Crime, Justice and Music

As I recently tweeted, September 14, 1974 was the anniversary of "I shot the sheriff" -- hitting #1 on music charts. The song was written by Bob Marley and performed by Eric Clapton (Windell, 2015). This is not the only time that the theme of crime or justice has come up in music.

Sammy Hagar has sung about his propensity to speed. Before the dark web, AC/DC famously offered a variety of methods of disposing of a nagging spouse ("concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT... high VOLTAGE!") at cost effective prices. Johnny Cash sang "Folsom Prison Blues" at Folsom Prison. Bob Dylan sang of the wrongful incarceration -- still an issue today -- of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Years before the #BlackLivesMatter movement took off, N.W.A. rapped about strained police-community relations. Similar frustrations with police, racial profiling, and traffic stops were expressed by Chamillionaire in "Riding (dirty)". Canadian rapper Snow shares his unwillingness to rat out a friend in "Informer". Perhaps this is why, at the end of the video for the song, he and his friend end up together as prison cellmates. 

Then there are the many songs about substance use. George Thorogood has a few about alcohol: "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" and "I Drink Alone". And everyone likes to sing about cocaine, from Styx's "Snow Blind" to Eric Clapton's aptly-named "Cocaine". Jackson Browne also has a song of the same title ("Cocaine"). The inspiration for the Eagles' "Life in the Fast Lane" came from singer Glenn Frey riding in a car with a drug dealer who said those words to Mr. Frey, who thought "Now there's a song title." During his solo career period, Mr. Frey also co-wrote "Smuggler's Blues" about drug trafficking. Guns N' Roses "Mr. Brownstone" is about the band's heroin struggles. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles is commonly thought to be about LSD. Bone Thugs are known for their love of marijuana (e.g., "The Weed Song", "Mary Mary"). It's unclear if Afroman's "Because I Got High" is a tribute to weed or a cautionary tale. 

Victimization themes come through in songs as well. Two that quickly come to mind are T.I.'s "Dead and Gone", a tribute song to his murdered friend Philant Johnson. "I'll be missing you" is also a tribute to Notorious B.I.G. by his wife, Faith Evans and Puff Daddy. Eminen and Rihanna tell the tale of a physically and emotionally abusive couple in "Love the Way You Lie". Violence is a theme in a few other Rihanna songs as well, particularly "Man Down" (homicidal revenge after a rape) and "Russian Roulette".

I'm sure there are many others I've forgotten. Feel free to comment below to add some.