In 1970, Jimmy Cliff found himself at a crossroads. At the age of 26, the Jamaican singer-songwriter was already one of the pioneers and rising stars of reggae, having enjoyed top 10 hits in the UK with his joyous hymn to unity “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” and a spine-tingling cover of Cat Stevens’ “Wild World”. He was in London, preparing for an extensive tour, when he received an offer to star in a low-budget movie back home. “I said, ‘You know, I’m really glad to be here in Europe’,” recalls Cliff, now 78, his voice still rich and mellifluous as it sings down the line from his home in Miami. “It’s not wise to run all over the place and do something like that.”
Perry Henzell, the writer-director who wanted the musician for his film, flew to Britain to change Cliff’s mind. “He said one sentence to me that stopped me in my tracks,” remembers Cliff. “He said, ‘I think you’re a better actor than a singer’. I said to myself: wow! Nobody ever said that to me before, and I had always thought that! Somebody’s reading my mind! It happened like that. I cancelled the European tour that I was planning, and went to do the movie.”
The Harder They Come, back in UK cinemas this month to mark its 50th anniversary, became an instant classic when it was released on 5 September 1972. Rapturously received within Jamaica – where it was one of the first films to show the realities of life on the island and have characters speak in patois – it has also been credited with helping to introduce reggae to a global audience. The film’s indelible soundtrack brims with classics from many of the artists who helped shape the genre, including Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker and of course Cliff himself, who contributed “You Can Get it if You Really Want”, “Sitting Here in Limbo” and “Many Rivers to Cross”, as well as the unforgettable title track.
Despite Henzell’s confidence in Cliff’s magnetic screen presence, the singer had little prior acting experience. Born James Chambers on 30 July 1944 in Saint James, a suburban parish in the northwest of Jamaica, Cliff had previously only been in school plays. He moved to Kingston with his father at the age of 14, hoping to find his way into the music industry. These experiences worked their way into the film. Cliff’s character, Ivanhoe Martin, travels to Kingston from his rural home, and his attempts to become a singer are illustrated by scenes of him writing and performing “The Harder They Come”. After he’s ripped off by a producer, he turns to a life of crime. This side of the character was drawn from the real Ivanhoe Martin, a notorious Jamaican outlaw from the Forties who became a folk hero known as “the original rude boy” after escaping from prison and going on the run. Cliff sought out tales of his escapades in Kingston. “I remember I’d go to an old barber shop and say, ‘Tell me something about Ivanhoe Martin’,” he says. “Everybody would tell me a different story, and I’d sit and take in all they imparted to me.”
Although Cliff’s performance was celebrated, after the film was released he went back to his day job. “I went into it thinking, I’m going to do this piece of work with my life, and when I’m finished I’ll go back to touring,” he explains. “That’s how I looked at it.” That’s what he did. In the 45 years between 1967 and 2012, Cliff released a staggering 32 records. Now he’s returning with Refugees,his first new album in a decade. “It’s been far too long,” he says firmly. “It was time to put out new music.”
As the title suggests, the impetus to make the record came partly from the many ongoing refugee crises around the world. Its title track is a political anthem in the lineage of Cliff’s 1970 single “Vietnam”, which Bob Dylan once named “the best protest song ever”. It was inspired, Cliff says, by “what’s happening all over the globe, especially in my home country Africa”. He pauses. “Some people don’t like when I say that.” That the whole continent of Africa is his home country? “Yes, that’s what I say,” he confirms, spelling out his Pan-Africanist belief in the unity of the continent and its diaspora. “It’s my country. In your ignorance, you’re drawing lines all over the country. That’s so sad.”
The song marks Cliff’s first collaboration with Wyclef Jean, whose group Fugees took their name from an abbreviation of “refugees”, and who has described Cliff as “one of my greatest inspirations”. Cliff can’t remember exactly how long the pair have known each other, although he points out that it must be at least since 2010 because that was the year Wyclef inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “We knew each other from around that time and took a liking to each other,” he says. “We love and respect each other’s talent.” To mark the album’s release Cliff has teamed up with the UN Refugee Agency to collate information on the best ways to help refugees, through donations and advocacy. This is Cliff’s way of leveraging his music to change the world in increments. “I like to start out with small things,” he says. “Even though I think big.”
While the album deals in plenty of other weighty subjects, including racism and the danger of lusting after money, it has its playful moments too. Cliff chuckles when I ask him about the song “Punus”. “It’s what in Jamaica we call a rude song!” he says. The song concerns a couple, Ernest and Mavis. “They eventually get married, and he was hard of hearing,” Cliff explains. “So if he and his wife had a quarrel he used to just ignore it and say, [he breaks into a lilting melody] ‘I got the punus, and I rub the punus, and woooah!’ Because he’s hard of hearing, he talks that way.” It’s a tune Cliff remembers hearing as a young boy. “It wasn’t even a song, just some words that we used to sing,” he says. “I thought wow, Jimmy Cliff singing a rude song will probably get more notice than if he sings a clean, pretty song.” I tell him it’s nice to hear a mix of lighter material alongside the heavy topics. “We need balance in life,” he agrees. “That’s what it’s all about.”
Cliff has always had a keen ear for a hit record. He recalls walking into the offices of Island Records in London one day early in 1970 and overhearing his publisher playing a demo he didn’t recognise. I said, ‘Who’s that singing?’ because the voice sounded familiar,” Cliff remembers. It was Cat Stevens singing “Wild World”. “He said, ‘It’s Steve’. We used to call him Steve at the time.” At that point, Stevens was still unsure whether he’d release it. “I thought it was a smash hit!” says Cliff. “I told him I loved the song, and if he didn’t want to record it I would. He said, ‘OK’. I said, ‘When?’ I put him on the spot! I didn’t want him to put it off because he might change his mind. I went into the studio and recorded it the following day. It was a hit, so I was very happy of course, and then Cat Stevens decided to record it himself.”
While “Wild World” gave Cliff a top 10 single, he also had the opposite experience of writing songs that became hits for others. His next single in 1970, the glorious rocksteady track “You Can Get it if You Really Want”, failed to chart in the UK but Desmond Dekker took it to number two just a few weeks later. After all this time, does Cliff still believe you can get it if you really want, if you just try, try and try? He ponders this for a moment. “Most things, of course,” he says finally, although a couple of exceptions spring to mind. “I haven’t had a number one hit [in the UK or US],” he points out. “I had some in Europe but I’d like to get some more number ones, and I always thought of myself as a singer, a songwriter and an actor – so I’m still chasing that Oscar!”
‘Refugees’ by Jimmy Cliff is out now. ‘The Harder They Come’ is in UK cinemas and is available on BFI Player
