Jimmy Cliff: Reggae icon pushed Jamaica to global audience

The late music icon of Jamaican origin, Jimmy Cliff, has been described as a star who, since the 1960s, helped to bring Jamaica’s sound to a global audience. Beside his major hits like Wonderful World, Beautiful People and You Can Get It If You Really Want, Cliff’s lead role as a gun-toting rebel in the […]

The late music icon of Jamaican origin, Jimmy Cliff, has been described as a star who, since the 1960s, helped to bring Jamaica’s sound to a global audience.

Beside his major hits like Wonderful World, Beautiful People and You Can Get It If You Really Want, Cliff’s lead role as a gun-toting rebel in the 1972 crime drama, The Harder They Come, is a cornerstone of Jamaican cinema and was attributed as the movie that brought reggae to America, according to the BBC.

Cliff’’s wife, Latifa Chambers, who announced his death, aged 81, via a statement on Instagram stated, “It is with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure, followed by pneumonia.

“I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him.

“To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career.

“Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes.”

Her message was also signed by their children, Lilty and Aken.

Born as James Chambers in 1944, Cliff grew up as the eighth of 9 children in abject poverty in the parish of St. James, Jamaica.

Blessed with a sweet, mellifluous voice, he began singing at his local church at the age of six.

By the time he was 14, he had moved to Kingston and adopted the surname, Cliff to express the heights he intended reaching.

He recorded a handful of singles before topping the Jamaican charts with his own composition, Hurricane Hattie.

In 1965, he relocated to London to work with Island Records – later the home of Bob Marley – but the label’s attempts to make his sound palatable to rock audiences were initially unsuccessful.

He eventually struck gold with the 1969 single, Wonderful World, Beautiful People – an upbeat, feel-good anthem; and the more politically-charged Vietnam, which Bob Dylan called “the best protest song ever written.”

Its lyric tells the story of a young soldier who writes from the war, promising his mother he will be home soon, only for her to receive a telegram the next day, informing her of his death.

Cliff reflected on the song in 1986, telling a reggae archivist, Roger Steffens: “The essence of my music is struggle. What gives it the icing is the hope of love.”

The musician became an international star with The Harder They Come, expressly written for the movie of the same name, in which he played Ivan Martin, a young man trying to break into Jamaica’s corrupt music industry.

“The film opened the door for Jamaica. It said, ‘This is where this music comes from.’” Cliff recalled.

Cliff contributed four songs to the soundtrack, including the gospel hymn, Many Rivers To Cross, which reflected his early days as a struggling artist in the United Kingdom.

“I was still in my teens. I came full of vigour: I’m going to make it; I’m going to be up there with the Beatles and the Stones,” he later recalled.

“And it wasn’t really going like that; I was touring clubs, not breaking through. I was struggling with work, life, my identity. I couldn’t find my place. Frustration fuelled the song,” he added.

The film and its soundtrack won him international acclaim. Rolling Stone magazine even named it one of their top 500 albums of all time.

During the 1980s, he collaborated with the Rolling Stones on their Dirty Work album. He returned to the US charts in 1993 with his cover of I Can See Clearly Now from the soundtrack for Cool Runnings, which followed the escapades of Jamaica’s bobsled team.

His other recordings included the Grammy Award-winning albums, Cliff Hanger (1985) and Rebirth (2012), a nostalgic return to form.

Cliff entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, calling it “a great thrill and an honour.”

Inducting him, Fugees star, Wyclef Jean, said he had been inspired by Cliff’s success as a young boy growing up in Haiti.

“When we saw Jimmy Cliff, we saw ourselves,” he said.

Cliff continued to tour late into his life, playing Glastonbury’s legends slot in 2003 and winning over a new generation of fans at the 2010 Coachella Festival.

Jimmy Cliff began writing songs while still at primary school in St. James and listening to a neighbour’s sound system. When Chambers was 14, his father took him to Kingston, Jamaica’s capital city, where he adopted his stage name.