I didn’t know that Jimmy Cliff was still alive. 

Bob Marley was the star that burned too hot to last.  He popularized reggae music, but died at 36 years old.  Jimmy Cliff was not as intense or known, but put out good music for a long time.

Reggae music isn’t all fun and games, there is often a message about oppression or liberation.  This line from The Harder They Come, sticks with me.

I’d rather be a free man in my grave, Than living as a puppet or a slave

We like to think we are men of principle, but you never really know.

Jimmy Cliff played in Cleveland, at the Agora, almost exactly 50 years ago.   Here is when he played in Cleveland.

  • November 10, 1975, The Agora
  • September 15, 1982, The Front Row Theatre (with Peter Tosh)
  • August 9, 1992, Nautica Stage, (World Beat ’92)

I attended the 1992 performance.

It’s crazy to notice that Cleveland was the 10th performance that Jimmy Cliff had ever performed in the US.  Even though he played hundreds of times after 1992, he never came back to Cleveland.

Cleveland either lost it’s music scene or the rest of the world caught up to us.