Jimmy Cliffcharismatic reggae a pioneer and actor who preached joy, defiance and resilience in such classics as Many rivers to cross, You can have it if you really want it And Vietnam and starred in a landmark film The harder they comedied at 81.
His family posted a message Monday. on his pages on social networks that he died of “a seizure followed by pneumonia.” Additional information was not immediately available.
“To all his fans around the world, please know that your support has been his strength throughout his career,” the announcement reads in part. “He really appreciated every fan for their love.”
Cliff was a native Jamaican with an energetic tenor and a talent for catchy phrases and topical lyrics. He joined Kingston's burgeoning music scene as a teenager and helped lead a movement in the 1960s that included such future stars as Bob MarleyToots Hibbert and Peter Tosh. By the early 1970s, he accepted director Perry Henzell's offer to star in a film about aspiring reggae musician Ivanhoe “Ivan” Martin, who turns to crime when his career stalls. Henzell called the film The harder they come after suggesting the title as a possible song for Cliff.
“Ivanhoe was a real character to Jamaicans,” Cliff told Variety in 2022, on the occasion of the film’s 50th anniversary. “When I was a little boy, I heard about him as a bad man. A very bad man. Nobody in Jamaica at that time had a gun. But he had a gun, and he shot a policeman, so he was something to be feared. But Perry wanted to make his name as a hero – an anti-hero, the way Hollywood turns its bad guys into heroes.”
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The harder they comedelayed for approximately two years due to sporadic funding, it became the first major commercial release to appear in Jamaica. Few tickets were sold during its initial run, despite praise from Roger Ebert and other critics. But it is now a cultural touchstone, with its soundtrack widely hailed as one of the greatest of all time and a turning point in the global rise of reggae.
For a short time, Cliff rivaled Marley as the most prominent artist in the genre. The album, which included Toots and the Maytals, the Slickers and Desmond Dekker, featured Cliff on four of the 11 songs, all of which fit well into the reggae canon.
Sitting in Limbo was a sullen but hopeful look at life in hectic flux. You can have it if you really want it and the title song contained calls to action and vows of final payoff: “The harder they come, the harder they fall, every one of them.” Otherwise, Cliff lets out a tired cry. Many rivers to crossa gospel-style testament he wrote after fighting racism in England in the 1960s.
“It was a very frustrating time. I came to England with very high hopes and saw my hopes fade,” he told Rolling Stone in 2012.
The music lives on
Cliff's career reached its peak The harder they comebut after a hiatus 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 have it if you really want it as a campaign theme and Bruce Springsteen helped expand Cliff's audience in the US with his live cover of the reggae star's song. Trappedincluded in the million-selling 1985 charity album, We are the world. Other performers of his songs have included John Lennon, Cher And UB40.
Cliff was nominated for seven Grammy Awards and won Best Reggae Album twice: in 1986 for Cliff Hanger and in 2012 for the same name Renaissancewidely considered his best work in years. His other albums included a Grammy nomination. Power and glory, Humanitarian and class of 2022 Refugees. He also performed Steve Van Zandt's protest anthem. Sun Cityand starred in the Robin Williams comedy Paradise Clubfor which he wrote several songs for the soundtrack and sang with Elvis Costello on the rocker Seven day weekend.
In 2010, Cliff was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He was born James Chambers in the suburb of St James and, like Ivan Martin in The harder they comemoved to Kingston in his youth to become a musician. In the early 1960s, Jamaica was gaining independence from Britain and the early sounds of reggae, first called ska and rocksteady, began to gain popularity. Calling himself Jimmy Cliff, he wrote several local hits, including King of Kings And Miss Jamaicaand, after overcoming obstacles that turned Martin upside down, he was called upon to help represent his country at the 1964 World's Fair in New York.
“(Reggae) is pure music. It comes from the poorest class of people,” he told Spin magazine in 2022. “It arose from a need for recognition, identity and respect.”
Approaching glory
His popularity grew in the second half of the 1960s, and he signed a contract with Island Records, the world's leading reggae label. Island founder Chris Blackwell tried in vain to sell it to a rock audience, but Cliff still managed to attract new listeners. He had a hit with a cover of a Cat Stevens song. Wild worldand entered the top ten in the UK with encouraging Beautiful world, beautiful people. Cliff's widely heard protest: Vietnamwas partly inspired by a friend who served in the war and returned damaged beyond recognition.
His success as a recording artist and live performer led Henzell to seek out meetings with him and flatter him into accepting the role: “You know, I think you're a better actor than you are a singer,” Cliff recalled him saying. realizing that The harder they come could have been a breakthrough for Jamaican cinema, he openly desired fame, although Cliff remained surprised by how famous he had become.
“In those days, few of us descendants of Africans managed to achieve any recognition,” he told The Guardian in 2021. “Music was easier than film. But when you start seeing your face and name on the side of buses in London, you think, 'Wow, what's going on?'
© 2025 The Canadian Press
