I’m sure you’ve heard by now, but Junior Murvin has died. The reggae artist I bet 98% of us first learned about through The Clash’s cover of “Police and Thieves” was 67 (or maybe 64).
I like Murvin’s original recording of his song a lot, as well as some other tracks I own by him (especially “Cool Out Son”), but man, The Clash version made the song for young me. I think the first time I heard the original was during a scene in Rude Boy—or was it one of those other landmark punk rock movies my friends and I used to gobble down at midnight showings? Ray Gange or some other punk was strolling down the city streets while Murvin’s version filled the theater and I felt cool for finally getting to hear it.
The older I get the more I appreciate the incongruity of hearing Murvin sing such heavy lyrics so sweetly. Did he or Joe Strummer ever talk about the differences in their approaches to that song? All these years I’ve known nothing about the guy, really. This article I just found is definitely worth reading, if you want to start learning anything about the man.
I don’t want to disrespect the dead, especially the author of such a great song, but his recording seems designed to illustrate the genius of the Clash in finding what is so powerful in the song but absent in Murvin’s recording.
I think it was Joe Strummer who said Junior Murvin had a voice “like a river of silk”. And I guess it’s different horses for different courses misterioso, given the impact “Police and Thieves” had in Jamaica.
Undoubtedly. But it isn’t really Murvin’s voice that bugs me, it is the drowse-inducing backing. But, again, I would never hesitate to admit that I am largely immune to reggae’s peculiar charms.