
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
In his first Twin Cities appearance since 2003, the newly inducted Hall of Famer was as lithe and limber as he was in his 1970s heyday.
By jonbream
Jimmy Cliff got down on Friday at Lollapalooza in Chicago
Photo by Associated Press
Often times by the time an artist is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he is a shadow of his former self. That wasn't the case with reggae star Jimmy Cliff. He was just as exciting Saturday night at the Minnesota Zoo – four months after landing in the Hall of Fame – as he was in his 1970s heyday.
One day after appearing in front of tens of thousands at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, Cliff packed the Zoo with about 1,500 zealous reggae fans. Wearing a two-tone yellow track suit with an orange T-shirt, silver shoes and a knit cap featuring the Jamaican colors, the singer, 62, was as lithe and limber as his former self. He unleashed an undiminished tenor voice, electric smile and ageless dynamism. Backed by eight musicians and one female backup singer, Cliff opened with three songs from "The Harder They Come," the 1972 cult movie and soundtrack that introduced reggae to the United States (before Bob Marley) and made Cliff an international music and movie star. "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" established the sunny spiritual vibe of Cliff. "Sitting in Limbo" sounded harder and fuller than the original recording. And "You Can Get It If You Really Want" not only evoked the movie but elicited a huge response. Cliff's nearly 80-minute performance was pretty much a greatest-hits set. (He hasn't put out a U.S. album since 2002 but, in recent interviews, he's promised to a deliver a concept album, "Existence," in the fall.) He got political (turning "Viet Nam" into "Afghanistan"), environmental ("Save Our Planet Earth") and spiritual (the soulful, passionate and dramatic "Many Rivers to Cross," one of the night's highlights). At times, he mixed the political with the spiritual, such as when he segued from "Bongo Man" into "The Rivers of Babylon," which he eventually turned into a rally cry for world peace, freedom, justice, equality, the destitute, the homeless, the U.S.A. and Jamaica. Unlike Marley, Cliff is not rastafarian (he's actually Muslim). But he exuded positive vibrations. He got fans – even the ones wearing Marley T-shirts and firing up spliffs – to sing along or wave their arms in unison. Making his first Twin Cities appearance since 2003, Cliff gave the fans a flashback to "The Harder They Come" by recreating a pivotal scene, the one in which the aspiring singer (Cliff), who is taken advantage of by an unscrupulous music-biz executive, exacts his revenge with a knife. Then he tore into the title song ("the harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all"), giving an infectious, galvanizing performance that proved why he's still a Hall of Fame concertizer.
Here is Cliff's set list from the Zoo:
Wonderful World Beautiful People/ Sitting in Limbo/ You Can Get It If You Really Want / Wild World (Cat Stevens)/ One More/ Save Our Planet Earth/ Afghanistan (a rewrite of his Viet Nam)/ I Can See Clearly Now/ World Upside Down/ Many Rivers to Cross/ The Harder They Come/ Rebel Rebel/ Bongo Man segueing into Rivers of Babylon ENCORE a medley of Treat the Youths Right, Reggae Movement and Rub-a-Dub Partner (with Cliff exiting, then each of the band members exiting after playing a solo, with the bassist leaving last)
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