I Shot Sheriff Bob Marley

Bob Marley here tells a story from the point of view of a narrator who admits to having killed the local sheriff, and claims to be falsely accused of having killed the deputy. This song tells the story of a man who shoots a sheriff who is harassing him, but is wrongly accused of killing the deputy. Marley said that some of the song is true, but would not say which parts. This was the last single Marley released with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, who left The Wailers to go.

1. I Shot The Sheriff Bob Marley. I shot the sheriff But I did not shoot the deputy I shot the sheriff But I did not shoot the deputy. All around in my own town They're trying to track me down They say they want to bring me in guilty For the killing of a deputy For the life of a deputy.
2. Watch: New Singing Lesson Videos Can Make Anyone A Great Singer I shot the sheriff But I didn't shoot no deputy Oh, no, no I shot the sheriff But I didn't shoot no deputy Ooh All around in my hometown They're tryin' to track me down They say they want to bring me in guilty For the life of a deputy For the life of a deputy But I say I shot the sheriff (But I swear it was in self-defense) I.
3. I Shot The Sheriff Intro tab by Bob Marley. 136,612 views, added to favorites 685 times. Tuning: E A D G B E. Author Unregistered.

I Shot The Sheriff Bob Marley And The Wailers

I Shot The Sheriff By Bob Marley Lyrics

While song lyrics tend to stick to an unmistakable point — usually along the lines of 'Oh, I love you' — they occasionally are just ambiguous enough to leave it up to the listener to decide what's happening. Bob Marley achieves this in 'I Shot the Sheriff,' though he does so more due to later comments, as opposed to anything he or Eric Clapton sings.

'I Shot the Sheriff' follows an easy enough narrative. Bob Marley confesses to having shot Sheriff John Brown, in self-defense, but denies having killed the deputy, the person the town is actually trying to try him for. Later on, in 1974, as David Vlado Moskowitz's The Words and Music of Bob Marley unearths, Marley explained that, 'I want to say 'I shot the police' but the government would have made a fuss so I said 'I shot the sheriff' instead... but it's the same idea: justice.' As current events have made clear, while the police supposedly stand for 'justice,' the institution has a history of terrorizing Black people, like the pot farmer in Marley's song (and then not facing repercussions, due to qualified immunity). Thus, as the song argues, it is just for one to act in self defense. Hence, 'If I'm guilty, I will pay.'

However, there's more to this song than meets the eye.

The victim is an interpretive John Doe

I Shot The Sheriff Bob Marley Album

Simple, right? Wrong!

Bob Marley himself was rather cagey about what his song really meant. Before expounding on the point about shooting the police, he actually made a broader point, as fully quoted in Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley's Wailers By John Masouri: 'The message is a kind of diplomatic statement. You have to kind of suss things out. 'I Shot the Sheriff' is like I shot wickedness. It's not really a sheriff; it's the elements of wickedness because people been judging you and you can't stand it no more and you explode. You just explode.' Following this, then, he continued about wanting the lyrics to have been, 'I shot the police,' as previously mentioned.

I Shot The Sheriff

On the other hand, however, Marley's ex-girlfriend has claimed that 'I Shot the Sheriff' is actually about birth control. As the Miami New Times put it, '[Marley] wanted [Ms. Anderson, Marley's girlfriend] to have his baby. He believed their love was strong and it was sin to kill his seed.' So, according to this explanation, the seeds the narrator wants to plant in the song transform from being pot seeds to sperm, with the sheriff killing them before they could develop.

I Shot Sheriff Bob Marley Arrested

But what about the deputy? No matter what interpretive route we take, you have to contend with the relationship between a sheriff and his deputy. No one ever mentions him, leaving his identity to be the song's real secret.