![]() ![]() In the script, he was a guy from the country who came to the city to make it as a musician but was held back by the trickery of a record-company owner. When I read it, I felt I had known Ivanhoe Martin all my life. I had always wanted to be a movie actor, so I asked Perry to send me the script. Though I know that when you’re dead you can’tīy that point, I was pretty well known in Jamaica and the U.K. Well the officers are trying to keep me downĪnd they think that they have got the battle wonĪnd I keep on fighting for the things I want I’m gonna get my share now of what’s mine He said he was making a movie and asked if I could write music for it.īut between the day you’re born and when you die …In 1969, I was at Dynamic Sounds Studio in Kingston recording a song I had written, ‘You Can Get It If You Really Want.” When we finished, I walked outside and met a gentleman named Perry Henzell, who had been waiting for me. Henzell would offer Cliff the lead role in The Harder They Come: That year as well, Cliff wrote and recorded the song “Many Rivers to Cross.” It was also the year Cliff met Jamaican film maker Perry Henzell, as he would later explain to the Wall Street Journal’s Marc Myers in a 2013 interview. In 1969, he had written, “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” which became a hit for Desmond Dekker. In the 1960s, Cliff had also written a number of songs for other Jamaican artists. He also wrote and sang “The Harder They Come” title track for the 1972 film. By 1965, Cliff was in London, and eventually scored there with another Top Ten international hit 1969, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People,” one of the first big reggae hits heard outside of Jamaica. ![]() 1 Jamaican hit, “Hurricane Hattie” and others. With the help of producer Leslie Kong, he had a couple of hits, including a No. Jimmy Cliff had left his country home as a teenager in 1962 heading to Kingston where he began cutting tracks for DJs to consider. The film starred Jimmy Cliff, who plays a role in the film which, in part, is not unlike his own early years. The Harder They Come was the first Jamaican-produced feature film shot in Jamaica with a full Jamaican cast and director. ![]() What follows here, is an exploration of the film’s music along with historical background on Jimmy Cliff and the album’s other artists, as well as the film’s producer, Perry Henzell.Ĭover of David Katz’s book, “Jimmy Cliff: An Unauthorized Biography,” 2011. The soundtrack’s selections are also loaded with Jamaican nuance and political meaning, as the lyrics, both directly and between the lines, refer frequently to oppression, inequality, and social injustice. One commentary on the film’s music in 2009 from the blog, DK Presents gave The Harder They Come its top rating, noting: “The soundtrack gathers legendary performances that not only enhance the action of the film, but on their own play out as nothing less than the greatest reggae album of all-time… Whether or not you’re familiar with the movie, this is an impeccable collection that remains the best possible introduction to the genre.” It left a lasting impact and its influence on the music scene continues today. The Harder They Come soon became a favorite dance album at parties across the U.S. The soundtrack became a breakthrough for reggae music in the U.S., introducing many listeners to the distinctive sound for the fist time. And from that point on, the film’s music also began to take off. About a year later, however, it became more popular with audiences in midnight showings. And in the U.S., too, at least with its initial release in February 1973, the film did not receive much notice. “ The Harder They Come is the most important movie ever to come out of the Caribbean,” says iTunes, “and its soundtrack helped put reggae, in all its variants, on the world map.” The effusive iTunes praise for the film may be a bit of a stretch, but the part about the music is right on the money.įirst released in the U.K in 1972, the film was slow to capture much attention. In 1972-73, The Harder They Come, a Jamaican film about a poor country boy who becomes a music star and then a criminal, arrived at the box office with a very upbeat and powerful soundtrack of Jamaican reggae music. Original album cover for Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” soundtrack, July 1972, Island Records.
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