What Is Your Interpretation Of This Bob Marley Song?

[Aero]

There seems to be many ways of interpreting what Bob Marley was singing about in this famous song of his.

One of the opinions is that the lyrics, "Every time I plant a seed, He said kill it before it grow..." refers to the fact that Marley would plant his own crop of marijuana in his backyard and got in trouble with the law over it.

Anyone else have their own opinion on what Marley is singing about?




I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot no deputy, oh no! Oh!
I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot no 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 offense.)
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 grow -
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.)
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!

 

[LG]

The part about his pot plants makes sense, but Bob Marley was a political activist too. I'm not an expert on Marley though I don't own any of his albums but I do like his original version better than Clapton's cover of this song.

 

[Khor1255]

I always took that line to be a double entendre where Marley is talking plainly about pot but metaphorically about tolerance and peace.

Maybe I was reading too much into it but I always got a lot from that line.

 

[Philmore]

I always thought it meant his offspring. The sheriff hated him and didn't want his kids carrying on his legacy...of growing more pot probably.

 

[mrJim]

all I hear is

grew pot and got in trouble
he shot the sheriff and accepts the price he'll pay, but didn't kill or shoot the deputy and doesn't want to have to pay the price for that crime he didn't commit

 

[Lynch]

all I hear is

grew pot and got in trouble
he shot the sheriff and accepts the price he'll pay, but didn't kill or shoot the deputy and doesn't want to have to pay the price for that crime he didn't commit

^^^ This

 

[Big Ears]

The narrative appears to conflate the plot of Easy Rider with the arrest of Robert Marlin for the murder of Sheriff John Brown in Jamaica in 1973. With regard to the meaning, the arrest of Marley in the first person for a murder he did not commit, could be a metaphor for the discrimination of black people in Jamaica and the plant may also designate oppression, rather than be a drug reference. Confusingly, Marley said he originally wanted 'I shot the police', but the source is obscure (at least to me). On the other hand, it may just be a western story.