I Shot the Sheriff

(A poem written and sung by the late Bob Marley.)

I shot the sheriff
But I didn’t shoot no deputy, oh no!
I shot the sheriff
But I didn’t shoot no deputy, ooh, 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, I shot the sheriff - the sheriff,
But I swear it was in self defense.
Yeah, I say I shot the sheriff - oh, lord!
And they say it is a capital offense.
Yeah!

Sheriff John Brown always hated me,
For what, I don’t know;
Every time I planted 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?
I say I shot the sheriff,
But I swear it was in self defense, oh yeah.

Freedom came my way one day
And I started out of town.
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 I didn’t shoot no deputy;
I didn’t shoot no deputy, oh no.
I shot the sheriff -- I did;
But I didn’t shoot no deputy, no.

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...