Like rock and roll, reggae has both a light and a dark side. The light is perhaps personified by Jimmy Cliff…. Cliff's music, such as "Many Rivers To Cross," "You Can Get It If You Really Want," and the title song of … "The Harder They Come" … reveals a proselytizing optimism that is a hallmark of light-hearted reggae.

Cliff also has a new album, "Follow My Mind" …, that is interesting because it shows how fragile reggae can be, and how difficult it is to export. The album's tracks recorded in Jamaica ("Going Mad," "The News") bristle with the raw, assertive energy essential to authentic reggae. But the songs recorded in Los Angeles with the cream of that city's session musicians seem either ennervated or slick. It appears that the further reggae strays from its Trenchtown roots, the more likely its absorption into a more mainstream pop form. (p. D...