimmy Cliff, “The Harder they Come”
Back in the aughts when I deejayed a Caribbean Night for a Brooklyn restaurant, I would play Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” whenever I wanted to get folks across generations on the dance floor. The track is high energy enough so that millennial ragamuffins could groove to it, and nostalgic enough that my mother and her middle-class Jamaican peers would deliriously shimmy their hips to it, Cliff’s effusive tenor commanded us to a high-stepping celebration of resilience in the Babylon system.
Cliff, who died on Nov. 24 at the age of 81 from pneumonia, according to his wife, Latifa Chambers, represented an era when Jamaican music went from the parochial urgencies of ska and rocksteady to the international ambitions of reggae. Cliff was known as a world cultural ambassador for reggae and a cross-genre songwriting and singing talent.
For all his reggae cred, however, Cliff never aspired to be a true roots reggae artist, nor did he ever achieve the icon status of Bob Marley, against whom he was often measured. Born a Christian, he dabbled in Rastafarianism and Islam, but eventually positioned himself as a philosophically ecumenical man of the world and a universalist. One of pop music’s most stirring compositions, Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross,” for instance, vibed more with gospel soul than reggae. He collaborated with the likes of the Rolling Stones, Kool and the Gang, Paul Simon, and Elvis Costello, and his compositions often checked dance, R&B, or rock boxes. His seven Grammy nominations and two wins, his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as his being awarded the Order of Merit, Jamaica’s highest honor in the arts and sciences, are a sampling of his crowning achievements and a testament to his broad appeal.
Cliff wasn’t just a gifted singer/songwriter, but a magnetic performer as well. (Catch his breathtaking rendition of “Many Rivers to Cross” on “Saturday Night Live”). The renowned Jamaican music promoter, Ronnie Burke, who, as a part of Synergy Productions, co-founded the Reggae Sunsplash music festival, recounted to me that Cliff was the headlining artist in Sunsplash’s first concert series in 1978. Sunsplash went on to feature every big name in Caribbean music, including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Third World, but Burke insisted that Cliff was “masterful” and gave the single greatest performance in the 18-year history of the festival.
James Chambers was born on July 30, 1944 in the Somerton District of St. James, located on the northwestern coast of Jamaica. From an early age, Chambers adopted the stage name “Jimmy Cliff” and began writing and performing music. While still a teenager, he teamed up with the famed Leslie Kong, who produced Cliff’s first hit, “Hurricane Hattie,” a catchy ska number. Cliff’s other early hits included “King of Kings,” “Dearest Beverley” and “Miss Jamaica,” and by the mid-1960s, Cliff was featured alongside other ska, reggae, and calypso pioneers such as Toots and the Maytals, as well as Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. Cliff’s talents were soon recognized by Island Records. They added him to their roster along with the Maytals and Bob Marley’s Wailers, which prompted Cliff to move to England.
Cliff enjoyed a successful career at Island where he put out noteworthy singles such as “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” and “Vietnam,” but his life would never be the same after Island tapped him as the lead in Jamaica’s first widely distributed feature film, 1972’s “The Harder They Come.” Although strikingly low-budget, “The Harder They Come” became a cult classic that helped popularize reggae internationally. Cliff’s character in the film is Ivan Martin, a young man who arrives in Kingston from the countryside and eventually turns to crime to combat the exploitations of city life. He burns with the same kind of unstoppable passion to make it in the music business that Cliff later became known for. It also made Cliff a breakout star, less for his acting performance and more for the singles from the soundtrack — the haunting “Many Rivers to Cross,” the inspirational “You Can Get It if You Really Want,” the meditative “Sitting In Limbo,” and the infectious title track, “The Harder They Come.” Collectively, those songs arguably remain his greatest body of work.
Although Cliff wasn’t able to sustain this level of artistry for the remainder of his career, his star barely dimmed. Cliff never abandoned reggae, but throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, his music became decidedly more pop and led to hits like “Reggae Night,” participation on the anti-apartheid protest song, “Sun City,” and a popular cover of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” that was featured in the 1993 comedy film “Cool Runnings.” The Grammys did not create the reggae category until 1985, so Cliff didn’t receive formal recognition from the American music market until more than 20 years into his career. His second and final Grammy was awarded in 2012 when he was nearing 60 years of age.
His international profile came at a cost. The legendary musician, producer, and Reggae Sunspash emcee, Tommy Cowan, first discovered Jimmy Cliff’s music when they were both teenagers, and worked with him throughout his career. He told me that as early as the 1960s, when Cliff moved to England, he was perceived as being somewhat removed from Jamaica and was never fully embraced as a son of the soil like other reggae artists who were more grounded in a Jamaican identity and narrative.
Nonetheless, Cliff’s impact endures both inside Jamaica and across the world. “While Marley’s music was about his purpose and explaining what Rasta was,” observed Cowan, “Jimmy’s music was more about the journey he went through … Success for him was about getting across the hurdles of life. Jimmy wanted you to have a feeling: ‘I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.’ And yeah man, you’re in a better mood in life because ‘you can get it if you really want it.’ His music brought hope, inspiration, and aspiration.”