Recording
Police and Thieves
Junior Murvin
Independently chosen for3 of our lists. Here is what each of them said.
- Released
- 1976
- Label
- Island
- On
- Reggae, 1976, and Dancing to Bad News
- Updated
- 2026-08-29
Ranked No. 6 in 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
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
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.