The Fat Angel Sings

The story of Jimmy Cliff, who has died at age 81, is in part the story of reggae itself.

 “The Harder They Come”.  Director Perry Henzell’s film inspired by the life of Jamaican outlaw Ivanhoe “Rygin” Martin, starring Jimmy Cliff in the title role, failed to make a splash at the box office upon its initial U.S. release in early 1973.  But canny exhibitors realized its similarity to Blaxploitation films such as Shaft and Superfly, and it quickly became a mainstay of midnight movies. 

The New York Times noted that it ran for 26 weeks at a Cambridge cinema in 1973 before returning in 1974 for another seven years.  Its Island Records soundtrack catapulted Jimmy Cliff to international fame and played a major role in popularizing reggae around the world.  Only Cliff’s title track was recorded specifically for the film; the album was rounded out with past Cliff classics as well as songs by The Melodians, Desmond Dekker, The Maytals, and others.  Though the LP only reached the lower half of the chart it became a mainstay of the genre and, in 2021, was recognized by the Library of Congress with inclusion in the National Recording Registry.

Jimmy Cliff remained forever associated with The Harder They Come, and the artist born James Chambers in St. James, Jamaica used it as a springboard to a career that endured until his death earlier today at the age of 81.  The singer was still a teenager when he experienced his first successes in Jamaica; in 1964, he was chosen as one of the country’s representatives at the New York World’s Fair.  In 1969, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” espoused a philosophy of positivity that served Cliff well: “Take a look at the world/And the state that it’s in today/I am sure you’ll agree/We all could make it a better way/With our love put together/Everybody learn to love each other…”  The anthemic song gave Cliff his first U.K. top ten single; it was followed by further hits including the anti-war lament “Vietnam” (which reportedly earned fans such as Bob Dylan) and a powerful cover of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World.”  Desmond Dekker took Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want” to the charts in Europe, Australia, South Africa, and the United States.

Cliff’s 1969 composition “Many Rivers to Cross” became one of his most famous works, recorded over the years by artists including Cher, Annie Lennox, and UB40.  A fusion of reggae and gospel, it anticipated Cliff’s ongoing melding of disparate world music elements.  Bruce Springsteen championed his songs including “Trapped,” The E Street Band’s recording of which ended up on the multi-platinum We Are the World benefit album.  He joined Little Steven for the anti-apartheid record “Sun City,” collaborated with The Rolling Stones, Sting, Joe Strummer, and Elvis Costello, and contributed a spirited version of Elton John and Tim Rice’s carefree “Hakuna Matata” to The Lion King spin-off album Rhythm of the Pride Lands.  Another Disney film, Cool Runnings, inspired Jimmy’s international hit cover of “I Can See Clearly Now,” originally written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Johnny Nash – one of the first non-Jamaican artists to record in Kingston and earn the respect of the genre’s progenitors.

In 2010, Jimmy Cliff was inducted by Haitian singer-rapper Wyclef Jean into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  He was only the second reggae musician to be welcomed to the Hall, following Bob Marley – whom Cliff had, years earlier, encouraged to audition for producer Leslie Kong.  In 2013, Jimmy won his second Grammy Award for the album appropriately entitled “Rebirth” – the first came for 1986’s “Cliff Hanger“, with appearances by Kool and the Gang, La Toya Jackson, and Jaco Pastorius – which was produced by Tim Armstrong of punk band Rancid.  In addition to original songs, “Rebirth” featured renditions of Rancid (“Ruby Soho”) and The Clash (“Guns of Brixton”), further underscoring the breadth of Cliff’s musical immersion.

2022’s “Refugees”, Cliff’s final studio album released in his lifetime, found him continuing his crusade for a better world, with songs including “We Want Justice,” “Racism,” “Bridges,” and the title track.  He sang with a note of hope on “Refugees”: “We gonna’ make it through the odds/Every day that we live is blessing in disguise/Do unto others as you would have done it to you/Listen, that’s just the word from the wise.”  Jimmy Cliff’s legacy of love and light will continue to reverberate from the streets of beautiful Jamaica throughout the world.​

Like so many Jamaican teens of his time, he moved to Kingston in the early 1960s and joined a rising musical movement that would help give voice to the country’s independence from Great Britain. A decade later, he helped reggae ascend to the international stage with his starring role in the cult favourite “The Harder They Come” and his featured place on the film’s classic soundtrack.

Here are a few songs that trace the arc of his career, and of reggae.

1962: “Miss Jamaica”

Singing along to an easy, bluesy groove, Cliff had a way of sounding both relaxed and fully committed, and could make a nursery rhyme sound like an anthem: “Roses are red / violets are blue / Believe me / I love you.” He also joined a long popular tradition, most famously expressed in such 1970s standards as Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are” and Springsteen’s “Thunder Road,” of offering praise to a very personal kind of beauty: “Although you may not have such a fabulous shape / To suit the rest of the world / But you do suit me and that’s all I want to know.”

1968: “Vietnam”

Like Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and other anti-war songs, Cliff’s “Vietnam” was drawn from the horrors of those who had served overseas. “Vietnam” was a seething, mid-tempo chant — “Vi-et-nam, Vi-et-nam,” the very name an indictment, in this song for the death of a soldier who had written home to say he would soon be returning, only for his mother to receive a telegram the next day announcing his death.

1969: “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”

One of Cliff’s many talents was looking clear-eyed at life as it is, and imagining so well what it could be — a paradise made real by the melody, the feel and lyrics of “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” a vision so inevitable even the likes of President Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson can’t get in the way. “This is our world, can’t you see? / Everybody wants to live and be free.”

1969: “Many Rivers to Cross”

Onstage, he sometimes literally jumped for joy, but Cliff also could call out the deepest notes of despair. The sombre, gospel-style “Many Rivers to Cross” was inspired by the racism he encountered in England in the 1960s and tells a story of displacement, longing, fatigue and gathering rage — but never defeat. “I merely survive because of my pride,” he tells us, a variation of the old saying that hopes dies last.

1970: “You Can Get It If You Really Want”

Cliff’s political songs were so enduring in part because they were so catchy, and because they offered hope without the promise of easy success. Kicked off by a spare horn riff, “You Can Get It If You Really Want” has a lighter mood than “Vietnam,” but just as determined a spirit. “You must try, try and try, try and try,” Cliff warns. “Persecution you must fear / Win or lose you got to get your share.”

1972: “The Harder They Come”

The title track to the movie which would mark the high point of his success, “The Harder They Come” has a spiky, muscular rhythm, the kind you could set to the forward march of a mass protest. It’s a sermon of retribution for oppressors — “the harder they fall, one and all” — and of earthly rewards for those who have been robbed: “So as sure as the sun will shine / I’m gonna get my share now, what’s mine.”