Jimmy Cliff, reggae giant and star of landmark film ‘The Harder They Come,’ dead at 81

By HILLEL ITALIE NEW YORK AP Jimmy Cliff the charismatic reggae pioneer and actor who preached ecstasy defiance and resilience in such classics as Numerous Rivers to Cross You Can Get it If You Really Want and Vietnam and starred in the landmark movie The Harder They Come has died at His family posted a message Monday on his social media sites that he died from a seizure followed by pneumonia Additional information was not at once available To all his fans around the world please know that your patronage was his strength throughout his whole career the announcement reads in part He really appreciated each and every fan for their love Cliff was a native Jamaican with a spirited tenor and a gift for catchphrases and topical lyrics who joined Kingston s emerging music scene in his teens and helped lead a movement in the s that included such future stars as Bob Marley Toots Hibbert and Peter Tosh By the early s he had accepted director Perry Henzell s offer to star in a film about an aspiring reggae musician Ivanhoe Ivan Martin who turns to crime when his career stalls Henzell named the movie The Harder They Come after suggesting the title as a doable song for Cliff Ivanhoe was a real-life character for Jamaicans Cliff described Variety in upon the film s th anniversary When I was a little boy I used to hear about him as being a bad man A real bad man No one in Jamaica at that time had guns But he had guns and shot a policeman so he was someone to be feared However being a hero was the manner in which Perry craved to make his name an anti-hero in the way that Hollywood turns its bad guys into heroes The Harder They Come delayed for particular two years because of sporadic funding was the first major commercial release to come out of Jamaica It sold scarce tickets in its initial run despite praise from Roger Ebert and other critics But it now stands as a cultural touchstone with a soundtrack widely cited as among the greatest ever and as a turning point in reggae s worldwide rise For a brief time Cliff rivaled Marley as the genre s majority of prominent artist On an album that included Toots and the Maytals the Slickers and Desmond Dekker Cliff was the featured artist on four out of songs all well placed in the reggae canon Sitting in Limbo was a moody but hopeful take on a life in restless motion You Can Get it If You Really Want and the title song were calls for action and vows of final payments The harder they come the harder they fall one and all Cliff otherwise lets out a weary cry on A great number of Rivers to Cross a gospel-style testament that he wrote after confronting racism in England in the s It was a very frustrating time I came to England with very big hopes and I saw my hopes fading he recounted Rolling Stone in The music lives on Cliff s career peaked with The Harder They Come but after a break in the late s 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 Get it If You Really Want as a campaign theme and Bruce Springsteen helped expand Cliff s U S audience with his live cover of the reggae star s Trapped featured on the million-selling charity album from We Are the World Others performing his songs included John Lennon Cher and UB FILE Jamaican musician singer and actor Jimmy Cliff performs during the Timbre Rock and Roots concert on Friday March in Singapore AP Photo Wong Maye-E File Cliff was nominated for seven Grammys and won twice for best reggae album in for Cliff Hanger and in for the well-named Rebirth widely regarded as his best work in years His other albums included the Grammy-nominated The Power and the Glory Humanitarian and the release Refugees He also performed on Steve Van Zandt s protest anthem Sun City and acted in the Robin Williams comedy Club Paradise for which he contributed a handful of songs to the soundtrack and sang with Elvis Costello on the rocker Seven Day Weekend In Cliff was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame He was born James Chambers in suburban Saint James and like Ivan Martin in The Harder They Come moved to Kingston in his youth to become a musician In the early s Jamaica was gaining its independence from Britain and the early sounds of reggae first called ska and rocksteady were catching on Calling himself Jimmy Cliff he had a handful of local hits including King of Kings and Miss Jamaica and after overcoming the kinds of hindrances that upended Martin was called on to help represent his country at the World s Fair in New York City Reggae is a pure music It was born of the poorer class of people he communicated Spin in It came from the need for recognition identity and respect Approaching stardom His popularity grew over the second half of the s and he signed with Island Records the world s leading reggae label Island founder Chris Blackwell tried in vain to area him to rock audiences but Cliff still managed to reach new listeners He had a hit with a cover of Cat Stevens Wild World and reached the top in the UK with the uplifting Wonderful World Beautiful People Cliff s widely heard protest chant Vietnam was inspired in part by a friend who had served in the war and returned damaged beyond recognition FILE Singer Jimmy Cliff performs at The Atmosphere Rally an Earth Day concert on the National Mall in Washington on Sunday April AP Photo Jacquelyn Martin File His success as a recording artist and concert performer led Henzell to seek a meeting with him and flatter him into accepting the part You know I think you re a better actor than singer Cliff remembered him saying Aware that The Harder They Come could be a breakthrough for Jamaican cinema he openly wished for stardom although Cliff remained surprised by how well known he became Back in those days there were scarce of us African descendants who came through the cracks to get any kind of recognition he stated The Guardian in It was easier in music than movies But when you start to see your face and name on the side of the buses in London that was like Wow what s going on