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ok I am absolutly sure this has to be slang for something as the name keeps cropping up in folk/blues/raggae music.

to be exact:

midnight Special: leadbelly
Bad Boys (theme song for cops)
ballad of billy the kid
various outlaw ballads
I shot the sheriff: bob marley


and other musical refrences. where the hell does the name originally come from and what does it mean besides a hard ass merciless cop?

It could refer to a John Brown who failed to incite a major slave revolt in the American South in the 1850s (I think), but that wouldn't make too much sense. Maybe one of those songs was the first to use the term and other songs followed suit as an homage, like the name "Major Tom."

Or like what people do when you don't know who it is who is dead in front of them, they call them "John Doe" or "Jane Doe".

It's probably just a random name that is well known to be used in songs or movies etc...

StarshipTitanic wrote:It could refer to a John Brown who failed to incite a major slave revolt in the American South in the 1850s (I think), but that wouldn't make too much sense. Maybe one of those songs was the first to use the term and other songs followed suit as an homage, like the name "Major Tom."

Major Tom? I came across a rather interesting sounding MIDI with that name but could never figure out where the name came from.

RogueIce wrote:

StarshipTitanic wrote:It could refer to a John Brown who failed to incite a major slave revolt in the American South in the 1850s (I think), but that wouldn't make too much sense. Maybe one of those songs was the first to use the term and other songs followed suit as an homage, like the name "Major Tom."

Major Tom? I came across a rather interesting sounding MIDI with that name but could never figure out where the name came from.

Here you go.