Monday, May 30, 2011

Never Did A Thing Wrong




















"Woman hold her head and cry, 'cause her son had been shot down in the street and died from a stray bullet..." Three years after Marley's grim original, Belfast's Stiff Little Fingers saw that Johnny Was didn't just fit the Kingston ghetto: it happened to be just as relevant for the situation around them in Northern Ireland. The resulting cover remains one of the most blistering examples of the punk-reggae hybrid.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Johnny Was MP3
Stiff Little Fingers - Johnny Was MP3

4 comments:

tincaveerman@gmail.com said...

I love this song! Still sounds good & the guitar sounds amazing in this song!

Ramone666 said...

Indeed. Like a machine gun.

Holly said...

Somehow, I had NEVER heard his AMAZING song. Machine gun, indeed. Thanks!

ib said...

This was always my favourite SLF burnt offering; with Jake Burns serving up a slice of Donosaur Jr on the side way before J Mascis turned it on.

It was Ogilvie - in thrall of Bernie Rhodes' handling of the Clash - who insisted on its inclusion on Inflammable Material (re JM's 'Police & Thieves'), I seem to remember. I believe I have always preferred this cover to Bob's original.