# 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:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**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 30, 2025, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031/1 "2025-05-30T23:36:38Z")
I first heard this song from Eric Clapton’s cover. I don’t know if anyone besides perhaps Paul Simon had contemporary songs that were essentially Reggae. So quite cool Clapton covered the song. Slight maybe important lyrical difference (bolded) Bob Marley I shot the sheriff, but it did not shoot **no** deputy Clapton I shot the sheriff, but I didn’t shoot **the** deputy Whether the article “no” or “the” matters it does somewhat change the nature of the alleged crime. I mean, in Marley’s version this “deputy” may have been anybody, whether or not he was “really” a deputy or, in Clapton’s version a real deputy. Assuming our singer is a “reliable narrator” and we can believe the rest of his tale about how Sherri John Browne, who almost surely would have been a white guy (yet that may or may not matter) and that Clapton’s character was not a white Notable Guitar Player from England (and highly likely he’s the same first-person as the Bob Marley character), this is still a very difficult defense. Especially for a black man in UK occupied Jamaica. I mean, Bob Marley was in general clearly singing about racial injustice. Any lawyer/solicitor would have to mount an incredible almost insurmountable case with lots of considerable empathy and compassion for our singer from the judge/jury. What might happen? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-shot-the-sheriff/1019031)._