So who shot the deputy?

[JackRiddler]

.

Everyone knows that I shot the sherriff, or at least declaimed that I did. But don't you wonder who shot the deputy? (In this community it's hard to believe this question has never been asked before.)


(I shot the sheriff
But I didnt shoot no deputy, oh no! oh!
I shot the sheriff
But I didnt shoot no deputy, ooh, ooh, oo-ooh.)
Yeah! all around in my home town,
Theyre 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 selfdefence.)
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 dont 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-defence.)
Where was the deputy? (oo-oo-oh)
I say: I shot the sheriff,
But I swear it was in selfdefence. (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 didnt shoot no deputy),
I didnt shoot no deputy (oh, no-oh), oh no!
(I shot the sheriff.) i did!
But I didnt 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 didnt shot the deputy. yeah!
I - I (shot the sheriff) -
But I didnt shoot no deputy, yeah! no, yeah!

.

[compared2what?]

Well. As I subjectively hear it, based on nothing other than my subjective hearing:

There is no definitive answer to that question. It's totally possible that no one shot the deputy because no deputy was shot. In fact, every aspect of the entire crime that they say he committed and that he swears he didn't (no, no) might be a complete and utter fabrication from beginning to end in every particular. In which case, there might not even ever have been an actual deputy.

Or -- equally possibly -- anyone might have shot the deputy. Except -- and this is the important part -- the unnamed rasta man whose first-person narrative we are here considering. Whom I think of as a kind of Everyrastaman figure. Let's call him Nattie. Anyway. The point is that Nattie didn't and indeed couldn't shoot no deputy, because he's not a common criminal, or even a common man. From his point of view -- which is one of overstanding -- deputies are barely worth thinking about, let alone shooting.

Basically, in the general scheme of things as they really are: When it comes to the various kinds of mundane functionaries charged with the corrupt and pointless task of directing traffic (or whatever) in Babylon, deputies are simply one meaningless class of entities among many. All members of which would be perfectly free to go around shooting each other or not shooting each other for all Nattie would care if they didn't persist in falsely regarding him as, a priori, a deputy-shooter. Which they do. It's one of the tactics they use to make him look as if he were beneath them rather than above them. Which is where he is occupying the higher ground he attained when he shot the sheriff (ie, rejected Babylon) which is no crime at all, it's a moral imperative (ie, self-defense). In fact, to the enlightened, it's not just an act of enlightenment, it's the act of enlightenment.

In short, he's insisting that Babylon recognize him as the threat he really is, rather than the one they have to insist that he is as a means of neutralizing him. Because he's the warrior who's going to wipe them out, not some five-and-dime cop-killer.

There's some other metaphorical action going on in there, too, imo. But luckily for everyone, you didn't ask about it.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Wild Bill Cooper?

[stefano]

deputies are barely worth thinking about, let alone shooting.

To the contrary - shooting the deputy was the real crime. Sheriff John Brown was bad news and had it coming, and shooting him was an act of self-defence on Nattie's part. But the deputy was a member of Nattie's community and his murder an abominable crime. That's why the whole home town is after Nattie, for the
liiiiiiife of the
dep
u
teeeee

Someone else shot the deputy. Either the rest of the cops don't know who and now they're pinning it on Nattie to tie up the loose ends, or else they shot the deputy and he's the patsy.

[OP ED]

maybe the sheriff shot the deputy, and was himself fired upon when Nattie attempted to intervene on his deputy's behalf.

[compared2what?]

The shooting of the deputy is a real crime, but only from the point of view of The Man. That's why he's trying to hustle Nattie into jail on the false allegation of deputy-shooting, which is meaningless to Nattie, because he has a higher purpose: Shooting The Man aka Sheriff John Brown aka Babylon.

[JackRiddler]

.

maybe the sheriff shot the deputy, and was himself fired upon when Nattie attempted to intervene on his deputy's behalf.

No. Sheriff may have shot deputy, but Nattie didn't see it and thus could not have intervened.

Why am I certain of the latter? If Nattie is truthful and was a witness to the keeling - of - the deh - puty, or knew anything about its circumstances, we'd have to expect him to sing out as much; after all, his song is devoted to a defense against that very charge. And in the process he shows the opposite of any inclination to cover up the Sheriff's crimes.

First question as I see it: How reliable is the narrator?

c2w? allows for unreliability so extreme that the events indicated as past in Nattie's account (the two shootings, the mob after him) may in fact be fabricated, or at best metaphorical, with the Sheriff standing for the commandments of Babylon, and the accusations of deputy-killing being Babylon's attempt to reduce Warrior Nattie to the status of common criminal.

I never went there, and I'm glad c2w? did!

However, in my understanding of it the shooting of the Deputy (whether as reality or metaphor) would be a terrible thing and not secondary, as stefano's objection has it. The outrage all around in My Home Town seems to be over the killing of the Deputy, not that of the Sheriff, and it seems righteous and to come from non-Babylonian people. (Surely My Home Town is not Babylon? The Sheriff may be Babylon's agent, of course.)

The second question, which c2w?'s relentless critique raised, is whether there even is a knowable truth of the past circumstances as indicated in Nattie the Narrator's account. Perhaps a truth known to the song writer? (I just realized the song man is named Bob, but never in my mind until now called by that name alone, which would really put a different cast on the image I have of him.)





The Nub

I'm going to temporarily leave aside the radical meta-version and, for the purpose of an exercise in which I play Rationalist Crime Detective, I shall take the following Exhibits as given and not in dispute:

A) The Sheriff was shot.
B) The Deputy was shot.
C) All around My Home Town, they want to bring Nattie in guilty for B.

In other words, Nattie's narrative is not a fabrication and not exclusively an allegory. Also assumed, but possibly peripheral to the exercise: A is not so bad. B is very bad. My Home Town is not Babylon, although, as we shall see, it is likely under the sway of Babylonian institutions such as prisons and slavery.

Most importantly:

Bob knows the full story and may have in fact communicated it via the song.

With all those givens, and as Rationalist Crime Detective, I hereby advance the following hypotheses in order of intuitive likelihood, pending your inputs and other crime scene data as it may arise:

1) Sheriff shot Deputy, then went to shoot Nattie, on whom he would have blamed the Keelling - of the Deeeeeh - puty, allowing him to close out the case. But reflexes got the better of Nattie, and he shot - he shot - he shot the Sheriff down.

2) Nattie shot the Sheriff, in self-defense, incidentally also hitting the Deputy, who may have happened upon the scene and, not knowing the circumstances, himself opened fire. As it was never Nattie's intent to kill a Deputy, who after all hadn't killed any of Nattie's seeds before they grow, Nattie is now in a denial born of genuine regret:

IF I AM GUILTY I WILL PAY-AY-AY!

3) The Deputy was shot by someone else - possibly by some among the very They who are now chasing Nattie - but seeing as everyone knows Nattie shot the Sheriff, it proved too convenient to also suspect him for the Deputy. Wrongly, as it turns out.

4) Nattie shot the Deputy, then the Sheriff, intending both of these crimes, and all this is just a murderer's fable. To this I raise the Bob objection. Bob wouldn't have given Nattie this kind of platform, were it so.

Next question: Freedom came Nattie's way one day. And he was leaving town. Was Nattie in a real form of prison or servitude, or is this a different kind of freedom he means? Was this freedom-coming incidental to what happened at around the same time to the Deputy?

It seems likely the freedom-coming was a motive for the Sheriff to get in a last shot at the hated Nattie, in addition to the Sheriff's possible need for a patsy.

Does Nattie get away?

There's some other metaphorical action going on in there, too, imo. But luckily for everyone, you didn't ask about it.

Implicitly I feel I did. But let's make it explicit: What other metaphorical action do you perceive going on in there?

.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Like c2w says the sherrif is the Man.

The deputy is just someone doin their job, possibly even trying to minimise the effect of Sherrifs over policing of a marginalised community.

In thats sense its a metaphor for whats a righteous battle and what isn't.

I don't think he shot the deputy.

Oh, now, now. oh!
(I shot the sheriff.) - the sheriff.
(but I swear it was in selfdefence.)
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!

They are after him anyway and just pinning the deputy on him too.

I was tending to you're option 2 till I remembered those lyrics.

Reminds me of Ned Kelly a bit, tho he never shirked responsibility for those he had killed:

Eighteen-hundred & 78 was the year I remember so well
they put my father in an early grave and slung my mother in gaol
now I don't know whats right or wrong
but they hung Christ on nails
6 kids at home & 2 still on the breast
they wouldn't even give us bail

Poor Ned, you're better off dead
at least you'll get some peace of mind
you're out on the track
they're right on your back
boy they're gonna hang you high

You know I wrote a letter 'bout Stringy-Bark Creek
so they would understand
that I might be a bushranger
but I'm not a murdering man
I didn't want to shoot Kennedy
or that copper Lonnigan
he alone could have saved his life
by throwing down his gun

Poor Ned, you're better off dead
at least you'll get some peace of mind
you're out on the track
they're right on your back
boy they're gonna hang you high

You know they took Ned Kelly
& they hung him in the Melbourne gaol
he fought so very bravely
dressed in iron mail
while no man single handed
can hope to break the bars
there's a thousand like Ned Kelly
who'll hoist the flag of stars

we sing...

Poor Ned, you're better off dead
at least you'll get some peace of mind
you're out on the track
they're right on your back
boy they're gonna hang you high

[compared2what?]

I didn't mean that it was possible the whole thing was fabricated from start to finish by the singer. Because that's not possible at all. Everything he says is true. My point was that it doesn't matter who shot the deputy, if anyone shot the deputy, if there even was a deputy, because Nattie has already told you the only deputy-shooting-related thing that's of any true importance to him or to the meaning of the song: He didn't, but they say he did, and their lie overrules his truth, which encompasses (a) what he truly did; (b) the true nature of the act; and (c) the true nature of his identity.

Answers: (a) shoot the sheriff, not shoot the deputy; (b) a righteous act not an offense; and (c) True Nature embodied.

He never acknowledges a crime, notice.* He says he shot the sheriff. Repeatedly. And that if he is guilty, he will pay. In other words: "I proudly take responsibility for shooting the sheriff." Or "Say it loud, I shot the sheriff and am proud." Or -- and imo, this one is what he is most emphatically saying, and why he sings the line so often and so insistently -- "Shooting the sheriff is who I (and I) am. And I know that truth with a conviction that ultimately trumps everything else. The true world is mine, no matter how the false world sees and disposes of me, which is -- PS -- by systematically oppressing and silencing me. And good luck with that, Babylon. Because what is to be must be. So just let that bucket continue to go a well every day, the bottom'll drop out sooner or later."

That Bob Marley was a great, great artist. And not too bad-looking, either. I'm too tired to do more lyrical metaphor scrying now. But I'll try to do some tomorrow.

*I guess you could argue that "reflexes had got the better of me" is an indirect indicator of remorse. But since I think it's the allegorical tale of Everyrasta living under the tyranny of Babylon, I think he literally means "better" -- in that he was acting in accordance with his better (and only true) nature. As must be, freedom having come his way that day, sheriff-shooting could not but also. They're not separable. Because they're not two things. It's a very fatalistic song. Kind of like the Nibelungenlied of reggae.

ON EDIT: Speaking of things B-O-B: I'm not too proud to use it as a transparent excuse to shoehorn that one into this thread, whether it belongs here or not.

[JackRiddler]

.

c2w, You speak the truth!

Everything he says is true....

Answers: (a) shoot the sheriff, not shoot the deputy; (b) a righteous act not an offense; and (c) True Nature embodied.

He never acknowledges a crime, notice.* He says he shot the sheriff. Repeatedly. And that if he is guilty, he will pay. In other words: "I proudly take responsibility for shooting the sheriff." Or "Say it loud, I shot the sheriff and am proud." Or -- and imo, this one is what he is most emphatically saying, and why he sings the line so often and so insistently -- "Shooting the sheriff is who I (and I) am. And I know that truth with a conviction that ultimately trumps everything else. The true world is mine, no matter how the false world sees and disposes of me, which is -- PS -- by systematically oppressing and silencing me. And good luck with that, Babylon. Because what is to be must be. So just let that bucket continue to go a well every day, the bottom'll drop out sooner or later."

That Bob Marley was a great, great artist. And not too bad-looking, either.

Oh yah!

... he was acting in accordance with his better (and only true) nature. As must be, freedom having come his way that day, sheriff-shooting could not but also. They're not separable. Because they're not two things. It's a very fatalistic song. Kind of like the Nibelungenlied of reggae.

Beautiful.

(& great song/video by Outkast.)

So, here's where we still diverge. I can't see this:

My point was that it doesn't matter who shot the deputy, if anyone shot the deputy, if there even was a deputy, because Nattie has already told you the only deputy-shooting-related thing that's of any true importance to him or to the meaning of the song: He didn't...

Because the fate of the deputy seems important to him. Every time he says he shot the Sheriff, he also says he didn't shoot a deputy, which apparently would be a terrible, base thing to do.

And he asks: Where was the deputy? This tends against the idea, which I would otherwise welcome, that sheriff and deputy are actually two views of the same man (as in: Babylon says I shot an appointed servant, a deputy just doing his job, but I know it was Babylon itself that I shot, the Man, and righteously so).

As I ask the following, I must acknowledge the risk of seeing too much through the lens of Western liberal individualism, with its over-layered moral categories and "shades of grey" sometimes letting complexity obscure simple truths and veering into portrayals of the oppressed as culpable and of oppression as an unavoidable existential state, but still:

Is there no room here for the idea that the freedom-coming and sheriff-shooting in some way also entailed deputy-shooting, perhaps as the unintended consequence? Is the life of the Deputy the price of the Sheriff-shooting, and is the song in part about Nattie's struggle with that?

.

[IanEye]

Well, they were looking for somebody with a pompadour.
I was crossin' the street when shots rang out.
I didn't know whether to duck or to run, so I ran.
"We got him cornered in the churchyard," I heard somebody shout.

Well, you saw my picture in the Corpus Christi Tribune. Underneath it, it said, "A man with no alibi."
You went out on a limb to testify for me, you said I was with you.
Then when I saw you break down in front of the judge and cry real tears,
It was the best acting I saw anybody do.

Now I've always been the kind of person that doesn't like to trespass but sometimes you just find yourself over the line.
Oh if there's an original thought out there, I could use it right now.
You know, I feel pretty good, but that ain't sayin' much. I could feel a whole lot better,
If you were just here by my side to show me how.

[compared2what?]

.

c2w, You speak the truth!

You know, I feel like I should say here that I'm not making any argument that mine is the authoritative interpretation. I have no idea what message Bob Marley was sending, I only know what message I received. Plus, it is not for no reason that artworks are artworks, rather than explanations of artworks. The song speaks its own truth much more eloquently and powerfully than anything I can say about it could possibly do. Because for one thing, it speaks purely for and of itself, whereas I am ultimately speaking for and of myself at least as much as I'm speaking of the song. And I don't speak for it at all, being in no position to. So just humbly saying, all people know that they'll get more truth and truth of a higher order just by listening to the song and being flummoxed by it than they will by listening to me blither on about my subjective understanding of it, right? Okay. Excellent! Because I do dearly love blithering, when to blither does no harm.

Everything he says is true....

Answers: (a) shoot the sheriff, not shoot the deputy; (b) a righteous act not an offense; and (c) True Nature embodied.

He never acknowledges a crime, notice.* He says he shot the sheriff. Repeatedly. And that if he is guilty, he will pay. In other words: "I proudly take responsibility for shooting the sheriff." Or "Say it loud, I shot the sheriff and am proud." Or -- and imo, this one is what he is most emphatically saying, and why he sings the line so often and so insistently -- "Shooting the sheriff is who I (and I) am. And I know that truth with a conviction that ultimately trumps everything else. The true world is mine, no matter how the false world sees and disposes of me, which is -- PS -- by systematically oppressing and silencing me. And good luck with that, Babylon. Because what is to be must be. So just let that bucket continue to go a well every day, the bottom'll drop out sooner or later."

That Bob Marley was a great, great artist. And not too bad-looking, either.

Oh yah!

... he was acting in accordance with his better (and only true) nature. As must be, freedom having come his way that day, sheriff-shooting could not but also. They're not separable. Because they're not two things. It's a very fatalistic song. Kind of like the Nibelungenlied of reggae.

Beautiful.

(& great song/video by Outkast.)

So, here's where we still diverge. I can't see this:

My point was that it doesn't matter who shot the deputy, if anyone shot the deputy, if there even was a deputy, because Nattie has already told you the only deputy-shooting-related thing that's of any true importance to him or to the meaning of the song: He didn't...

Because the fate of the deputy seems important to him. Every time he says he shot the Sheriff, he also says he didn't shoot a deputy, which apparently would be a terrible, base thing to do.

It's a demeaning accusation, because he wouldn't shoot no mere deputy, as I understand it. So in that sense he would regard it as a base thing to do, though not a terrible thing to do. To my eyes -- which may be blinded by confirmation bias, I fully concede -- in this video, when he hits "for the life of a deputy, for the life of a deputy," he pretty much uses every single physical tool a performer's got in his kit to indicate how little that's worth, from his point of view. It's kind of like: Oh, come on. My life is fucked, but do they gotta add insult to injury, too?

And he asks: Where was the deputy? This tends against the idea, which I would otherwise welcome, that sheriff and deputy are actually two views of the same man (as in: Babylon says I shot an appointed servant, a deputy just doing his job, but I know it was Babylon itself that I shot, the Man, and righteously so).

As I ask the following, I must acknowledge the risk of seeing too much through the lens of Western liberal individualism, with its over-layered moral categories and "shades of grey" sometimes letting complexity obscure simple truths and veering into portrayals of the oppressed as culpable and of oppression as an unavoidable existential state, but still:

Is there no room here for the idea that the freedom-coming and sheriff-shooting in some way also entailed deputy-shooting, perhaps as the unintended consequence? Is the life of the Deputy the price of the Sheriff-shooting, and is the song in part about Nattie's struggle with that?

There may well be room for that. Just not as I hear it. To me, the major statement is in the refrain. And to me, "I shot the sheriff, but I didn't shoot the deputy" is roughly equivalent to "I'm a Rastaman, not a nigger." And most of the rest of it is the allegorical lamentation of a Rastaman who is perceived and being treated as if he were a nigger. In that context, I guess "Where was the deputy?" could be heard as a way of asking "Where were the police when I needed them to protect me from getting shot at by the police?" But I don't really hear anything much one way or the other in that line, to be honest. I'm just reflexively using a little quick thinking in order to answer your question in a way that's consonant with the meaning I do hear. And I don't really know why that is as reflexive as it is. Because what I actually think is that if you see those ideas in the song, then they're there, as far as I'm concerned. I mean: Within reasonable parameters. Because there is kind of a quantitative as well as a qualitative distinction between debating whether a song is about drugs not sex or the other way around and going all Helter Skelter on shit, obviously.

ON EDIT: Fixed the screwed up quotes and unquotes, and thought that as long as I was in the neighborhood, I'd mention that there have practically been whole months during which I devote all my music-listening time solely to playing this Outkast song over and over again. Because I feel like it, that's why. Do I need another reason or something?

[Joe Hillshoist]

What was that B-O-B link C2W?

Its not allowed to be played in my country!!!

[compared2what?]

Really? Try here, here here, or here.

Then, if all of those fail, you could also try searching either "Bombs Over Baghdad" and "Outkast" or "B.O.B." and "Outkast". Because that's gotta at least get you to the lyrics, right? I'm sure it will, and probably to the whole video. But just to be on the safe side, it's Dre's opinion that you shouldn't even bang unless you plan to hit something.

And I feel that it never hurts to bear that in mind, personally.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Really? Try here, here here, or here.

Then, if all of those fail, you could also try searching either "Bombs Over Baghdad" and "Outkast" or "B.O.B." and "Outkast". Because that's gotta at least get you to the lyrics, right? I'm sure it will, and probably to the whole video. But just to be on the safe side, it's Dre's opinion that you shouldn't even bang unless you plan to hit something.

And I feel that it never hurts to bear that in mind, personally.

Cheers big ears.