<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The story of Jimmy Cliff, who has died<\/a> at age 81, is in part the story of reggae itself.<\/p>\n Like so many Jamaican teens of his time, he moved to Kingston in the early 1960s and joined a rising musical movement that would help give voice to the country’s independence from Great Britain. A decade later, he helped reggae ascend to the international stage with his starring role in the cult favorite \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d and his featured place on the film’s classic soundtrack. In the years following, his songs were covered by everyone from Bruce Springsteen<\/a> to UB40 and confirmed the music’s power to inspire or just get you dancing.<\/p>\n Here are a few songs that trace the arc of his career, and of reggae.<\/p>\n 1962: \u201cMiss Jamaica\u201d<\/p>\n Singing along to an easy, bluesy groove, Cliff had a way of sounding both relaxed and fully committed, and could make a nursery rhyme sound like an anthem: \u201cRoses are red \/ violets are blue \/ Believe me \/ I love you.\u201d He also joined a long popular tradition, most famously expressed in such 1970s standards as Billy Joel’s<\/a> \u201cJust the Way You Are\u201d and Springsteen’s \u201cThunder Road,\u201d of offering praise to a very personal kind of beauty: \u201cAlthough you may not have such a fabulous shape \/ To suit the rest of the world \/ But you do suit me and that\u2019s all I want to know.\u201d<\/p>\n 1968: \u201cVietnam\u201d<\/p>\n Like Marvin Gaye’s \u201cWhat’s Going On\u201d and other anti-war songs,<\/a> Cliff’s \u201cVietnam\u201d was drawn from the horrors of those who had served overseas.<\/a> \u201cVietnam\u201d was a seething, mid-tempo chant \u2014 \u201cVi-et-nam, Vi-et-nam,\u201d the very name an indictment, in this song for the death of a soldier who had written home to say he would soon be returning, only for his mother to receive a telegram the next day announcing his death.<\/p>\n 1969: \u201cWonderful World, Beautiful People\u201d<\/p>\n One of Cliff’s many talents was looking clear-eyed at life as it is, and imagining so well what it could be \u2014 a paradise made real by the melody, the feel and lyrics of \u201cWonderful World, Beautiful People,\u201d a vision so inevitable even the likes of President Richard Nixon and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson can’t get in the way. \u201cThis is our world, can\u2019t you see? \/ Everybody wants to live and be free.\u201d<\/p>\n 1969: \u201cMany Rivers to Cross\u201d<\/p>\n Onstage, he sometimes literally jumped for joy, but Cliff also could call out the deepest notes of despair. The somber, gospel-style \u201cMany Rivers to Cross\u201d was inspired by the racism he encountered in England in the 1960s and tells a story of displacement, longing, fatigue and gathering rage \u2014 but never defeat. \u201cI merely survive because of my pride,\u201d he tells us, a variation of the old saying that hopes dies last.<\/p>\n 1970: \u201cYou Can Get It If You Really Want\u201d<\/p>\n Cliff\u2019s political songs were so enduring in part because they were so catchy, and because they offered hope without the promise of easy success. Kicked off by a spare horn riff, \u201cYou Can Get It If You Really Want\u201d has a lighter mood than \u201cVietnam,\u201d but just as determined a spirit. \u201cYou must try, try and try, try and try,\u201d Cliff warns. \u201cPersecution you must fear \/ Win or lose you got to get your share.\u201d<\/p>\n 1972: \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d<\/p>\n The title track to the movie which would mark the high point of his success, \u201cThe Harder They Come\u201d has a spiky, muscular rhythm, the kind you could set to the forward march of a mass protest. It\u2019s a sermon of retribution for oppressors \u2014 \u201cthe harder they fall, one and all\u201d \u2014 and of earthly rewards for those who have been robbed: \u201cSo as sure as the sun will shine \/ I\u2019m gonna get my share now, what\u2019s mine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The story of Jimmy Cliff, who has died at age 81, is in part the story of reggae itself. Like so many Jamaican teens of his time, he moved to Kingston in the early 1960s and joined a rising musical movement that would help give voice to the country’s independence from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2175306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[28851,387988],"class_list":["post-2175305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-bruce-springsteen","tag-jimmy-cliff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/6-notable-songs-from-Jimmy-Cliff-the-reggae-star-who.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2175305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2175305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2175305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2175307,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2175305\/revisions\/2175307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2175306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2175305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2175305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2175305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}