Roots Archives Forum

I'm looking for songs whose lyrics relate to Mr Brown.

When i say Mr Brown i dont refer to the Wailers Mr Brown, rather other songs on the subject. Nor to the Mr Brown riddim.

For anyone who don't know the tale of Mr Brown, it is the legend of a man (and two acolytes) perched upon a cuffin and riding thru jamaica, asking for mr brown. People at that time were quite supersticious and many in jamaica were kind of scared about this.

I think in early 70's this tale was very popular and that numerous song have been written on that subject. I'm looking for any of them (doesnt necessarily need to be early 70 tho).

For now i found one on a trojan producer series boxset, Trevor Brown - Mr brown (quite a cool song actually).
I hope you like it and hopefully you help me find many more!

the Wailers version was done around the time of the phenomenon of "Mr. Brown", i stumbled across a Gleaner clip of the "sightings" a few years ago - i want to say it was in 1969-70. i believe it started out of town, hence the lyric in the Wailers song "from Mandeville to Sligoville, coffin running around"



i doubt that duppy sightings are as popular as they once were but in the last few years i've seen reference to a couple - one was supposedly in Tivoli, and another was a young boy who was being bothered by one; there was a Youtube video of the kid being "harrassed".... let me just say that the evidence presented was inconclusive at best.

so, it's been a popular past time for many, many, many years - ghost trainspotting, if you will. usually as the story is passed along, it becomes embellished and takes on a life of it's own. the Mr. Brown phenomenon crosses the boundaries of "outlandish" and "ridiculous", yet people bought into it.

edit - i found the article, dated Oct. 29, 1970 - please forgive the formatting errors and typos from the PDF translation:


Hundreds
seek the
coffin and
crows

Hundreds of curious persons
chased through the streets of
lowntown Kingston yesterday,
for the majority the object of
heir chase was both elusive and
invisible.

With pedal cyclists setting a
hot pace, higglers, office clerks,
and school children rampaged
along King Street, Orange Street,
teckford Street, invaded Tivoli
Gardens, and then doubled back
on their route; all the while
searching for a glimpse of the
object.

The chase was provided with
added fuel by the spate of fanciful
and weird rumours.
A policeman shot at it in Spansh
Town, a rumour stated. He
was immediately stricken
and taken to the Spanish Town
hospital in an unconscious condition.
The Spanish Town Poice
denied that any member of
he Force in that town was so
incapacitated.

Three wheels

However, several persons
claimed they had seen the ob.
lect, They described it as a cof,
'in with three wheels — two at
the back and the other at the
front On the top was perched a
John Crow.
The witnesses professed seeing
the unguided coffin at various
points in the Corporate Area.
Some claimed that it only appeared
to the eye at infrequent
intervals.

Sixteen-year-old Miss 1/tar*
nell Byfield of 8 Henley Boad
Kingston 11, speaking at the
Bunts Bay Police Station yes
terday evening, said that she

saw the coffin at about 1.00
p.m. yesterday.
Miss Byfield told the Gleaner
and the Police that she wa.s at

(Continued on PAGE 7)
From Page One

St Peter Claver Primary School
at 33B Waltham Park Road when
she saw it ,
It had three wheels and look
ed like a man-sized coffin It|
was brown in front and black ml
the back There were three John
Crows perched on top of it —
two big-sized ones and a little
one," Miss Byfield said
She described the Johns Crows
as dressed in cofris. "The little
one in the middle, had on a
red coat and the two big ones
i at either end had on black
coats "
Two faint
The little red-coated John
Crow Miss Bj grave said, asked
one of the teachers at St Peter
Claver Primary School if she
knew John Brown
According to Miss Byfield, the
teacher fainted One wheel of
the coffin she added, ran over
a little boy s foot He also fainted
The little John Crow said
Sorry '
Miss Byfield said the coffin
appeared and then disappeared.
There were many persons, «he
added, present at the time.
Her story was backed by a student
of the Maxfield Park Primary
School who described
the appearance of the coffin
in similar fashion.
Mrs Pearlme Reid, headmistress
of the St Peter Claver
Primary School, said nothing
like that took place at the
school
A large crowd, she said
thered at the bottom of St Joseph
Rood and most of the
children ran out to see what was
happening She did not go, bu1
heard the rumours about the
ooffin
/At no time Mrs Reid said, did
the crowd or any coffin appear
on the school compound

Road blocked

the Gleaner stated that Spanish
Town Road in the vicinity of the
May Pen Cemetery was blocked
by thousands of people who
tried to have a look at ttie elusive
coffin
Large numbeis of people also
turned up at the Maxfield Park
Primary Sphool area while
chasing the phantom-like coffin
with its three vultures

One report of the strange
phenomenon is that a boy
was arrested in the Mandeville
market last week He was
chaiged with attempting to
steal a woman's purse. While
being taken to the Police Station
a number of people followed
him.
Others who asked what was
happening was told that a cpffin
was in the town A large
crowd tried to see the coffin
It was claimed that the coffin
with its three passengeis travelled
from Mandeville
Porus, May Pen Old
through
Harbour
and Spanish Towp to appear in
the Corporate Area
As rumours of the automated
coffin snowballed they were
embroidered, magnified, and distorted

All I know is Woy Mr Brown by Gregory Isaacs

nice piece of information!

I always wondered, how was this cuffin supposed to be. If i am right a John Crow is a type of vulture in jamaica? Is this cuffin driven by itself? Isnt there a man atleast on the coffin driving it? And isnt he asking for "Mr Brown"? I heard the story told in different ways, i realise its veracity is far from proven, which would explain why there are so many distinct versions of the tale. Hell this is a great tale! see even the reporter seems to get more and more entusiast as the article goes by

By the way i think Mr Brown riddim was made originally for the duppy conqueror track, but due to the riddim not being "conqueror" enough (someone told it to perry at that time, may be clancy eccles?), they recut a brand new riddim for duppy conqueror and used the one remaining for Mr Brown track. That would explain the similarity somehow (thanx, david katz!).

I'm not sure i know gregory's version, i'll check it out when i come home.

Anyone knows the trevor brown track? Can you confirm he is indeed talking about mr brown in this track? I tried to catch the lyrics but its hard for me as i dont speak that good english.

Thanx for your help, black belt jones No wonder why you know that much about Mr Brown or perry's work with such a name like that!

ha ha! it's not my name, unfortunately, that gave me the knowledge..... i took the monikor from the blaxploitation movie starring Jim Kelly rather than from the Lee Perry tune. i am not the biggest fan of Lee Perry.

but i grew up in N. St. Andrew/Kingston around that time and so some of the stuff is familiar. back then, there were a lot of people straight off the bus from country in West Kingston, so all the duppy business had a willing audience.

"John Crow" is indeed a vulture or buzzard. the three-wheeled coffin with three "crows" atop it has long been a part of Jamaican folklore, along with other supernatural phenomena such as the "river mumma", a water spirit that tempts the unlucky into the water and to their deaths, and the "rolling calf" - a red-eyed creature that blocks the paths of the unfortunate person that comes across it.

there's no shortage of stuff like that. duppies can be good or bad - a beloved relative or friend can come to you in a dream and give you advice, or duppies can be more malevoleant and torment the living, especially at the direction of a balmer AKA obeah worker.

but you can use anti-duppy measures such as laying a few pebbles or coins down if you're being followed by one (duppies love to stop and count things), wear your clothes inside out, or for the protection of a baby, leave an open Bible in the crib.

there are loads of fixes to try for those with duppy problems, with varying degrees of success. stubborn problems may require the use of a balmer/healer to unfix your business.

cotton trees are said to harbor spirits, and in slavery days, a worker would apologize or leave an offering for the tree if the boss wanted it chopped down....


at a traditional nine night, if you have a small child, you pass the child over the coffin to prevent the deceased from pestering the kid later (nowadays i believe that the modern trend is for a nine night to be pretty much a drinking and dancing party)

the "Mr. Brown" rhythm was scrapped for "Duppy Conquerer" by Lee Perry, as you say.

can you imagine hundreds of people actually chasing this coffin with three dressed vultures around Kingston? and the birds talking to people, asking around for a "Mr. Brown"?

it's completely ridiculous, pure foolishness - and it kept getting added to... lol... all the while, the coffin entourage allegedly makes a grand tour of the interior of the country... and then the kicker is the kid at the primary school when it reaches Kingston. i can just see the boy now:

"Backside! Lawwd Jesus, coffin a run ova mi foot!"


but goes to show you how powerful the old superstitions and folklore were. and then a few years later, there was the "Font Hill Duppy", which was also dutifully and soberly reported by the Gleaner as if it had all been proven by Sir Issac Newton. honestly, you can't make this stuff up.

i'm sure there is still a fair percentage of Jamaicans today, however modern in thought, that believe firmly in duppies and other supernatural stuff.

Hi BBJ

I know someone in Jamaica who claims to have seen the coffin. He is a very intelligent man, and he told his story in a very compelling, and straight-forward way. Did I believe him? I have to say it was difficult to believe, it's so incredulous.

But the reason I listened is because I have had two very distinct encounters with "ghosts", so I am absolutely certain that they exist in some sort of parallel dimension that can occassionally intersect with our physical dimension.

I don't expect you to believe a stranger on the internet,
but let's just say "who feels it knows it".

Great information, as is to be expected from your posts.

Cheers!

P.S. I'm not from "the country" :^)

wonderful post guy's! love it.

j j

i know what you mean, davek...

i am a "show me" kind of person, yet i have had people i regard as intelligent and reasonable tell me about ghost experiences.

me personally, i find the "Mr. Brown" debacle an example of group hysteria taken to the hilarious extreme. not that i am disparaging Jamaican country folks - or believers in general, i firmly believe that people can get themselves into a state where you can see things, real or imagined.

a somewhat related story:

around the time of "Mr. Brown", late '71 early '72, my family had rented a quite modest house in Billy Dunn (off Jack's Hill Rd.) with a back yard that bucked up to the natural gully that ran south along the border of (Graham Heights? Russell Heights?) to the west. my brother and i would occasionally hunt for interesting wildlife in the back yard.

my folks had a domestic helper working for our family - a young lady from the country who was in her early 20's (a very typical occupation for young women fresh to Kingston, where meaningful steady work was scarce, and who otherwise were not higglers at the local markets, etc.).

she hadn't been working for us very long, when one day my 5 year old brother marched into the house excitedly, carrying a great big frog.

well... as some of you may know, a frog is Grade A, prime Jamaican sciencing/fix-yuh-business raw material - this poor woman got one look at this frog coming towards her (at an alarming speed, no less), and she absolutely flipped her wig. she was so freaked out she left abruptly, never to return...

I love these types of stories. Thanks!