Trenchtown Rock

bob marley is one of those artists where if you cover one of his songs, it can only be a tribute. sublime took a really awesome song and wanted a chance to do it themselves. i think that people who are trying to find drug references in it are taking away from the real motives behind the song, and sort of insult sublime. it kind of shows that you don't think that they're capable of a song that isn't about drugs. so good job.

sunisshnng you are an IDIOT, everything that bradley sings does not refer to heroin. everyone that posts on this sublime site thinks that everyong written by sublime is dealing with heroin. "when it hits you, you feel no pain" is refering to music and how music cannot harm you and thats beauty of it. it does not deal with heroin moron...

regina- anyone can do anything they want when it comes to music, except change the lyrics so much that it insults the original artist. they can even substitute a line for another line they write, as long as it's cool with everyone who has the rights to that song (as far as i know).

as far as meanings go, if bradley covers a song that means one thing (whether or not it's obvious), and bradley means the same exact lyrics (unchanged, unaltered) in a completely different way, whose right is it to say that he can't do that? music has an infinite amount of meanings to everyone and anyone. the meaning can't be copyrighted, that's the beauty of music. it is an artform, and art is specifically intended for the viewer or listener to experience it in their own personal way. what right would i have if i told you you couldn't feel a certain way about a song? none. it's the same thing with this. except he actually covered it, recorded it, and a lot more people heard it.

I don't think bradley is saying anything except "music is great"... more or less. Bradley Nowell was a depressed individual and music was the only natural thing that made him feel happy, aside from his family and dog.

Of course, heroin also made him happy. While I don't THINK Brad was saying anything about heroin, and he definitely wasn't using "music" as a metaphor for heroin (one of his M.O.'s was to compare the happiness music gave him to the artificial happiness of drugs), one possible hidden meaning:

Music requires absolutely no pain to lift you up. it's always willing to lend a hand, all you have to do is listen and feel it in your soul.

For heroin to bring you pleasure, you have to stab a needle into your arm and endure a terrible comedown. you can feel shitty for DAYS afterwards.

therefore... music is a better drug... cuz it imparts no pain.

ehh... prolly not, but it might've been passing through his head.

You people have to remeber that bradley didn't use heroine his whole carrer he didn't start it till I belive 93 he'd only done it for 3 years before that it was just the usual but anyway I'm not here to write an a&e biography on the man allthough I would love to anyway this song like don't get me wrong I love all bradleys music but this cover god man I get chills when I hear it one of the best covers he did anyway a lil story about this song my great aunt and uncle awesome people great anyways my uncle was an awesome musician always singing and dancing just full of life well they were in a terrable car accedent in palm springs CA my aunt was killed on impact and my uncel was put in ICU he was messed up pretty bad well I got this phone call from my mom telling me what had happened and that my aunt was dead and that my uncel lost the use of his legs and could no longer play the guitar cuz he lost some of his fingers and I started balling and then trenchtown rock came on and I cried even harder but not just cuz I was sad but because music is what my uncel loved it was his passion and when brad would sing when it hits you You feel no pain god I got the chills just his voice singing that line god rest in piece bradley you've helped me through some of the hardest times in my life

this is a bob marley cover i think that kicks ass. i love this song so damn much, i cant belive there are no comments on it yet.

this is an awesome cover, one of their best. i think brad used bob's lyrics to describe heroin ("when it hits you, you feel no pain") but it could also be about how powerful music can be.

hah aufbaul beat me to what i was goin to say. doesnt the line "one good thing about music, when it hits you you feel no pain" give it away that its about music?

i completly agree w/ aufbaul and hashish (haha...nice name, buddy) plus, it's a bob marley cover, so he can't very well change the meaning of a song that's already been written, now can he?

I'm not really a big Sublime fan, but this song is a great cover, and of course, the origianl is amazing as well.