Transcript

Released in 1973 as part of the Wailers album ‘burnin' this reggae song about justice
became one of Marleys most well known and critically acclaimed protest songs.
Born on the 6th of Feb 1945, Bob Marley became on of the most influential reggae artists of
all time, fusing reggae with ska and rocksteady. Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, guitarist
and protester Marley stood for peace, unity and justice, spreading love and compassion for
those suffering from racial and political violence and those economically disadvantaged,
standing against consumerism and commercialisation.

Cultural and Sociological issues

Systematic racism affects those of black communities disproportionately to any other.
Systematic racism is developed from a system in which a racial bias towards a particular
group was intrinsic from its creation. Within ‘I shot the sheriff’’ Marley is commenting on
this. How the system of policing has been built against him and his community; with police
over-patrolling black neighbourhoods and prosecutors indicting black people and POC to a
much larger scale. A large part of this is profiling- a belief that due to a certain characteristic
shared amongst a community they are more likely to be guilty of committing a criminal act
with police unfairly tracking and persecuting members of these communities. Marley
comments in the song how sheriff Brown was always after him and he didn’t know
why. Falsely accused of killing the deputy, however willing to admit what he had done
shooting the sheriff. “Don’t blame me for what I haven’t done. Blame me for what I did, not
what I didn’t.”
"Sheriff Brown always hated me, for what I didn't know. Every time I'd plant a seed, he said
kill it before it grow."
At the end of the day the song is a protest song for justice. For those who have wronged him
and his community to face justice and those who have felt the weight of persecution to get
justice. “I wanted to say I shot the police, but the government would have made a fuss… but
it’s the same idea Justice” Self defence is another large portion of this song his plea that he
shot the sheriff out of self defence. The sheriff consistently after him and on this day was
about to fire, so he had to shoot, and it happened he shot first. He was being hunted and
had to defend himself.

Economics
Marley's platform had always been extremely against the consumerist and commercialised
nature of the music industry. He was a protest artist who was trying to give people a voice
more than he was trying to make money. Since Marley’s death he has been turned into a
marketing machine, his image, music and protest style turned into a commercialised
product, his family intertwining him with corporate America and making huge profit. In
regard to streaming in 2021 Marley would have been the top earner on streaming platforms
with an annual income of 1.9 million Aud with over 12 million streams.
Marley’s, I shot the Sheriff was a protest song, with a lack of regard for sales and ratings, it
was for those wrongly judged and wanting justice and the band struggled with the costs and
time associated with the recording. However, a year after Marley's version came Clapton's
cover. Clapton’s version is whitewashed reggae; however, people were more willing to put
their time into a white artist, his version overtaking Marley’s immensely, topping the charts
in the US, NZ and Canada. The music was less rhythmic and intense, the recording smoothed
to fit the cleaner recording style. Clapton’s version skyrocketed and allowed Marley's to
come with it, however it is now Marley’s version that has stood the test of time, feeling
more genuine and appropriate to its stylisations. Clapton's version was never able to make
extreme amounts despite being the top at the time due to its title of cover, a percentage
always went back to Marley’s label and then to Marley and now Marley’s estate.

Technology
Recorded at Harry J. studios in Kingston Jamaica under the Tuff Gong and Island labels, this
reggae song produced by Blackwell and the Wailers utilised a number of recording
technologies. This song was recorded on tape using a Helio 24 input desk and edited
using two-inch editing. There were three versions of the 8-track copied onto a 16 track.
Within the recording and editing process there were varying uses of mics and dubbing. For
the leading vocals they were recorded on a 67 with the backing vocals in as well and then
the backing vocals were re-recorded on an 87 and then overdubbed, the keyboard
overdubbed as well. When mentioning the mic and instrumentality within the song it is
important to mention the use of cross mic leakage, mellow distortion, use of wah, echo and
reverb along with an in-board EQ and urei 1176 for vocal compression on the track.

Music Analysis
This song of 4.24 min is of the reggae roots sub-genre and sits in the key of BbM. The
instrumentation of the song is from guitar, bass, percussion, vocals, synth, keys and
Hammond, with a song structure of chorus, verse repeated 3 times and outro with
interspersing riffs. The chord progression is Gm, Cm7, Eb, Dm7 with a guitar riff in the Gm
pentatonic scale. There is a strong emphasis on bass throughout the song, with a steady
rhythmic line, heavy chordal line in the keys and an atonal synth. The musicality of this piece
however interesting is not its main musical feature the lyrics have a strong storytelling
nature, conveying the struggles of the character created for the song as he protests his
tracking and arrest for shooting the Deputy, claiming that he actually shot the sheriff in
self defence.
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