3:01
Unlimited, 1973
Written by Jimmy Cliff
"This is the music / For all who love beat." Jimmy Cliff died two days ago. He was one of the great architects of reggae, maybe not as mythic as Marley, but in some ways more formative. Cliff's sound always kept one foot outside the genre. What he brought to the world was a version of Jamaican music that was lighter on mysticism and political dread and heavier on warmth, melody, and emotional directness. His voice was bright, flexible, and optimistic, and he used it in a rocksteady sound that embraced genre crossovers into pop, soul, and funk. Indeed, I picked this song for its archetypical reggae beat and just such a genre-transcendent theme. "It′s got some calypso / Just like in rock afro / Classical notion / To still your emotion."
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