JIMMY CLIFF - Vietnam

Reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff had his first Jamaican hit single in 1962 when he was 14 years old. After signing with Island Records, who had plans to market him to a rock audience, Cliff released his international debut in 1967 - Hard Road To Travel. By the late 1960's Cliff's career was soaring, and in 1969 he wrote the anti-war anthem Vietnam. The song was inspired by his true life friend who had moved to America, and was later drafted to fight in the war in Vietnam. Bob Dylan has called Cliff's song "the best protest song ever", and the song is said to have inspired Paul Simon's 1972 hit Mother and Child Reunion. In 1972, Cliff made his big screen debut in the film The Harder They Come. Jimmy cliff is the only musician to have been awarded Jamaica's hugely prestigious Order of Merit. In recent years Cliff has performed the song Vietnam replacing "Vietnam" with "Afghanistan". see HERE