I Shot the Sherriff

I have inherited a lot of cassettes from the redoubtable (whatever that literally means, it's one of those words like 'erstwhile') Michelle Cannane including one of ska/reggae classics which I have basically been playing non-stop in the car for weeks now. When I say non-stop I mean, when I am driving, when I am in the car, and when I am listening to a tape, not a podcast off my phone. Anyway, it's a great collection which resonates for me and makes me wonder things. I had the single of Eric Clapton's 'I Shot the Sheriff' in the mid-70s, I guess I knew (from reading the label) that it was written by Bob Marley but like a lot of things that were floating round the ether otherwise I both thought about it and didn't think about it. I think I found the caveat that the singer didn't shoot the deputy was the funny/intriguing part. The deputy is probably the more interesting figure in the whole story but we don't hear much about him (OR HER). The song on the tape by the way is, I have to assume, Bob Marley's version. (I could hold a lot of different thoughts about Eric Clapton at once when I was a kid. I think I knew he had made that racist speech around the time it happened, but it's hard to be certain about that now of course. I would never have been into the racism but the sheer hypocrisy of a man who had based his career on appropriation of black music lecturing a crowd on the benefits of keeping Britain white might have gone over my head a bit. Not sure. I soon came to despise Eric Clapton though but I still totally love Jack Bruce. Because I am a namby pamby my favourite Jack Bruce album is Harmony Row i.e. the completely most commercial one, though Songs for a Tailor has a special place in my heart, the copy I own I purchased second hand from Readings in Hawthorn (when it was on the eastern side of Glenferrie Road, know what I mean) and played the fucking thing to death, except not, because it still lives. I mean Jack had all the prowess of Eric but he could also, like, write amazing songs and was very adventurous in the way that Eric wasn't (band-hopping doesn't count as adventurous). Eric's name is also 'Eric' which means you can't take him seriously. 

The other songs on the reggae-ska tape are way cool too. It must date from the early 80s as a compilation, because it's full of tracks later made famous in the late 70s-early 80s ska revival like the song the Specials retitled 'A Message to You Rudy' and what I'm guessing is 'Moon Hop'. 

'SO YEAH'