(Who-oo-oo-oo is Mr Brown?)
Mr Brown is a clown who rides through town in a coffin
(Where he be found?)
In the coffin where there is
Three crows on top and two is laughing
Oh, what a confusion! Ooh, yeah, yeah!
What a botheration! Ooh, now, now!
Who is Mr Brown? I wanna know now!
He is nowhere to be found
From Mandeville to Slygoville, coffin runnin' around,
Upsetting, upsetting, upsetting the town,
Asking for Mr Brown
From Mandeville to Slygoville, coffin runnin' around,
Upsetting, upsetting, upsetting the town,
Asking for Mr Brown
I wanna know who (is Mr Brown)?
Is Mr Brown controlled by remote?
O-o-oh, calling duppy conqueror,
I'm the ghost-catcher!
This is your chance, oh big, big Bill bull-bucka,
Take your chance! Prove yourself! Oh, yeah!
Down in parade
People runnin like a masquerade
The police make a raid,
But the - oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
The thing get fade
What a thing in town
Crows chauffeur-driven around,
Skankin' as if they had never known
The man they call "Mr Brown"
I can't tell you where he's from now
From Mandeville to Slygoville, coffin runnin' around,
Upsetting, upsetting, upsetting the town,
Asking for Mr Brown
From Mandeville to Slygoville
Lyrics submitted by feelin da rithim
"Mr Brown" as written by Glenn Adams Bob Marley
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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the song is about an event that happened in JA in the fall of 1970. there was a story about a 3-wheeled coffin with three "crows" (a vulture in JA is commonly called a John Crow, the 3 "crows" atop a 3 wheeled coffin is an old bit of Jamaican folklore) running about the countryside, scaring the crap out of people.
some back story: at the time, the belief in the supernatural was very common among ordinary Jamaicans, especially those who came from the country. to this day, you can still find perfectly intelligent and reasonable people who insist that duppies, obeah, and spirits in general are all too real (allegedly, including a former PM)
the story started somewhere by word of mouth in the country somewhere, and soon the story spread...hence, the "from Mandeville to Sligoville" lyric.
by the time the story eventually reached Spanish Town and West Kingston, someone had "seen it", and the story became more embellished as time went on. at one point there were hundreds of people out looking for the coffin downtown around the Parade Square area, and even barging into the notorious Tivoli Gardens to have a look.
the three crows were apparently dressed in suits and asking people for a "Mr. Brown", people were fainting, a Spanish Town cop "shot at it", a boy's foot allegedly got run over by the coffin, etc. etc.... and yet no one could give a credible first hand account.
as one might imagine, this made for 1) great comedy, or 2) "rahhh-tid! serious bumbu-clot duppy business!", depending on your beliefs. it all made the Oct. 29, 1970 Gleaner, with a front page article describing the goings-on. there were other "Mr. Brown" songs put out at the time, since it was such a newsworthy "event".
every great once in a while, it's still possible to read of "duppy sightings" that make the paper. there was one back in 2010 of a boy in St. Catherine who was being bothered constantly by a spirit. newspaper and TV reports it just like regular news....
I'm the ghost-catcher!
This is your chance, oh big, big Bill bull-bucka, (bull-bucka is another word for bad soul,spirit)
Take your chance! Prove yourself! Oh, yeah!
Skankin' as if they had never known The man they call �Mr Brown�."
I also think it is about heroin.
additionally, Marley had a small record store nearby on either Orange or King St., and lived just west of the old downtown at the southern end of Trench Town, right across from Spanish Town Rd. - he lived and worked in the very area where all of the "Mr. Brown" mania happened to occur.
so it would have been a fantastical story to witness, and even better to write a song about since topical events were a favorite subject of Jamaican music.