# Junior Murvin — Police and Thieves

Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves (1976) appears on 3 of our lists — Reggae, 1976, and Dancing to Bad News, highest at No. 6 in Reggae. Every verdict, in full.

- **Released:** 1976
- **Label:** Island
- **On:** Reggae, 1976, and Dancing to Bad News
- **Updated:** 2026-08-29
- **Artist:** [Junior Murvin](https://waxonia.com/artist/junior-murvin/)
- **Canonical page:** https://waxonia.com/track/junior-murvin--police-and-thieves/

## What 3 lists say

### No. 6 in [Reggae](https://waxonia.com/genre/reggae/)

Murvin's falsetto over a Lee Perry production of extraordinary lightness. The Clash covered it a year later and the traffic between punk and Kingston was open for good.

### Picked by [1976](https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/)

Written about Jamaican election violence and adopted within months by a London that had just had the Notting Hill riot. The one record here whose journey out of its own scene happened immediately rather than in retrospect.

### Picked by [Dancing to Bad News](https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/)

Lee Perry's lightest production and Murvin's falsetto floating over the top of it, describing armed men on both sides shooting at the crowd. It sounds like relief and it is a casualty report.

## Listen

[Search Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/search/Junior%20Murvin%20Police%20and%20Thieves) · [YouTube Music](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Z2M3VlB8E)

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Hand-curated by Waxonia. We host no audio; all links point to streaming platforms.