The key prompt words for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday are, rather morbidly, ‘death’, ‘kill’ and ‘murder’.

I’m no fan of death or thrash metal, so I suppose that’s a fair part of the pool of possibilities ruled out. Some others that came to mind also had to be ruled out on the basis that I’d already deployed them on other prompts: one example being ‘The End’ (‘Mother, I want to kill you’) by The Doors.

But this is my response. Perhaps more usually associated with Eric Clapton, it’s a Bob Marley classic:

I shot the sheriff
But I didn’t shoot no deputy, oh no, oh
I shot the sheriff
But I didn’t shoot no deputy, ooh, ooh, ooh

Yeah, all around in my home town
They’re trying to track me down, yeah
They say they want to bring me in guilty
For the killing of a deputy
For the life of a deputy
But I say
Oh, now, now, oh

I shot the sheriff, the sheriff
But I swear it was in self-defense, oh no
Ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah
I say, I shot the sheriff, oh Lord
And they say it is a capital offense, yeah
Ooh, ooh, ooh, yeah

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
He said kill them before they grow
And so, and so
Read it in the news

I shot the sheriff, oh Lord
But I swear it was in self-defense
Where was the deputy? Ooh, ooh, ooh
I say, I shot the sheriff
But I swear it was in self-defense, yeah
Ooh-ooh

Freedom came my way one day
And I started out of town, yeah
All of a sudden I saw Sheriff John Brown
Aiming to shoot me down
So I shot, I shot, I shot him down and I say
If I am guilty I will pay (pay, pay, pay, pay, pay)

I shot the sheriff
But I say, but I didn’t shoot no deputy
I didn’t shoot no deputy, oh no, ooh, ooh, ooh
I shot the sheriff, I did
But I didn’t shoot no deputy, oh
Ooh, ooh, ooh

Reflexes had the better of me
And what is to be must be
Every day the bucket a-go a well
One day the bottom a-go drop out
One day the bottom a-go drop out

Written by Bob Marley

Song Lyric Sunday 7 December 2025