Library Rock's Backpages

Jimmy Cliff

Jimmy Cliff

39 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By writer | Most recently added

Junior Walker & the Allstars, Freddie King, Jimmy Cliff: Saville Theatre, London

Live Review by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 21 October 1967

IT WAS A 'soul show' at the Saville last Sunday, in the very widest sense of the term. Jimmy Cliff started off, and when he ...

Junior Walker and The All-Stars, Jimmy Cliff, Freddie King: Saville Theatre, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 21 October 1967

GREAT THUNDERING jackanapes! An all-round good show at the Saville: No goofs, no cur­tains falling down, great music, a nice audience and even, won­der of ...

Desmond Dekker, Johnny Nash et al: Reggae Festival, Empire Pool, Wembley, London

Live Review by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 4 October 1969

Jamaica triumph ...

Three New Entries Give Reggae (all on Trojan) Strong Hold on the Chart

Report and Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 1 November 1969

JUST HOW firm a hold reggae is taking on the charts is demonstrated this week by the arrival in the NME Top Thirty of three ...

Jimmy Cliff: Respectability to Reggae

Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 22 November 1969

JIMMY CLIFF is the hip young Jamaican who's brought respectability to reggae. His 'Wonderful World, Beautiful People' is a development of the simple ska sound ...

Jimmy Cliff: Jimmy Cliff (Trojan stereo TRLS 16; 37s. 5d.)

Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 13 December 1969

JIMMY CLIFF has done well out of reggae after a couple of years without much activity and he's following up his hit, 'Wonderful World, Beautiful ...

Jimmy Cliff Has No Plans To Do Another Stevens Song

Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 August 1970

WHEN I ARRIVED at Island Records' outpost, which is just a stallholder's cry off the colourful Portobello Road street-market in West London's Notting Hill Gate, ...

The Harder They Come (dir. Perry Henzell)

Film/DVD/TV Review by John Pidgeon, New Musical Express, 22 July 1972

"The oppressors are trying to keep me downMakin' me feel like a clown" ...

Jimmy Cliff and other artists: The Harder They Come Original Soundtrack Recording (Island ILPS 9202)

Review by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 9 September 1972

THIS IS the full soundtrack of the film of the same name. Needless to say, with the present move towards "gentrifying" reggae music it's bound ...

Various Artists: The Harder They Come

Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, October 1972

HOW TO GET into reggae in two easy stages. First you go to see the film The Harder They Come, which will engross you with ...

Jimmy Cliff: It’s A Hard Road to Travel, Yes It’s a Rough, Rough Road to Ride

Interview by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, November 1972

Why is there no Jamican International superstar? Despite providing the world’s pop music with the only genuinely new dance rhythm since rock ‘n’ roll, and ...

It's Here — Reggae Rock

Overview by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 4 February 1973

WHEN ANYONE mentions West Indian music, steel bands and calypso instantly echo in the mind, but Jamaica's most popular music is reggae (rhymes with old) ...

Jimmy Cliff and Various Artists: The Harder They Come

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1973

IT'S REGGAE, MON, sweet as cola wine and m'bopo supremo. No lectures, no history lessons, if ya don't know about that sound from Jamaica by ...

Jimmy Cliff et al: The Harder They Come

Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 26 April 1973

THE REGGAE GROUNDSWELL that cups Jamaica's potential as a pop force has been heralded for many moons now, yet despite several breech-opening successes from a ...

The Harder They Come (Starring Jimmy Cliff, Dir. Perry Henzell, New World Pictures)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, May 1973

THE POSTERS that appeared in the New York subways a few weeks before the film premiered were natural killers. They showed Jimmy Cliff, dressed in ...

Jimmy Cliff: Unlimited and Wonderful World, Beautiful People

Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973

PUT THE NEEDLE on Jimmy Cliff's Unlimited, and the grooves writhe like a poised snake, the record grows hot with anger, and the air fills ...

Jimmy Cliff: From Reggae To Riches

Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 17 November 1973

IT MUST BE almost three years since the last hit record. God, that's an artistic lifespan for many people, but somehow he manages to suggest ...

Country Boy Jimmy Cliff

Report by Martin Hayman, Sounds, 18 May 1974

Martin Hayman meets one of reggae's mainmen ...

Jimmy Cliff: Struggling Man (Island)/ Music Maker (Reprise)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1974

LAST YEAR, 'the word' was that reggae was all set to become the next big thing. Once radio program directors and listeners heard that irresistibly ...

Jimmy Cliff: Skanking In Exile

Interview by Bob Woffinden, New Musical Express, 7 September 1974

I'VE BEEN living in Stoke Newington for about six months. The area's one of the most cosmopolitan in North-East London, with an immigrant population that ...

Why Reggae Won't Be the Next Big Thing

Essay by Wayne Robins, The Village Voice, 16 December 1974

FOR A WHILE it appeared that reggae was Pop Salvation. This was determined by a small number of white music taste makers who'd seen Jimmy ...

Jimmy Cliff: Music Maker (Warner Bros. MS 2188); Bob Marley & the Wailers: Natty Dread (Island ILPS 9281)

Review by Vernon Gibbs, Crawdaddy!, August 1975

IT HAS BEEN three years since The Harder They Come lifted reggae from obscurity to culthood and raised hopes that Jimmy Cliff would begin a ...

Letter from Britain: Johnny Too Bad's Kinky Reggae

Column by Jonh Ingham, Creem, September 1975

THEY SAY that reggae is breaking into America via discos. It would be nice to think so, because if ever a music deserved to gain ...

Jimmy Cliff: Brave Warrior (EMI EMC 3078); Keith Hudson: Torch Of Freedom (Mamba 002)

Review by Idris Walters, Let It Rock, December 1975

DEAR MAILBAG, I would have expected these two titles to sail away, hand in hand, into a black sunset. But they don't. Yours SR Gibbs, ...

Jimmy Cliff: Follow My Mind (Island)/Toots And The Maytals: Funky Kingston (Island)

Review by John Morthland, Creem, January 1976

SINCE HE ELECTRIFIED audiences In The Harder They Come, Jimmy Cliff has been his own worst enemy. His songs in that film bristled with passion, ...

Paul Simon, Phoebe Snow, Jimmy Cliff: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 22 May 1976

Simon's magical living room ...

Jimmy Cliff: Give Thanx (Warner Bros)

Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 13 January 1979

THIS RETURN to commercial visibility from the fated Mr Cliff has been well-received in certain corners, but unfortunately seems little more than a muddled, embarrassing ...

Jimmy Cliff: A Pioneer Returns

Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, 3 February 1979

Jimmy Cliff, wholesome and handsome as a ripening ear of corn, radiates on the couch. The night before, he had made a triumphant return to ...

Jimmy Cliff: A Lion Out There

Interview by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 27 September 1980

VETERAN JAMAICAN singer Jimmy Cliff finally achieved international status for his leading role in the seminal reggae film The Harder They Come in the early ...

Jimmy Cliff, Aswad: Crystal Palace Bowl, London

Live Review by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 30 July 1984

THE ANNUAL Nelson Mandela festival was held in perfect sunlight in the secluded grassy amphitheatre at Crystal Palace. Unfortunately one reason why it was so ...

Interview: Island Records' Chris Blackwell (1989) [transcript]

Transcript of audio interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 1989

This is a transcript of John Tobler's 1989 audio interview. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Dread Inna Dean Street

Interview by Lloyd Bradley, MOJO, October 1995

"I HAVEN'T KILLED ANYBODY...YET." Jimmy Cliff is joking. We think. Although at 8.45am in the Groucho Club in Soho's Dean Street it's difficult to he ...

Chris Blackwell: A Man of Wealth & Taste

Profile and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1999

For forty years, CHRIS BLACKWELL has survived on killer instincts, killer bud and tough business tactics. Along the way, he's changed the course of pop ...

Jimmy Cliff: Hail Reggae's Lost King

Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 5 September 2003

MANY PEOPLE THINK Bob Marley stole his crown. But it was Jimmy Cliff who gave reggae to the world, when he starred in and wrote ...

25 Essential Music DVDs

Guide by Nicholas Jennings, Inside Entertainment, September 2004

1. The Last Waltz THE BAND'S elegant swansong is the ultimate rock concert movie. Director Martin Scorsese's discreet camerawork and superb sound captures inspired performances from ...

Jimmy Cliff: The Harder They Come: The Definitive Collection

Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, December 2005

The man who paved the way for Marley ...

Jimmy Cliff

Interview by Alan Light, MSN.com, July 2012

THERE IS exactly one reggae singer in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame whose name is not Bob Marley. The truth, though, is that ...

Jimmy Cliff: Brighton Dome

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 26 July 2015

There's a ska light that never goes out: Cliff’s high-voltage charisma is undimmed at 67 ...

The return of Jimmy Cliff: 'Rebel spirit is still in the Jamaican people'

Retrospective and Interview by Lloyd Bradley, The Guardian, 6 August 2021

As he releases new music at the age of 77, one of reggae's foundational figures charts his astonishing life in music, via swinging London, Brazilian ...

RSS

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE