Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff died.
Cliff wrote and sang many beloved songs (including The Harder They Come, Sitting Here in Limbo, and You Can Get It If You Really Want).
My favorite song of his, though, was Many Rivers To Cross.
Many rivers to cross
But I can't seem to find my way over
Wandering I am lost
As I travel along the white cliffs of Dover
It's a melancholic, mournful song. Heartbreaking, really. On the album version, with the organ in the background, it sounds like a hymn.
He was only twenty-one when he wrote it.
For years, I thought the first lyric was Many rivers to cross/But I can't seem to find my way home.
That accident made the song deeply personal for me. When you're introverted, it never seems like you find your home. Nowhere is right. Everywhere you feel like the other, the odd one out, the one who doesn't belong.
It haunts many of us our entire lives.
The correct lyrics are beautiful--a masterpiece, really--but it meant even more to me because I got it wrong.
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