THE FEELINGS OF A PACIFIST REVOLUTIONARY: Subliminal speech in

the song I shot the Sheriff, written by Bob Marley 1

Jonas de Souza Santos2

1. INTRODUCTION
This work aims to analyze the message present in the song I shot the Sheriff,
written by Bob Marley, as well as to explain the ideology present in the lyrics of the
song and the historical context of the time in which it was written, so that we can
understand the message that the singer wanted to spread through it. For this
analysis, we understand the influence of singer Bob Marley and his band Bob Marley
and the Wailers in Jamaica and their contributions to the development of Jamaican
culture through the rhythm of reggae music.
I shot the sheriff is a song written by Bob Marley released in the year of 1973,
by Bob Marley and the Wailers, in the album Burnin '. Later, the song gained so
much repercussion that it got to be rewritten by several artists, like the singer Eric
Clapton in his album titled Ocean Boulevard, in the year of 1974. The song narrates
the history of an individual who admits to shoot at the sheriff, but he is accused of
having killed the deputy of the region where he lives, a fact that results in his
persecution.
Before analyzing the song, we need to understand what was going on in
Jamaica at the time it was written, as well as to know what Bob Marley's feelings
toward his nation and his ideologies were, as they can be found between the lines of
the song I shot the sheriff.
Jamaica is a Caribbean country that has as type of government a
parliamentary constitutional monarchy. In 1494, Christopher Columbus landed on the
island and claimed it for Spain, but in 1655 the British seized the island and expelled
the Spaniards. With the arrival of the first white men on the island, there were also
many diseases that killed many natives, which caused the Spanish government to
bring black slaves from Africa to occupy the land, a fact that would later bring about a

1
Analysis produced as an evaluative work to the discipline of Análise do Discurso in the course of
Licenciatura Plena em Letras-Inglês of the Universidade Estadual do Piauí (2018.2).
2
Student at graduation in the course of Licenciatura Plena em Letras-Inglês in the Universidade
Estadual do Piauí (UESPI).
Address: jonasg12souza@gmail.com.
cultural change in Jamaica, since the country was made up of 90% of black African
descendants.

2. THE WOUNDS OF IMPERIALISM AND THE STRUGGLES OF THE JAMAICAN

BLACK

At the time when the song I shot the Sheriff was written the world went through
strong influences of Imperialism, which sought the expansion of the territory of the
great nations and territorial dominion or political influence on the countries less
developed (SAID, 1993). The justification of powerful nations in taking over and
influencing less developed countries was based on the ideology of eugenics, which
consisted in the hypothesis of the supremacy of one race over another for the
attainment of natural selection (GALTON, 1909), and in this case, because of the
development of Europe, the European whites used the justification of bringing
civilization to peoples who did not know it.
Through this culture that lasted for several centuries through colonization and
cultural and economic manipulation, Jamaican blacks, who were mostly of African
origin, were heavily repressed through racism by both the police and the Jamaican
government (THOMAS, 2008).
In the midst of social chaos and inequality in his country, Bob Marley always
struggled for his fellows to open their eyes and revolt against the imposed system.
The reggae singer had as his ideology pacifism, while at the same time considered
himself a revolutionary, but a revolutionary who fought against social inequalities
through his music.
In many of his songs Bob Marley unleashed criticism of the social situation of
blacks and induced them to open their eyes and fight for their rights to achieve
equality and break the oppressive system of the time.
These reasons lead us to believe Bob Marley's song I Shot the Sheriff
contained messages of revulsion against the system and a message of perseverance
that Bob Marley believed his songs served as an incentive to the suffering population
of his country.

3. ANALYSIS OF THE SONG I SHOT THE SHERIFF

 Bob Marley never made clear his real intention in writing this song, launching
a metaphorical language in the lyrics that made possible several different
interpretations of the following song:
I Shot The Sheriff
Bob Marley
(I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot the deputy, oh no!
Oh!
I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot the deputy, ooh,
ooh, oo-ooh.)
Yeah! All around in my home town,
They're tryin' to track me down;
They say they want to bring me in
guilty
For the killing of a deputy,
For the life of a deputy.
But I say:
Oh, now, now. Oh!
(I shot the sheriff.) - the sheriff.
(But I swear it was in self-defense.)
Oh, no! (Ooh, ooh, oo-oh) Yeah!
I say: I shot the sheriff - Oh, Lord! -
(And they say it is a capital offence.)
Yeah! (Ooh, ooh, oo-oh) Yeah!
Sheriff John Brown always hated me,
For what, I don't know:
Every time I plant a seed,
He said kill it before it grows -
He said kill them before they grow.
And so:
Read it in the news:
(I shot the sheriff.) Oh, Lord!
(But I swear it was in self-defense.)
Available in: https://www.vagalume.com.br/bob-marley/i-shot-the-
sheriff.html.
Where was the deputy? (Oo-oo-oh)
I say: I shot the sheriff,
But I swear it was in self-defense.
(Oo-oh) Yeah!
Freedom came my way one day
And I started out of town, yeah!
All of a sudden I saw sheriff John
Brown
Aiming to shoot me down,
So I shot - I shot - I shot him down
and I say:
If I am guilty I will pay.
(I shot the sheriff,)
But I say (But I didn't shoot no
deputy),
I didn't shoot no deputy (oh, no-oh),
oh no!
(I shot the sheriff.) I did!
But I didn't shoot no deputy. Oh! (Oo-
oo-ooh)
Reflexes had got the better of me
And what is to be must be:
Every day the bucket a-go a well,
One day the bottom a-go drop out,
One day the bottom a-go drop out.
I say:
I - I - I - I shot the sheriff.
Lord, I didn't shot the deputy. Yeah!
I - I (shot the sheriff) -
But I didn't shoot no deputy, yeah!
No, yeah!
 The song already begins in the chorus:
(I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot the deputy, oh no! Oh!
I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot the deputy, ooh, ooh, oo-ooh.)

At first, we need to understand that the Sheriff is an authority, someone who

governs the law of a region, who is responsible for law enforcement, that is, someone
who has the power to arrest someone. And in the refrain Bob says he shot the
Sheriff, but he says he did not shoot the deputy, who is also a political figure. We see
in the refrain that the singer admits to have shot at the Sheriff.
Considering the class struggle of the time, we can say that this Sheriff is not
properly the man who complies with the law, but the corrupt and racist system of that
time. So Marley says he shot the Sheriff, the system, the police, which makes us
understand that he indirectly assaulted that oppressive system.
In the next stanza he sings the following:

Yeah! All around in my home town,

They're tryin' to track me down;
They say they want to bring me in guilty
For the killing of a deputy,
For the life of a deputy.
But I say:
Oh, now, now. Oh!

We can deduce from the phrase "They're tryin 'to track me down" that he's
being pursued. But pursued by whom? By the system, or by the Sheriff who hates
him, and it is worth remembering that since the function of a sheriff is to arrest
someone, the individual who is being persecuted can be arrested.
Although he is being chased throughout the city, it is worth remembering that
he is being accused of killing the deputy, but this is a crime that they are trying to put
on him, since he has not killed any deputy.
And who would the deputy be? We may deduce that the deputy is the social
inequality or the very death of Jamaican blacks. That is, Sheriff (the system) is
blaming Marley for spreading inequality and social revolt through his songs.
After that, the song reports the following:
 (I shot the sheriff.) - the sheriff.
(But I swear it was in self-defence.)
Oh, no! (Ooh, ooh, oo-oh) Yeah!
I say: I shot the sheriff - Oh, Lord! -
(And they say it is a capital offence.)
Yeah! (Ooh, ooh, oo-oh) Yeah!

Marley admits that he shot the Sheriff, but shortly thereafter he says that he
fired in self-defense, that is, the one who acts in self-defense, acts by feeling
threatened by something or by someone. So Marley was feeling threatened by the
Sheriff and so he shot him.
They say shooting the Sheriff is a capital offense. We can assume that Marley
meant that going against the system means being a rebel and that's what he was,
and the system does not admit rebellious people, people who rebel that they are
active and do not settle for oppression. This is the justification that the Sheriff uses to
hunt Marley, the justification that he did something wrong in revolting against the
imposed system.
Bob Marley was not satisfied with the situation of his country and the
inequalities and repressions he saw around him, and so he revolted against the
Sheriff.
The next stanza reveals something interesting:

Sheriff John Brown always hated me,

For what, I don't know:
Every time I plant a seed,
He said kill it before it grows -
He said kill them before they grow

In this stanza, Marley reveals the name of the Sheriff (John Brown), and says
that whenever he plants a seed, John Brown orders the seed to be exterminated
before it grows. But what is this seed?
Here we can interpret the meaning of the seed in two ways:

1° The seed refers to the word of freedom and consciousness that Marley always
spread in his songs. Whenever Marley tried to warn his peers to break free from the
oppression of the system, Sheriff John Brown ordered Marley to stop with his activist
songs because they encouraged the black people to revolt and no longer remain
silent and of course the system does not want any kind of revolt, It prefers the things
to remain under his control, generating passive, quiet citizens like sheep. During his
career, Bob Marley was harshly threatened precisely because of the reflections he
brought in his songs.
2° This hypothesis is directly linked to birth control. Bob Marley hated the idea that
the State was controlling his right to have children, so whenever he planted a seed
on his girlfriend, the State ordered that the seed be killed through contraceptive
methods. And in this case we may consider the Sheriff is related to the doctor who
prescribes methods for birth control, so Marley, by firing on the Sheriff, was revolting
against this ideology of birth control.
The next stanza reads as follows:

Freedom came my way one day

And I started out of town, yeah!
All of a sudden I saw sheriff John Brown
Aiming to shoot me down,
So I shot - I shot - I shot him down and I say:
If I am guilty I will pay.

Here the singer says that freedom came to him and so he began to raise
awareness throughout the city until his pacifist ideals reach the four corners of the
country and spread to the world. He also says that he saw John Brown aiming to
shoot him, that is, he realized that the manifestations of freedom and revolt present in
his songs were troubling the system, which was threatening him by that fact. So
Marley, feeling threatened by the Sheriff, shot John Brown in self-defense.
Marley says: "If I am guilty I will pay." That means he's guilty, for trying to free
people from oppression, and if that's his crime, he's really to blame for it.
Following the last chorus:
Reflexes had got the better of me
And what is to be must be:
Every day the bucket a-go a well,
 One day the bottom a-go drop out,
One day the bottom a-go drop out.
This part of the song brings us something very interesting: Bob Marley says
that reflexes are his best. This allows us to understand that the message he
preaches in his songs generates reflexes, that is, the message of his songs is
reaching people and making them aware, and the attitude of revolt against the
system is the reflection of Marley's message and it is like this which should be done.
This stanza also presents us with the following reflection: Black people are constantly
oppressed, but one day they will rise up against injustice, and even if oppression
takes them to the bottom of the well, someday the well will dry up and the revolt will
be real, they will rise up against the injustice and oppression of Sheriff John Brown.
The song I shot the Sheriff presents a deep reflection that can be interpreted.
Bob Marley was a figure who influenced and marked generations through his songs.
The singer left a legacy to be followed in the musical, culminating in his worldwide
recognition as a pacifist and revolutionary figure who revolutionized through his ideas
and ideals.

4. REFERENCES
GALTON, F. Essays in Eugenics. London: The Eugenics Education Society, 1909.

SAID, W. E. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.

THOMAS, M. The Political Economy of Colonial Violence in Interwar Jamaica. Terror

and the Making of Modern Europe, California, 2008. Available
in:https://web.stanford.edudeptfrance-stanfordConferencesTerrorThomas.pdf.
Access in: December 28th, 2018.