{"id":6924,"date":"2025-11-24T16:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/jimmy-cliff-obit\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:19:11","slug":"jimmy-cliff-obit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/jimmy-cliff-obit\/","title":{"rendered":"Reggae Pioneer Jimmy Cliff Dies At 81"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2022\/09\/Jimmy-Cliff-scaled.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" alt=\"\"><figcaption>Jimmy Cliff (photo: Vision Addict).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jimmy Cliff, whose performance in the1972 film <em>The Harder They Come<\/em> helped reggae music dent the mainstream for the first time, died today (Nov. 24) at the age of 81. According to a statement from his family, the cause was a seizure followed by pneumonia.<\/p>\n<p>Cliff had his first hit, \u201cHurricane Hattie\u201d at 14, in the late \u201950s, having talked his way into the record business while still at school (it was actually his third released single). Over the next few years, he had a few hits locally and helped shepherd future reggae legends Desmond Dekker and Bob Marley before moving to the U.K., having signed to Chris Blackwell\u2019s Island Records. In 1967, he released his first major album,\u00a0<em>Hard Road to Travel<\/em>, which included a cover of \u201cA Whiter Shade of Pale\u201d and only touched on the reggae sound to come.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/11\/billie-eilish-james-cameron-3d-film\/\">Billie Eilish 3D Concert Film Coming In March<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/11\/oasis-wrap-reunion-tour\/\">Oasis Wrap Triumphant Reunion Tour In Brazil<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2025\/11\/with-84-days-randy-bradbury-and-cameron-webb-take-the-fucking-power-back-right-away\/\">With 84 Days, Randy Bradbury and Cameron Webb Take the \u2018Fucking Power Back Right Away\u2019<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Following the 1970 protest song \u201cVietnam,\u201d which Bob Dylan called one of the best he\u2019d ever heard, Cliff starred in and wrote the title song for <em>The Harder They Come<\/em>. The movie revealed for the first time the birthplace of reggae \u2014 a paradoxical place of squalor and sunshine. The movie is music-laden, and at least partially about music, but it\u2019s not a musical. It\u2019s a gangster film about a kid (played by Jimmy) who comes to Kingston to break into the recording business, fails and becomes a small-time bad boy in a local crime gang, kills a cop, runs from the law and \u2014 well, it ends in tears.<\/p>\n<p>Although Cliff appears on only four of the soundtrack\u2019s 10 songs, \u201cYou Can Get It If You Really Want,\u201d \u201cMany Rivers To Cross,\u201d \u201cSitting in Limbo\u201d and the title cut are all classics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe film stands up very well,\u201d Cliff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2022\/10\/jimmy-cliff-interview\/\">told SPIN<\/a> in 2022. \u201cThe director [Perry Henzell] was saying, \u2018I don\u2019t want any actors in my movie. I just want people who play themselves.\u2019 Mainly all of the actors in the movie were playing themselves. That\u2019s why it stood up. Everyone was being real. But I never stole. I never killed (<em>laughs<\/em>).\u201d <\/p>\n<p>For the next 40 years, Cliff performed and recorded around the world, collaborated with the Rolling Stones, Annie Lennox and the Clash\u2019s Joe Strummer, acted in the \u201980s comedy <em>Club Paradise<\/em> with Robin Williams and was inducted into the Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>His 2012 album <em>Rebirth<\/em> was produced by Rancid\u2019s Tim Armstrong and included a cover of the Clash\u2019s \u201cThe Guns of Brixton.\u201d It debuted at a career-high No. 76 on the <em>Billboard<\/em> 200 and won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album.<\/p>\n<p>Asked how he maintained a message of peace, love and unity amid constant racism and discrimination, Cliff told SPIN, \u201cI boil it down to having grown up in the ghetto. I could have gone either way \u2014 I could have gone like Ivan, in the movie, or gone the way I have now. I had to be optimistic to survive, or you sink like a stone. So, I put it down to that. I just have to stay optimistic.\u00a0That attitude has become a part of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jimmy Cliff (photo: Vision Addict). Jimmy Cliff, whose performance in the1972 film The Harder They Come helped reggae music dent the mainstream for the first time, died today (Nov. 24)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4532,6,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jimmy-cliff","category-news","category-pushly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}