Time Will Tell: The Underrated Importance of Jimmy Cliff to Bruce Springsteen's Music

November 26, 2025

It is well known, as it should be, that Jimmy Cliff, whose death at 81 was announced on Monday, has had an enormous and enduring musical impact around the globe. In addition, many Bruce Springsteen fans, myself included, feel an extra debt of gratitude to Cliff for writing and recording the original version of the song "Trapped." Springsteen found a Jimmy Cliff cassette that included Cliff's version of "Trapped" (which, incidentally, was produced by Cat Stevens) while shopping in an Amsterdam airport during the 1981 European leg of the The River Tour. As that tour progressed, Springsteen & the E Street Band began performing an intense rock version of "Trapped" that strengthened the socio-political metaphors in Cliff's song even further. Hearing "Trapped" performed by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band became a major highlight of the 1981 shows and then, three years later, of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, as well. A live recording of "Trapped" also served as Springsteen's contribution to the historic 1985 U.S.A. For Africa We Are The World LP.

Just over a decade after Springsteen first performed "Trapped," he began regularly adding another great Jimmy Cliff composition to his live repertoire, again during a European tour leg. In 1993, Springsteen and his severely underrated 1992-93 touring band began performing a beautiful, moving version of Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross."

It also was on that 1993 leg that Jimmy Cliff made his first guest appearance at a Bruce Springsteen concert. (Back in 1989, Springsteen was a special guest during Jimmy Cliff's Stone Pony concert that year, performing "Trapped" together.) In Verona, Italy on April 11, 1993, Cliff performed his song "Time Will Tell" with Springsteen and his band. Oddly enough, Jimmy Cliff did not join in on that night's performance of "Many Rivers To Cross."

The only other time they would appear onstage together would be almost two decades later, during the great Austin, TX show that followed Springsteen's SXSW Keynote Address earlier that day. Jimmy Cliff joined Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band for performances of three of his greatest songs: "The Harder They Come," "Time Will Tell," and "Many Rivers To Cross."

Stevie Van Zandt was among the many musicians who addressed the passing of Jimmy Cliff. Writing on his social-media platform, Van Zandt noted that Cliff was "so proud" of his work on Artists United Against Apartheid's groundbreaking "Sun City" record and music-video. "He had been quite vocal about South Africa his whole life," wrote Stevie.

Van Zandt also noted Cliff's 1986 recording of "You Don't Have To Cry," the song that Arthur Baker and Stevie Van Zandt wrote to sing on the soundtrack for Jonathan Demme's film Something Wild.

But most Springsteen fans, and most music historians in general, are still not aware of the apparent connections between Jimmy Cliff's 1969 song "Vietnam" - which Bob Dylan once called the best protest song that he'd ever heard - and the creation of Springsteen's song "Born in the U.S.A." I first wrote about this connection for Backstreets.com back in 2014 as part of our special features on the 30th anniversary of Born in the U.S.A. You can click here and scroll down to my June 4, 2014 online article entitled "Did Jimmy Cliff Help to Inspire 'Born in the U.S.A.'?"

And below you can hear the audio-montage I created to take you aurally through Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam" to the early stages in the creation of Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." and then coming full-circle to a 1987 reggae version of Springsteen's song performed live in New Jersey by Bruce with Jah Love & The Survivors. (This audio-montage, originally posted on the Backstreets Magazine SoundCloud platform to accompany my 2014 article, also has been shared to the Letters To You SoundCloud platform.)

Clearly, Jimmy Cliff has had a major and enduring impact on Bruce Springsteen's work, one that remains highly significant, even as it continues to be underrated.