"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
3 comments:
Indeed. Like a machine gun.
Somehow, I had NEVER heard his AMAZING song. Machine gun, indeed. Thanks!
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.
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