John Cephas, Piedmont Blues Musician: Music Sample
Teaching Tools | Interview | Introduction | Regional Background

John Henry, Lyrics | Work Songs, Ballads, and Legends

A Few Notes: If you don't have Real Audio, you'll first need to download the free Real Audio Player before you can hear John's music. If you want to own a copy of this recording, this song is featured on the forthcoming CD Blues Routes produced by the Folk Masters series and distributed by Smithsonian Folkways.

John's Music

John Cephas describes his Piedmont Blues guitar style as "alternating thumb and finger-picking where I keep a constant bass line going with my thumb. I pick out the melody or the words I'm singing with my fingers on the treble strings at the same time. It's almost like the guitar is talking, mimicking your feelings or the words to the songs and that steady accompanying bass gives it a jumping rhythm, a loping sound."


Listen to John sing the ballad John Henry (Note: If you don't have Real Audio, you'll first need to download the free Real Audio Player to hear John's music).

A ballad is a song that tells a story. The legendary story of John Henry's valiant struggle with the steam engine is so compelling that he has become one of our best-loved folk heroes. There are so many different versions of the song "John Henry," that, over the years, people have debated the origin of the legend. Who was John Henry, really? Some said he was a rouster on the Mississippi, some said a pile driver on the docks. Some speculated that he was from Alabama, Jamaica, or Michigan.

Scholars have traced the legend of John Henry to the early 1870s during the building of the Big Bend Tunnel through the West Virginia mountains by C & O Railroad workers. To carve this tunnel, then the longest in the United States, men worked in pairs to drill holes for dynamite. One man used a large hammer to pound a huge drill, while another man screwed it into the rock.

The John Henry of legend was an African American man of impressive stature. He was known for his strength and skill in driving the steel drills into the solid rock, and also, apparently, for his singing. One day the White "captain" (supervisor) brought a newly invented steam drill to the tunnel to test. Which was stronger, man or machine? John Henry, the strongest steel driver of them all, beat the steam drill, but according to the song, the effort killed him.

John Henry probably did not die because of the contest with the steam drill. He was more likely crushed by falling rocks or a tunnel cave-in. If this is true, why do you think the song tells the story differently?

John Henry fought the steam drill and met a tragic yet noble end. As an African American hero, he can be seen as a man who pitted his strength against his human and technological opressors and won. But for both Blacks and Whites, he represents the plight of the confident, heroic worker replaced by the soulless machine. Over 100 years after his death, his story is still retold.

John Henry Lyrics

John Henry was a little boy,
Sitting on his mammy's knee,
He picked up a hammer and a little bit of steel:
"Hammer's gonna be the death of me,
Hammer's gonna be the death of me."

John Henry said to the captain, yeah,
"Man, you ought to see me swing
Love to hear the cold steel ring,
Love to hear the cold steel ring."

John Henry said to the captain, yeah,
"A man ain't nothing but a man,
But before I let the steam drill beat me down,
I'm gonna die with this hammer in my hand,
Die with this hammer in my hand."

Captain said to John Henry, yeah,
"This mountain is caving in,"
John Henry said, "Oh captain, yeah,
'Just my hammer sucking wind,
'Just my hammer sucking wind."

John Henry went to that tunnel to drive,
Steam drill was by his side,
He beat that steam drill three inches and down,
He laid down his hammer, Lord, he died,
Laid down a hammer, Lord, he died.

They took John Henry to the graveyard,
Buried him six feet in the sand,
'Time a locomotive passed by,
Says, "There lies a steel driving man,
There lies a steel driving man.
There lies a steel driving man.
There lies a steel driving man."

Work Songs, Ballads, and Legends

Take this hammer, huh!
Take it to the captain, huh!
Tell him I'm gone, huh!
Tell him I'm gone, huh!

They way that Cephas sings the song "John Henry" it is a ballad, a work song, and a legend. Ballads are songs in verse form that tell a story. Work songs are designed to be sung while people work as a way of helping pass the time. Legends are stories that we tell about people who lived in the past, most often about people we admire.

While work songs must be rhythmic to keep the work going steadily, ballads tend to be more melodic. "John Henry" probably gets its melody from an old ballad brought to America by Scottish settlers.

Some ideas that went into the building of the song "John Henry" were taken from work songs. For example, John Cephas uses the idea of a dialog between John Henry and the captain in his version of the song. Also, in the manner of blues or work songs, singers of "John Henry" tend to feel especially free to combine and recombine verses of the many versions depending on the occasion.

If you'd like to read more about Virginia's Piedmont tradition and musicians, visit the The Piedmont Guitarists Tour sponsored by the Virginia Folklife Program, located at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy.

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