Marley’s ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ Adds Flair To ‘The First Lady’

Reggae legend Bob Marley‘s 1973 single I Shot The Sheriff was featured in episode 5 of Showtime Network’s The First Lady on Sunday night.

The First Lady, which is in its first season, is an American anthology drama television series created by Aaron Cooley which premiered on the network on April 17, 2022. It stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Viola Davis, Gillian Anderson and Dakota Fanning, among others, and portrays the life and family events of three First Ladies of the United States, namely Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Ford, and Michelle Obama.

I Shot The Sheriff, which was first released in 1973 on the album Burnin’, made its way to the opening scene of Episode 5, setting the stage for Betty Ford and Gerald R. Ford, who entered The White House in August 1974 under extraordinary circumstances, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal that involved President Nixon.

The song’s popularity during that year is owed, in part, to Eric Clapton’s 1974 cover, which went straight to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 that summer, the English singer’s only US chart-topper to date.

Interestingly, the cover also got more airplay in Jamaica than Marley’s music at the time, which reportedly infuriated him according to the 1985 biography by Stephen Davis.

“Clapton’s I Shot The Sheriff was being played every hour on the JBC, while the Wailers’ new single, Knotty Dread, was never to be heard.  Bob and Skill [his friend and tour manager Allan Cole] went over to the station to protest,” Davis wrote. “One of the disc jockeys complained to the police that he had been threatened.  Rumors went out that Bob Marley had been banned from entering the station for two years as a result.”

As for the interpretation of the lyrics, Marley explained his intention as follows: “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.”

In 2012, Marley’s former girlfriend Esther Anderson who co-directed the 2011 documentary Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend, stated that the lyrics, “Sheriff John Brown always hated me / For what, I don’t know / Every time I plant a seed / He said, ‘Kill it before it grow'” are actually about Marley being very opposed to her use of birth control pills.  Marley supposedly substituted the word “doctor” with sheriff.

Clapton’s version is certified Gold in the United States, while another cover by American rapper Warren G, is also certified Gold in the country.  It was also covered by UB40 and Inner Circle.

The original song was included in the compilation album, Legend in 1984.  It was certified Silver in the United Kingdom in July 2021.