Paul Bunyan and John Henry

Week 14: American Folklore - Assignments - Reading - Resources - Images


New John Henry Blues (Bill Monroe)

Reading time: 3 minutes.

This bluegrass version by Bill Monroe was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee in 1954. The contents of this song do not offer any especially new features - but the high-speed pace of the song is something new!


John Henry was a little colored boy
You could hold him on the palm of your hand
And his Papa cried out this lonesome farewell
Son you're gonna be a steel driving man lord, lord
Son you're gonna be a steel driving man

John Henry went up on the mountain
Looked down on the other side
Lord the mountain was so tall John Henry was so small
He laid down his hammer and he cried poor boy
Laid down his hammer and he cried

John Henry walked through the tunnel
Had his captain by his side
The last words that John Henry said was bring me
Cool drink of water 'fore I die lord, lord
Cool drink of water 'fore I die

Talk about John Henry as much as you please
Say and do all that you can
There never was born in these United States
No such a steel driving man lord, lord
No such a steel driving man

John Henry told his captain
I want to go to bed
Lord fix me a pallet, I want to lay down
Got a mighty roaring in my head lord, lord
Mighty roaring in my head


Questions. Make sure you can answer these questions about what you just read:

  • what did John Henry ask for before dying?
  • why should people tell the story of John Henry?
  • how was John Henry feeling before he died?

Source: "John Henry," by Bill Monroe. Weblink.


Modern Languages / Anthropology 3043: Folklore & Mythology. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
Page last updated: October 9, 2004 12:52 PM