In House With Jimmy Cliff: Reggae Star Plots World Domination

One of the all-time great reggae artists and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Jimmy Cliff carries himself like a younger musician on the rise. Graceful and polite he gives off no sense of ego when he stops by Spinner's office. The 63-year-old happily chatted with every staff member and serenaded us with 'Sitting Here in Limbo' and, when it was just me and our photographer Gino, 'All for Love,' playing a righty-strung guitar lefty because that's the way he was taught.

Cliff is celebrating a resurgence, of sorts. Last fall, he released the 'Sacred Fire' EP, which was produced by Rancid's Tim Armstrong. The five-song record features covers of the Clash's 'Guns of Brixton,' Bob Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall' and, fittingly, Rancid's 'Ruby Soho,' done in Cliff's signature soulful, roots-reggae style. We spoke with him about the EP, his upcoming full-length (also produced by Armstrong), the legacy of his role in 'The Harder They Come,' his relationship with Clash frontman Joe Strummer and how he's looking to "conquer the world."

How did you get hooked up with Tim Armstrong?

We were talking about making a new album, new music, and Tim Armstrong's name came up. I said, "Wow, yeah, Tim Armstrong. That would be a cool thing," because I remember Tim from my last connection with Joe Strummer of the Clash. We had talked about Tim, so that was already there. I said, "Yeah, great." We talked on the phone and everything flowed so easily. The first song we started working on was 'Ruby Soho,' and everything just flowed. Even the 'Ship Is Sailing' song, that just came along the way, and one day, I just took up the guitar and started playing it with Tim and the Engine Room, which is the band he put together. They're fantastic, and the energy was so good. It was great.

How familiar were you with Rancid?

Well, I saw their version of 'The Harder They Come' when they performed it live and I know of their music via Joe, so that familiarity was there.

Are you a big punk fan?

Well, you see , the punk music was influenced and inspired by reggae music, so yes. I knew the Clash; I knew some of the other punk bands in England. What they're expressing is the same kind of rebellion against society as reggae music, what we've been expressing.


The title of your EP, 'Sacred Fire,' is about your desire to keep creating. What keeps you going?

It comes from, well, maybe dissatisfaction. I set out, as an artist, to conquer the world. I can say I have touched the world, but I can't say I've conquered, so that desire is still there. What else would I like to do in terms of conquering? In terms of touring, in some places in Africa or Brazil, maybe I'll do some stadiums, but I don't do that here in the U.S. or Europe, and that's something I aspire to do.

I've written a lot of great songs. I consider myself a really good songwriter, and I don't think the world has seen that yet. I still want to write chart-topping hits, you know? And my first love was acting, and I have not pursued that area of my career as aggressively as I've done as a singer, songwriter and performer. I want to get an Academy Award, too.

As a man, as a human being who is concerned about what's happening on this planet, that is another thing which I will never cease. These are things that keep me going: Observing people's lives, walking on the street, seeing how people are living, whichever way. I feel I have a duty to echo their echoes of dissatisfaction and maybe even their happiness.

Have you been writing about the revolution that's been going on around the world?

Yes, like the occupation of Wall Street. We have a song on the album called 'Children's Bread,' [and] the lyrics go like, "They take the children's bread and give it to the dogs, while those cats get fat/in came all the rats, stealing all the cheese and doing as they please." That's what's going on. I use symbolic things instead of saying ... but they know who they are [laughs].

So, we have songs like those, and that's not only applying to the occupation here; it's applying to maybe Libya with Qaddafi and Egypt, all of these guys who've been unjust leaders. At the same time, we have other areas we're talking about, like music. There's a song in which I'm telling the history of reggae music, coming from when I first had contact with Leslie Kong, who was my first producer, and coming up even now to 2012. I told the history and what reggae music stands for. Wherever there is injustice, where there is political tyranny, reggae music is there, expressing all of that.


You cover Bob Dylan on this EP, and he sang your praises as one of the great protest singers. Are you friends with him?

No, we have not met. But you know, since he was a voice of a generation and of course a protest singer, that song, 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall,' was like a prediction. Now the rain is actually falling, so I, in one line, put "A hard rain is falling." It's still very relevant in this day and time.

In Keith Richards' book, he talks about going to the movies in Jamaica and seeing bullet holes in the screen, which supposedly came from people who liked the movie. Did you ever see that?

[Laughs] No. I've not experienced that. What I know in Jamaica, or in the Caribbean, or in Africa, too, or South America, the way people watch movies there is a little different than here in the U.S. or in Europe. They're so involved in the movie: "Hey! Get him now!" Sometimes you don't hear what the actors are saying, but it's a great atmosphere. But I've not experienced what Keith Richards said.

You spend time in Jamaica and France. Where do you find yourself feeling at home?

I'm the kind of person who, I don't want to be in the same place all the time. New York is a special city for me because one of my biggest songs, I created it when I was here, which was 'Many Rivers to Cross.' I was finishing an album and we had all these musicians who were doing all these things in the studio, and I thought to myself on the way to the studio, "I would really like to record this song I had going on in my head." I had the title, [and] 20 minutes on the way to the studio, the whole song just came. When the session finished, I just said, "Could you give me a minute? I have this song. Could you listen to this song?" I had my guitar, and I sat on the stool, and I played it. I sat right there, and they put the microphone in front of me and played it, and that was it.