# I shot the sheriff **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [May 30, 2025, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031 "2025-05-30T23:36:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/21 "2025-05-31T02:21:30Z")
Okay, one more from the same album: > **[Paul Simon - Mother and Child Reunion (Official Audio)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0BUsDf0dxY%2F)** > > "Mother and Child Reunion" by Paul SimonListen to Paul Simon: https://paulsimon.lnk.to/listenYDWatch more Paul Simon videos: https://paulsimon.lnk.to/listenY... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0BUsDf0dxY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0BUsDf0dxY))/ ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/22 "2025-05-31T02:24:26Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > Okay, one more from the same album That one, sure. He recorded it in Jamaica, with Jimmy Cliff’s band backing him up. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/23 "2025-05-31T02:25:21Z")
I can’t find any ambiguity in the lyrics. He shot the sheriff. He didn’t shoot the deputy. It can’t be explained more plainly. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/24 "2025-05-31T02:29:00Z")
Cool. Did not know either fact. Too bad Tosh or Marley weren’t on it, I guess my point was Eric Clapton’s song (which after listening to it again doesn’t quite come across as reggae) yet Paul Simon, from Queens, NY was doing this stuff in the early 1970’s ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/25 "2025-05-31T02:37:38Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > He shot the sheriff. He didn’t shoot the deputy. It can’t be explained more plainly. Self defense / vindication on the Sherrif’s part. I think the Bob persona has written that off. Yet perhaps (in Bob’s version) this may not have been a real depurty. And if you buy into the dreadlock rasta, he did not shoot him,. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/26 "2025-05-31T02:42:55Z")
Why wouldn’t it be the real deputy that he didn’t shoot? If he didn’t shoot someone else why wouldn’t he say so? Chekhov’s gun is not a phaser. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/27 "2025-05-31T02:44:26Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > UB-40 _Red Red Wine_ a little later Jamaican singer [Tony Tribe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Tribe) beat them to it in '69 but his version apparently only charted in the UK, where it barely missed the top-40. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/PNgzk0TvJJI/maxresdefault.jpg "Tony Tribe - Red Red Wine") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNgzk0TvJJI&t=00) ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/28 "2025-05-31T02:49:15Z")
I mentioned that in my OP, Bob says “I did not shoot **no** deputy” while Clapton sings “I did not shoot **the** deputy”. In any case, he didn’t shoot the guy and we don’t even know who may have shot this guy. Sheriff John Browne deserved what he got (IMO) and I think Bob is singing about the racism inherent in the system. “Repressed” isn’t close to what Bob was singing about. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/29 "2025-05-31T07:25:26Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > I don’t know if anyone besides perhaps Paul Simon had contemporary songs that were essentially Reggae. Elvis Costello’s _[Watching the Detectives.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Qnt5bx1OI)_ ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/30 "2025-05-31T08:18:30Z")
two thoughts: When the moral panic about NWA’s ‘Fuck tha Police’ was happening, Jello Biafra made what I thought was the rather salient point that no-one had gotten their knickers in a twist with either Clapton’s or Marley’s versions of ‘I shot the sheriff’, and that there may be the slightest whiff of double standards in the air. Struggling to remember the source of the statement - it might be on one of JB’s many spoken word carryings-on, or may have just been a radio interview. Reggae by white people - the obscure but better if you’re stoned Australian surfing pig Captain Goodvibes, had [Dribbles of Babylon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YD7QAugACo), released in 1978. Perhaps not cultural appropriation’s highwater mark, but points for effort and record sleeve artwork nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/31 "2025-05-31T08:38:03Z")
Here’s a little known white rock band doing reggae in 1973: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qgucqyr-H7M/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-BIAC4AOKAgwIABABGGUgVihSMA8=&rs=AOn4CLCVMoHmH9aE1x17Q94Rpqu_DDmGjA "D'yer Mak'er - Led Zeppelin (1973)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgucqyr-H7M&t=21s) ETA: Elton John also had a reggae song on “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, I don’t remember the name of the song as I don’t know the album very well, but it definitely was reggae. The theory that Clapton doing reggae as a white artist around 1974 was somehow unique is false, many did. He just was the only one who had a hit with it and got airplay, others were mostly album tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/32 "2025-05-31T10:05:51Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Elvis Costello’s _[Watching the Detectives.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1Qnt5bx1OI)_ Yes. just a couple years after Paul Simon. I remember him switching - from perhaps that song - to the NBC/RCA forbidden “Radio, Radio” on “Saturday Night Live” which was as ballsy as that guy on “Sullivan” who “couldn’t get much higher” Then there’s the a fore-mentioned “The Police” with Regatta d’Blanc and much of Sting’s early “Be-oh” callbacks both on Studio and especially live stuff (saw them twice) were very reminiscent of Bob Marley. I’m trying to recall off the top of my head, yet The Clash weren’t just proto-punk or whatever the radio stations wanted to label them as. A good half, I’d say, of “Sandanista” is Reggae. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/33 "2025-05-31T10:10:39Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > I’m trying to recall off the top of my head, yet The Clash weren’t just proto-punk or whatever the radio stations wanted to label them as. A good half, I’d say, of “Sandanista” is Reggae. The Clash had reggae in their repertoire from the beginning. They covered Junior Murvin’s “Police And Thieves” on their debut album from 1977. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/34 "2025-05-31T11:56:40Z")
Mother and Child Reunion is a ska song, not a reggae song. And, D’yer Maker (pronounced Jamaica, of course) seems to be an attempt at a reggae song, but it really isn’t. (British joke: “My wife is going on holiday to the West Indies.” “Jamaica?” “No, she wanted to go.” But, yeah, that 10cc song is straight up reggae for sure, and The Police, maybe The Tide is High by Blondie. Lots of reggae coming out back then in rock, punk, and new wave. As to the OP, I don’t think there’s a difference in meaning at all. Just a difference in dialect. Also, I never got the impression that Sheriff John Brown was necessarily a white guy harassing a local Black guy, just that he happened to hate the narrator. Maybe that’s because I heard the Clapton song first. And, I really love the metaphor of the bucket in the well. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/35 "2025-05-31T11:59:15Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > I mentioned that in my OP, Bob says “I did not shoot **no** deputy” while Clapton sings “I did not shoot **the** deputy”. Which makes no difference to the meaning of the song. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/36 "2025-05-31T13:17:39Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > I mentioned that in my OP, Bob says “I did not shoot **no** deputy” while Clapton sings “I did not shoot **the** deputy”. This is an example of double negation, which is common in nonstandard or informal dialects of English (like some regional or working-class speech patterns, including African American Vernacular English or some Southern U.S. English). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/37 "2025-05-31T13:24:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > > [@Coriolanus](#): > > > > I mentioned that in my OP, Bob says “I did not shoot **no** deputy” while Clapton sings “I did not shoot **the** deputy”. > > Which makes no difference to the meaning of the song. Agreed. It don’t make no difference, at all. Thank God, Clapton never covered “(I Can’t Get Any) Satisfaction” ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/38 "2025-05-31T13:46:00Z")
The circumstances behind the deputies killing are not really known. It may very well be that the use of “no deputy” especially if semantically read as a mere double negative (in the context of the whole line) is not implying that this was not a “legitimate” deputy. If he was a person that was killed in the exchange between “Bob” and the “Sheriff”, it would seem that Bob has been charged with both. Were it just the Sheriff who I always thought to be a well-off white guy, yet even that isn’t stated or used as any reason for “always hated me” he knows “self-defense” will at best be considered a reason and otherwise make no difference. Though there is an underlying tone of injustice and racism that I read into the song. Whether Bob us openly confessing or just to “us” it would be a very difficult case to exonerate a former ex-criminal (again, felon or no, it’s not explained why he had previously been incarcerated or for how long). He can “swear it was in self-defense” yet again the tone or overall feeling is he _knows_ he’s going to be executed for this crime. I suppose, again assuming Bob is a “reliable narrator” and telling the truth then parsing the “a” / “the” perhaps doesn’t mean he did not consider the deputy to be legitimate or not and it really wouldn’t help his case much anyway. All we know is the killing of the Sheriff is being claimed as self-defense and perhaps out of a sense of honor he doesn’t want to be known as a double-murderer. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/39 "2025-05-31T13:55:33Z")
I still don’t get why you are assuming any deputy at all was killed by anybody. Bob’s defense is that if he was just some crazed cop killer, he would have shot them both. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/40 "2025-05-31T13:57:11Z")
Yeah, this has always been my interpretation. The narrator turns around and the sheriff is about to shoot him down, so he shoots the sheriff first, but it was self-defense. I never even considered a deputy being killed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031.md?page=3)