(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Eric Clapton - "I Shot the Sheriff"
Hit Number 1: September 14, 1974
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
You'd never think of reggae and rock going well together. However, if there was one man that could find a way to make it work, it was Bob Marley. Marley was from Jamaica, and was no doubt inspired by all of the Jamaican reggae music around him to start what would end up becoming a legendary career. Marley was not only known for his role in being a reggae pioneer, but also for being very politically active. He was a big time supporter of the Democratic Party, and would sometimes spark controversy with his beliefs of democratic social reforms. Sometimes his beliefs would find their way into his music, which shouldn't be surprising to anyone. What also shouldn't be surprising is that Marley would end up writing a song that was anti-police.
Marley's idea for "I Shot the Sheriff" was simply just a song about shooting a sheriff in what the narrator calls an act of "self-defense." According to Marley, the plan was to name the song "I Shot the Police", but he knew that the government would be all over his ass if he named a song that way so he renamed it. He would say: "It's the same idea... justice." Now you put the song in the hands of a white guitar legend with no documented negative run-ins with police, the song becomes a little more humorous. Eric Clapton, former guitar player for the band Cream, doesn't seem at all like a guy that would touch a reggae song. But it was 1974, and a guy like Eric Clapton could do whatever the hell he wanted to and get away with it. He put his own touch of soft rock in the song, mixed it with Marley's original reggae, and he came up with an interesting sounding tune. "I Shot the Sheriff" in the hands of Clapton doesn't even have a guitar solo in it. It's one big spoof.
Again, Clapton's music career origins come from his days with the 1960s psychedelic rock band, Cream. (Their highest-charting single, 1968's "Sunshine of Your Love", peaked at #5. It's a 9) However in the same year "Sunshine of Your Love" came out, Cream broke up. Clapton then went on to have a monster solo career, but not before a brief stop with the one-hit wonders Derek & the Dominos, and they spawned the immortal banger "Layla", which made it to #10 in 1972. (It's another 9) But while those two bands helped Clapton get on the map, his solo career is perhaps the highlight of all of it. Clapton would have a few Billboard-charting hits, but astonishingly, he never had any top ten hits before "I Shot the Sheriff". Keep in mind, Clapton wasn't failing. He just wasn't a major pop star. "I Shot the Sheriff" would change that.
This is really the first time Clapton didn't rock out in one of his songs. He was a fan of Bob Marley's music, though, and thought it could be fun to cover one of his songs. No one had any idea how big that song would become, not even Clapton. But this is what's especially funny about the whole situation: Nothing makes sense. Bob Marley was a living legend that never transitioned into pop stardom, which was likely because of his views, but Clapton wasn't quite at the levels of someone like, say, Elton John or Stevie Wonder either. He was just a well-known guitar player who went way out of his comfort zone, and recorded a strange song about shooting police. But yet for some reason, he gets a big hit out of it, and Marley doesn't.
Maybe it's the way it sounds you might wonder, but "I Shot the Sheriff" is not the most outstanding piece of work by Clapton. It trudges along, and Clapton brings his own good deal of swagger to the song, but it's just a generic piece of work as far as I'm concerned. I'd much rather hear Clapton rock out. I want to hear him jam out on his guitar. You don't get that on "I Shot the Sheriff". It is pretty creative what Clapton was able to do with the song, though. He's able to pull off the unfamiliar reggae sound well enough, substituting the normal guitar parts with cool organ riffs, and it's an easy song to enjoy. But yet again, it doesn't rock out. There's nothing wrong with the song, I just want to hear the man rock!
Clapton would continue to find even more success for the rest of the '70s before disappearing in the '80s. He'd come back in the '90s and was somehow pretty big then, but after "I Shot the Sheriff", he'd never really be that legendary guitarist anymore. At least in any of his new songs afterwards. Which is too bad, but honestly good for him. He's 76, does live shows, and holy hell he can still play.
GRADE: 6/10
IN POP CULTURE:
Here's a version of "I Shot the Sheriff" by rapper Warren G, that was released in 1997. It did fairly well on the charts, peaking at #20. His version is a 3.
(Warren G's highest-charting single is the Nate Dogg collab, "Regulate (From 'Above the Rim')", which peaked at #2 in 1994. It's a 7)
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