Spinning in the rock room today in tribute to the late great Jimmy Cliff is the 1972 soundtrack album The Harder They Come. 

Recognized as the record that took Reggae music from the slopes of the Blue Mountains and the streets of Kingston, Jamaica to international and widespread recognition.

While Cliff was originally tasked with providing a soundtrack for the film, he ended up starring as the movie’s main character. In a classic sense—art imitated life.

The film and soundtrack spotlights four of Cliff’s songs, his visceral compositions compiled with a several of reggae’s most important sides from the years 1967-1972. The soundtrack compilation provides the film a seabirds view of life as a Jamaican, a Rude Boy, a Rasta, and an African American.

Other vital Jamaican artists fill out the remaining grooves of the LP including the Melodians, Desmond Decker, The Slickers and Toots and the Maytals.

The accompanying movie was fictional, yet brought the island to realistic Technicolor life and spoke in an convincing Jamaican patois. The film tells the tale of Ivanhoe Martin, (Cliff) who leaves an impoverished life in the backcountry of the island, and turns to a life of crime in Kingston when his career goals fall out of reach.

The film resonated with the youth of the island and eventually of the world. The songs carried hopefulness in the face of ideological struggles and hardships. Reggae belonged to Jamaicans; it was music without pretense and removed from neo-colonial pressures. It was island soul music that moved on a heartbeat and expressed the feelings of black Jamaican self-hood.

Cliff was an essential artist and founding member of the rocksteady, ska, reggae and dub movement in Jamaica. The Harder They Come arrived just prior to The Wailers Catch a Fire record, both albums combining to make reggae’s popularity ignite across water and borders.

Cliff’s early recordings had resonated with Jamaicans and inspired other like-minded artists, poets, and musicians to express their lives, loves, and hardships through their art. Cliff became a natural disseminator of the island’s craft.

Like the assimilation of blues music into the American mosaic, reggae faced the same slow climb into the mainstream. Both racism and the refusal of labels to understand the music and its creators responsible for stunting its growth.

The soundtrack encouraged a worldwide audience to look at Jamaica apart from a vacation spot and part of a larger cultural movement of talented artists. It was a gateway record for roots, rock, reggae. It shined a light on the plight of its people and did so with songs that illustrated triumph over adversity, hopefulness in the face of despair, and pure joy through buoyant melodies and serious lyrical content.

The album is a compendium of what was the best music that Jamaica had to offer. It’s incredible to hear the multitude of styles and array of talent across what was one genre.

As the tone arm lands on side one of the record, Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” announces its arrival through encouragement and inspiration in the face of oppression. The light ska groove blasts out of the speakers with the clarion call of a trumpet. Cliff’s sticky sweet vocals move like smoke across the arrangement. His vocalizations are more R and B than reggae and beautifully rendered with support from a female choir.

The hard stony dub of DJ Scotty’s “Draw Your Breaks,” is a toasting version of the 1967 cover of “Stop That Train,” by Keith and Tex. Toasting, is also referred to as “singjaying” and is when a DJ will talk/rap over an existing melody or groove. One of the most famous “toasters,” to hail from the island was Lee “Scratch” Perry.

The Melodians, “Rivers of Babylon,” is a song of Rastafarian faith and drifts on a warm coastal breeze, sun baked air, and the thick scent of sacramental ganja.

Cliff’s second song of the soundtrack, “Many Rivers to Cross,” is a standard, and one of the best songs ever written regardless of genre. Opening with a divinely inspired organ piece, the song amalgamates elements of island soul, R & B, and gospel. Cliff’s vocals are resolute and refute his challenges with a melody that defines his resignation.

Toots and the Maytals, “Sweet and Dandy,” rolls along in celebration of a wedding where drink flows and treats are consumed. The song dances on its own accord though the lyrics express that things aren’t always what they seem.

Side one concludes with Cliff’s beautifully defiant “The Harder They Come,” a melodically complex, lyrically detailed, and rhythmically buoyant song. One of the most well-known reggae cuts and the song that defined the film, Cliff’s abilities, and an entire musical movement.

The Slickers “Johnny Too Bad,” is the strutting tale of a Rude Boy, over a straight one drop and guitar chop riddim. Desmond Decker’s 1967 single “007 (Shanty Town)” follows and takes its time with airy verses and flowing vocals. The track was a huge song on the island and made the Top 20 in the UK charts.

From the Sweet and Dandy record, Toots and the Maytals “Pressure Drop,” is a high tempo rhythmic mantra replete with scrubbing guitars and overlapping vocals that repeat the title repeatedly in fun and convincing fashion.

“Sitting In Limbo,” is the fourth Cliff song of the record and a favorite of the ‘rock room.”  Originally found on Cliff’s 1971 LP Another Cycle, it was recorded with the Muscle Shoals Swampers and gives off a big band soul vibe. Perhaps Cliff’s most resonant melody the song sums up both the film and record. Cliff’s vocals are a soft touch and offer sure footed resilience in the face of adversity. The cut has an almost Rolling Stone style fade out which Cliff freestyles over on his way to the song’s conclusion.

The soundtrack album includes two alternate versions of “You Can Get It If You Really Want,” and “The Harder They Come,” to finish out the record.

Though Jimmy Cliff has ascended, his message and influence will remain earthbound. The Harder They Come soundtrack album is only one piece of his long career. But the records longevity, influence, and importance cannot be understated as it continues to define a genre and an era.