Jimmy Cliff obituary | Jimmy Cliff

Singer-songwriter Jimmy Cliff, who has died aged 81, was one of Jamaica’s most popular artists. A roving ambassador who introduced the music and culture of his island to audiences around the world at a time when reggae was largely unknown, he was a pioneer with a distinctly loud voice whose themes of civil and human rights resonated with many.

The rousing optimism of ‘Wonderful World, Beautiful People’ spent 13 weeks in the British singles charts in 1969, peaking at No. 6, and its acerbic song ‘Vietnam’, that same year, was a Bob Dylan favorite which inspired Paul Simon to later record Mother and Child Meeting in Jamaica with the same backing band, after Dylan informed him of it.

But perhaps his most famous song was Many Rivers to Cross, also from 1969, which he wrote about the frustrations he experienced while trying to achieve success in the music business. Although it never achieved a high chart position, the song became a well-known anthem, and was re-recorded by numerous artists, including John Lennon, Percy Sledge, Cher, Joe Cocker, and UB40.

Cliff’s other major claim to fame was his portrayal of Evan in Perry Henzell’s groundbreaking 1972 feature film, The Harder They Come, which brought aspects of his story into cinematic focus through improvised dialogue based on his life experiences.

He contributed four songs to the soundtrack, including his popular composition You Can Have It If You Really Want It, which reached number two in the UK Singles Chart; The title track, The Harder They Come; And the spiritual sitting is in limbo. The Harder They Come was the only song written specifically for the soundtrack. Everything else was recorded before the film was shot.

James Chambers was born in Adelphi, a poor hillside community in the Somerton district, near Montego Bay in Jamaica, where his father, Lilbert, was a tailor, planter, and community leader, and his mother, Christine – a Maroonite descended from runaway slaves – was a domestic worker.

After his parents’ marriage failed, he and his older brother, Victor, were raised by their father, a Pentecostal Christian, in a two-room shack that was destroyed by Hurricane Charley in 1951, forcing young Jimmy to live for a time with his aunt and grandmother on a nearby farm.

At Somerton All Age School, his intelligence was noticed by his teacher Roberta White (mother of future film director Lenny Littlewhite), who recommended that he enroll at Kingston Technical High School to study electronics. Jimmy moved to the capital in the late 1950s to start the course, stayed with his cousin, and was soon participating in talent competitions, using the stage name Jimmy Cliff.

Moving into the house of a family friend who was living in a tenement in West Kingston, Cliff made his first recording, Daisy Got Me Crazy, for local sound system owner Count Boysie, but the song was never released.

His first single, I’m Sorry, was released by another sound system owner, Sir Cavalier, on his label Hi Tone in Jamaica and Blue Beat in the UK to little effect, but Cliff nonetheless abandoned his studies to concentrate on music, convincing businessman Leslie Kong to start producing some of his records in 1961. The following year he scored his first hit for Kong with a ska love song called Hurricane Hattie, making him a household name in Jamaica.

Cliff’s appearance at the World’s Fair in New York in 1963 caught the attention of Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who took him to London two years later to market him as a soul singer, backed by future members of Mott the Hoople. His first album, Hard Road to Travel (1967), had little impact, but Cliff’s cover of the pop song Waterfall, by the British rock band Nirvana, made him a celebrity in Brazil after he took part in a singing competition in Rio, and he remained in the country.

Revitalized, he returned to Jamaica in 1969 to cut “Wonderful World, Beautiful People, Vietnam”, a cover of “Wild Cat Stevens’ World” which also reached the Top 10 in Britain. As his career rose, Cliff became the star of The Harder They Come, in which he played a poor country boy trying to become a singer in Kingston.

But although the film broke box office records in Jamaica in 1972 and became a classic, it took some time to turn a profit, and Cliff, feeling that his career was stagnating, left Island for EMI.

A fresh start proved difficult, not only because his membership in the Nation of Islam began to alienate some fans, but also because Blackwell signed with the Wailers to market Bob Marley as an outlaw rebel similar to the character Cliff in the film. As a result, Cliff found himself in Marley’s shadow, despite the strength of his EMI albums such as Unlimited (1973), House of Exile (1974) and Follow My Mind (1975).

However, Cliff’s reggae music, which incorporated non-Jamaican musical elements, found an audience in Africa, leading to shows in Nigeria in 1974 and a tour of West Africa three years later, where he met Sheikh Mortada Mbaki, the spiritual leader of the Baie Vale Mourides order of Sufism in Senegal, inspiring Cliff to embrace a more traditional form of Islam.

The self-produced album Give Thanksx (1978) was a strong roots reggae record, and the more commercial album I Am the Living (1980), before his controversial performance in Soweto, reached a multiracial audience of 55,000 people, despite an anti-apartheid ban.

Then he returned to Brazil to collaborate with singer Gilberto Gil. Once back in Jamaica, he gave a free concert for twenty thousand people at his home in Somerton, which became the platform for the documentary Bongo Man (1982), which revealed (despite his commitment to Islam) the lasting influence of Rastafari consciousness on his worldview.

Cliff signed to Columbia in 1982 for the album Special, featuring Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, then a working partnership with Ronald Bell (Khalis Bayan) of Kool and the Gang, producing some of his most commercially successful work, including the album The Power and the Glory (1983), with its hit single Reggae Night, which he co-wrote with La Toya Jackson, and Cliff Hanger, for which he won a Grammy Award in 1985. The comedy film Club Paradise (1986) with Robin Williams and Peter O’Toole was released the following year, and he composed most of its soundtrack, which included a duet with Elvis Costello.

With the album Hanging Fire (1987) he moved into commercial dance music, including some scouse-oriented songs recorded in Brazzaville. During the 1990s, he divided his time between Jamaica, the United States, Senegal, Nigeria and Brazil, scoring major hits with a remake of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” for the soundtrack to the film “Cool Runnings” in 1993, and another with a version of “Hakuna Matata”, the Elton John/Tim Rice song composed for The Lion King in 1995.

In 2002, Cliff Fantastic Plastic People, released by Dave Stewart’s artist network, featured Sting, Joe Strummer, Stewart, Annie Lennox, Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen, and P-Funk’s Gary Mudbone Cooper. The following year Cliff was awarded the Jamaica Order of Merit.

The album Rebirth (2012) was a welcome return to form, produced by former Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong, and Cliff continued to deliver dynamic shows on festival stages well into his 70s. In 2022 he released the album Refugees, which featured Wyclef Jean guesting on the title track and his daughter Lilty Cliff on a song titled Racism.

He leaves behind his wife, Latifa Belaidi, their daughter, Leilati, his son, Akin, and other children from previous relationships, including the Brazilian actress and singer, Nabiya B.