Cliff notes

Living legend

I admit to being conflicted about whether or not to go and see Jimmy Cliff when I first heard the 62 year-old reggae legend was playing at Massey Hall. It can be a disappointment seeing a late-in-career artist, no matter how great they may have been in their prime. Sometimes their voices are shot, or they’ve lost their energy for performing and are just limply going through the motions onstage. Plus the audiences, often motivated by the same nostalgia, are usually depressingly old and uncool. Which was why I didn’t go to see Carole King and James Taylor when they were recently in town on their duet tour (and which to all reports, was a mistake). Like my pal Martha says, the greats are still worth seeing, because they will always deliver.  

Luckily I overcame my reticence. Because the man–recently awarded the Order of Merit, so he is now the Hon. Mr Cliff, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame– is not only a living hit machine, he’s still bursting with love and positive energy: his opening number, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”, had me smiling from ear to ear and dancing in the aisles, and I wasn’t alone.  

Still got it

Dressed in head-to-toe red, with a puffy 80s jacket with red-green-and gold patchwork, and a matching sock-monkey dread knitted toque,  Cliff was in fine form, bopping across the stage like a man half his age, his voice still getting you right where you live, and still inspiring with the weird ropy intensity of an aging Mystic man.  

A natural mystic

After “Wonderful World”, the hits just kept on coming: the elegiac “Sitting in Limbo”, the anthemic “You Can Get it if You Really Want” and “The Harder They Come”, the rockin’ “Vietnam” (updated by Cliff to a chant of “Af-ghan–istan”), covers of such slightly worn and faded reggae classics as “I Can See Clearly Now” and Cat Stevens’  ” Wild World” which Cliff has already recorded and made his own (basically anything un-Marley belongs to Cliff at this point)– and an even more poignant version of “Many Rivers to Cross”, with the lyrics “I’ve been licked, washed-up for years…” most moving sung by a performer who’s been far too long unrecognised and out of the spotlight.   

The Man and his band The band, all attired in matching orange Jimmycliff.com tees, was not only fetchingly cute (particularly the female backup dancer who everybody in the hall fell madly in love with), but were so tight and played with such funk the house was on fire. Even the band couldn't resist.Dancing dudes

 And most notably, during a rendition of Cliff’s unknown and newest track, “One More”, an irresistible, booty-shaker about having “one more song to sing, one more bullet in my gun”, which was still playing in my head when I woke up this morning–all blissfully danced out, brimming with positive vibes and still smiling.