Talk:I Shot the Sheriff/Archive 1

Genre
Clapton's cover doesn't fit in soft-rock genre. "Soft Rock emerged in the early '70s, partially as a reaction to the extreme sounds of the late '60s. Soft rock was commercial and inoffensive, taking the sound of singer/songwriter and pop/rock but smoothing out all the edges. Bands like Bread, the Carpenters, and Chicago relied on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. Throughout the '70s, soft rock dominated the airwaves and it eventually metamorphosed into the synthesized sounds of adult contemporary in the '80s." per AllMusic http://www.allmusic.com/style/soft-rock-ma0000011841

violence
someone violated the page I tried to put an old version there, by as I don't work a lot with wiki i didn't get the layout right

Clapton Recording
I distinctly hear Paul McCartney's voice in the second chorus of Clapton's studio recording on the line "But I swear it was in self defense." Am I losing my mind or could Sir Paul have dropped by the recording studio that day and chimed in on the chrous for some fun? --192.88.212.32 21:59, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Song used in The Simpsons
Is it worth adding in "In popular culture" that this song was used in The Simpsons Season 11 Episode 22 Behind the Laughter?--Dan2paul (talk) 10:51, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

"Eric Claptop didn't write this song"
lolwat? Removed. Paulmer2003 (talk) 05:36, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Light of the World version
Didn't Light of the World do a version of this song? Check out a version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWqsIClPqU. I hear this version of the song frequently in public and am surprised that nothing was written on this page about it. Whoistheroach (talk) 04:07, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Inaccurate?
I'm pretty sure Bob Marley didn't write "I Shot The Sheriff." I could be wrong. Does anyone know? Caesar 22:44, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

One of the Wailers wrote it.

Another inaccuracy someone could fix rather quickly (I won't because i don't know which way its wrong): it says the song was released in 1973 by Bob Marley & The Wailers. Bob Marley & the Wailers were formed in 1974...Therefore either the song was released after that date, or more likely, the Band name should simply be The Wailers. (someone can delete this paragraph when it is fixed) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.48.0.59 (talk) 07:22, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Also does the Ukraine version of this song really translate as "Who've shitted in the police car"? 170.148.215.156 (talk) 18:02, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

I find the translation of the german title a bit dubious, although i don't know the german title (i'm happy about that by the way). Leo lists "Kommissar" as Superintendent. --194.230.146.168 (talk) 17:10, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

why hasn't anyone actually done any research about this meaning?
What I love about all these theories written here is that it's obvious that not only are these commentators not informed about Marley's life during the period he wrote the song -- they haven't even bothered to do any research to back up any of their arguments, instead simply taking the most obvious metaphors of the song and building their arguments around that (i.e., it must be about pot, because we all know that's the only thing Rastas care about). If the name of Marley's girlfriend, Esther Anderson, means nothing to you then you need to do a little more homework about Marley's motivations when he was working on Burnin. According to Colin Grant in The Natural Mystics (2011, page 220-21), quote: "Anderson always maintained that she took a pivotal role in the creation of 'I Shot the Sheriff', and that in particular, the line Every time I plant the seed/ You kill it before it grows has its basis in their argument over birth control ... By Marley's reckoning every month presented the possibility for celebrating her pregnancy ... yet every month the contraceptive had killed the seed before the foetus could grow ... In 'I Shot the Sheriff', Esther Anderson's gynaecologist, Dr. Henderson, who became the target of Marley's ire, was transformed into Sheriff John Brown, and was shot down." Of course this flies in the face of the romance that is built up around the song, especially with people who apparently know zilch about Marley and are simply looking at the song in the most literal way possible. Grant goes on to talk about other influences: the tension between Marley and Bunny Wailer, for example, and other texts (now I'm working off Maureen Sheridan's Bob Marley Songs 1962-1981, 1999, page 93) also point to the problems the band was having with Chris Blackwell and Island Records at the time. I write all this out of a deep frustration I have with Wikipedia: it took me less than two minutes to find all this information on-line, and yet it's obvious from reading both the article and the discussion page nobody has even bothered to do that much, instead simply rattling off original research and the 8th level of hell, 'Pop Cultural References,' as if that is all that matters. I love the idea of Wiki but find it highly ironic that there are more references to Eric Clapton here than Bob Marley, because even Marley got fed up with clueless talking heads who feel they need to be part of the act: 'Him like the kind of music, and him like the melody (but) he didn't know the meaning of the words.' (Sheridan, page 41) Why aren't Colin Channer, Kwame Dawes or Geoffrey Philp referenced? They've written more about the song than anyone. Again, this all easily found on-line for anyone who bothers to look:

Song three on Burnin’ was “I Shot the Sheriff.” The song was markedly faster than most of Bob’s others. It began with a short introduction of chorus material that was sung by Bob, Peter, and Bunny in high male harmony. The drumming was a more straight-ahead rock beat, the bass was active and present in the mix, and the guitar maintained the reggae role of playing off beat chords. In the transition material from the verse to the chorus, the bass and keyboard played a unison descending line that drove into the chorus. The song structure was verse heavy, as the song was a narrative story told by Bob ... Bob went on the record in 1975 this way: “‘I Shot the Sheriff’ is like I shot wickedness. That’s not really a sheriff, it’s the elements of wickedness. The elements of that song is people been judging you and you can’t stand it no more and you explode, you just explode.” (Dawes, African Herbsman, page 43).

This is my frustration with Wiki, that editors spend more time fixing mistakes by people who simply write without doing any research, in other words mistakes that should never have happened in the first place, versus crafting well-documented articles that actually have sources to back up the claims. Himeyuri (talk) 14:24, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

The sheriff had it in for him. Hence the lines, "whenever I plant a seed, he kill it before it grow" meaning that he has killed the narrator's children, so they that couldn't extract vengence on him if they grow up after the sheriff has killed the narrator. He also says, "but I didn't shoot the deputy" and then later wails, "but where was the deputy?" implying that the deputy was on the level and upheld the law and didn't bear the grduge for him that the sheriff did, and the sheriff likely shot the deputy so that no one would be able to intercede upon him shooting the narrator, who then shoots the sheriff in self-defense. JesseRafe 07:44, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I think it's a little more complex - my interpretation has always been that the sheriff is the deputy in question. (He's a deputy of the law, isn't he?) The meaning of the song to me is that he killed John Brown the man, not John Brown the policeman. 'where was the deputy?' is a take on the injustice of being persecuted by a man who is supposed to represent the law.
 * This can be expanded out a little more - he killed the sheriff, but he has no brief with the law that he represents. The sheriff, in threatening him, wasn't a deputy of the law - there's no justice in doing that - only a man. So the intent of the song is that he has no problem with the system as a whole - just with the human beings exploiting it to exercise their personal vendettas. ACK-47 21:21, 19 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Both of those theories are stretching the song from a literal meaning. First, a deputy is normally a volunteer.  The sheriff is an elected and paid official.  Killing the sheriff is one thing - he's in charge.  Killing a deputy means you killed a volunteer from the local community who was just trying to help keep things in order.  Therefore, the song opens by explaining that everyone (not just the police) are angry with him for killing a deputy.  As for "planting a seed", why assume that he wasn't talking about marijuana?  Every other time he has referred to seeds or plants, he has meant marijuana.  So, the sheriff wouldn't let him grow his marijuana.  He freed himself of the sheriff by shooting him - claiming that the sheriff was going to shoot him if he didn't kill the sheriff in self defense.  He is willing to be arrested for shooting the sheriff, but repeats that he did not shoot the deputy. --Kainaw (talk) 19:37, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

You people are all idiots. This song is about an actual person, Gregorio Cortez. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.80.58.228 (talk • contribs) 05:49, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
 * That may or may not be the case. I don't see any empirical evidence to support the claim, however. 216.36.186.2 (talk) 18:20, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I think there's more to it. The sheriff disliked him, always putting him down when he had the chance. He resented the man's success as a farmer and/or as a father...he spoke openly about killing the "seeds", that is the crops and the man's children, before they could grow. The resentment inside him (the sheriff) keeps building and building. Then the day came that the man was freed from slavery, maybe he earned his slave price or was an indentured slave. Anyway, that was the breaking point for the sheriff. "Every day the bucket goes to the well, one day the bottom will drop out". He just could not let this man walk off free. He snapped. The sheriff shot the deputy, intending to blame the man for it. (Maybe he also had issues with the deputy too, who knows.) Then he goes to shoot the man. (Remember, the sheriff has killed the deputy, and if he kills the man, he can easily blame the deputy's death on him. The sheriff would get the respect and gratitude of the whole town.) He shoots, but the man's reflexes "get the better of him" and he fires back in self-defense, killing the sheriff. Now the town is stuck with the dead sheriff and deputy, and this man has to plead his case. Even he does not understand what happened, but as he says, "where was the deputy?" Did I mention that I love crime shows? Tooktheskinheadsbowling (talk) 23:47, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

Is it significant that the sherrif is named John Brown? - I imagine not, as Marley would probably have had a lot of respect for the real John Brown. Strange coincidence though. --84.92.115.145 (talk) 19:47, 12 December 2008 (UTC)Andrew Jordan

Interesting. I always took it that the narrator killed the deputy by mistake: he saw the deputy and thought it was his nemesis John Brown coming, so he shot him and escaped without realizing that he had shot the wrong man. I assume the seeds mentioned in the song are for marijuana plants.--Srleffler (talk) 03:10, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

i think this is about personal liberation of man, the sheriff is a law, the sheriff killed the deputy and the sheriff framed the narrator for killing the deputy, the sheriff tried to kill the narrator, but what must be must be, for the wages of sin is death. seed is both the seed of man and the seed of marijuana. seed of man, as is the race of the man being oppressed and the seed of marijuana as in the life of the man. ronnie paliau, 15:48, 03/07/2011. fudlendah. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.198.34.6 (talk) 05:51, 3 July 2011 (UTC) Bob Marley never even wrote :I Shot the Sheriff", on of the Wailers did. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.244.236.136 (talk) 00:53, 6 December 2011 (UTC)