Jimmy Cliff

Rip It Up, Issue 98, 1 September 1985, Page 10

Jimmy Cliff

Another star performer who now seems past his peak, Jimmy Cliff has been singing since his early teens (he’s now 37). He talked his way into a recording studio in 1962, at the age of 14, and got his big break from Leslie Kong. Kong was a Chinese Jamaican (or Chincarib), a fairly common racial mix which has also produced singer Sammy Dread and guitarist/ producer Mikey ‘Mao' Ching. It was with Kong producing that Cliff cut some of his best work. Included here are 'Vietnam', the controversial 1970 anti-war song, the lovely 'Sitting In Limbo’, the spritely 'Let Your Yeah Be Yeah' and 'Bongo Man’, and

the heartfelt gospel ballad 'Many Rivers To Cross’. These were among the last tracks produced by Kong, who died of a heart attack in 1970. Cliff went on to produce hits of his own, including ‘The Harder They Come’, later made into a movie starring Cliff, and 'You Can Get It If You Really Want’, which also featured in the film. His last really successful effort was the 1973 album 'Struggling Man’. Cliff had by then become a Muslim, which alienated him somewhat from the strongly Rastafarian Jamaican music scene. His more recent work has been crossover commercial pap, culminating in the truly dreadful ‘Reggae Nights’ of last year. The voice is still there, but it’s compilations like this that remind us of the inspiration that once was.