Top 10 Law-themed/influenced songs
For an area so rich in human drama, the law and justice have provided surprisingly little inspiration for artists of the three-and-half-minute ditty. In fact coming up with 10 songs is more an exercise in David Lodge-like humiliation* than something to crow about. But here goes anyway - see if you can do any better.
- San Quentin or Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash - take your pick, both legendary.
- She said - Plan B - great song, great video, and brilliantly surreal courtroom behaviour.
- I Fought the Law - The Clash - if this wasn’t the first song you thought of then you need a musical education.
- Police and Thieves - Junior Murvin - you may not know the name of the artist but you’ll know the tune, although not many of you will be able to sing it anywhere near in tune.
- Legal Man - Belle & Sebastian - cool and influential band, but this isn’t one of their best.
- The Trial - Pink Floyd - almost incomprehensible if you don’t listen to the whole album but this is a critical moment in the story of 1982’s The Wall.
- I Shot the Sheriff - Bob Marley - others may disagree but the Bob Marley version is in a class of its own.
- Breaking the Law - Judas Priest - oh dear, let’s not dwell on the mistakes of our youth.
- The Long Arm of the Law - Kenny Rogers - ‘Son, I sentence you to live with Marianne’ - ahhh, love conquers all, even the overreaching powers of a corrupt judge. Never mind due process.
- Razzle Dazzle - from Chicago the Musical - a discourse on the triumph of presentation over substance in court, this isn’t part of our Litigation training.
*In David Lodge’s novel Changing Places, the characters play a literary parlour game in which they have to name literary classics that they haven’t read, but which they think the other players will have read - a point for every player who’s read the book you haven’t. The winner is the player who can display the most humiliating knowledge of great literature.