Ooops! You have stumbled across the webpage I use to draft additions and changes to my website about John Henry which is titled John Henry, The Rebel Versions. To go to that site, just click on the link below.

https://sites.google.com/site/johnhenrytherebelversions/home

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SAVE THIS PART BELOW WHICH I REMOVED FROM MY WEBSITE

Interpreting John Henry

Whether or not John William Henry was the John Henry of legend, Nelson's book pointed the way to an explanation for the creation of the rebel versions of John Henry. Black forced laborers such as John William Henry were treated brutally; they worked under the constant threat of being whipped or beaten, and often they were literally worked to death. Maximizing profits for the company leasing the convicts meant driving the workers mercilessly and providing them with the minimum in food and shelter. Those that died as a result of this cruelty could be replaced with new convicts. Considering the conditions under which the convicts worked and lived, it's easy to imagine how the rebel versions of John Henry were created. One way for them to fight back against or protest their inhumane treatment was simply to sing about John Henry fighting back, refusing to be beaten, abused, or overworked.

My research shows that, in the past, for at least a significant number of African Americans, John Henry was a hero who was very different from the image we have of him today. The existence of the rebel and complaint versions reveal that, years ago, at least part of the reason John Henry was a hero was that he stood up to or fought back against a cruel or unfair captain. However, this does not match how John Henry is viewed today. This difference is largely due to the fact that interpreters of the legend have missed, overlooked, or ignored John Henry's heroic challenges against his captain and instead have seen his heroism as arising from his victory over the steam drill. Additionally, interpreters have often suggested that John Henry's race with the drill was a heroic fight against the loss of his and his co-workers jobs.

The rebel and complaint versions of John Henry give us a broader, more complete picture of the legend and lead to new interpretations of it or add new facets to existing interpretations. Below, I will describe the new interpretations and a new facet which I see coming out of the rebel and complaint versions. Other people may come up with different ones. I do not see these new interpretations as replacing prior ones or proving them to be false--they are additions to the already existing ones. The legend of John Henry means different things to different people, and the interpretation that a performer or listener gives to a ballad is valid for that person. Dundes has written that there is no particular interpretation of John Henry which is the correct interpretation any more than there is a particular version of the ballad which is the correct version. And Levine has written "No more than any other epic hero should John Henry be converted into a narrow one-dimensional figure whose significance has to be measured within the framework of any single interpretive device."

John Henry as a labor protest

The complaint versions add a new facet to the labor protest aspect of John Henry. For many years, John Henry's race with the steam drill has been interpreted as a protest against the loss of manual laborers' jobs as a result of mechanization during the Industrial Revolution. A related interpretation comes from Norm Cohen who views the ballad not as a protest against the loss of jobs caused by mechanization, but as a protest against how displaced laborers were uncaringly cast aside by a society which found it "more convenient to discharge the old laborer than retrain him, or at least retire him in dignity." A new facet is added to these labor protest interpretations by the complaint versions because they do not revolve around the loss of jobs and displaced laborers but rather the treatment of employees. In these versions, John Henry complains directly to his captain of being underpaid or of being worked too hard or too long.

John Henry as a protest against the brutalities of the penal system

The rebel versions of John Henry can be interpreted as a protest against the brutalities of the penal system. John Henry's refusal to be whipped, beaten, worked from sun to sun, or driven to the point of collapse may be seen as taking place under the circumstance of forced labor on prison farms, chain gangs, or convict lease projects. Both blacks and whites were subject to the brutalities of being incarcerated, including being beaten and whipped. Bluesman Son House's "County Farm Blues" protests beatings administered by a man named "Captain Jack" and House claimed that sometimes prisoners were beaten so severely that they died. In a relatively famous case which led to the abolishment of Florida's convict lease system, a young white man named Martin Tabert, who found himself laboring as a convict lease worker after being arrested for hopping a freight train, was whipped so brutally that he died later that day. Since both blacks and whites could be imprisoned and suffer inhumane treatment while incarcerated or while performing forced labor, members of either race might interpret rebel versions of John Henry as protests against the cruelties of the penal system.

John Henry as a protest against racial oppression

The rebel versions may also be interpreted as racial protests. In the Jim Crow south, blacks were victimized and exploited by the legal and penal systems. Many areas established vagrancy laws which, in effect, made it illegal to be unemployed, and then selectively enforced those laws against African Americans. As a result, blacks made up a largely disproportionate share of the population of prisoners and forced laborers, and it's likely they would have seen their situation as resulting from racial oppression. Many of them would have viewed the captain as a representative or agent of the white system of power, and therefore would have interpreted John Henry's refusal to be whipped, beaten, or overworked by his captain as a form of direct and open rebellion against oppression. In writing about John Henry, Dundes notes that "To the extent that the song or legend encapsulates the evils of exploitation, it may have special appeal for people who have themselves had personal experience with such exploitation." As members of a race which had been enslaved for hundreds of years, the rebel versions of John Henry would have had that special appeal to African Americans, especially those who had served time on prison farms, chain gangs, or as convict lease workers.

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# # For new JH Homepage: Possibly start out by asking questions like: Wouldn't JH black symbol of manhood fight back against oppressor / why were these overlooked?: The CAPTAIN brings the steam drill around / "your drill" versions--JH wasn't just challenging the drill but the captain and the company he represented / rebel versions / complaint versions ----- Do we really understand JH or has much been missed--ie racial rebbellion and protest

# # # PRINT OUT THE LAST SECTION ABOUT IMPORT OF PLACING JH IN CONTEXT OF AFR AMER EXPER and put in red JH binder ALSO print the part I removed and put in binder

# # # # # CONTACT HENRY LOUIS GATES -- ask him about possible symbolic nature of SL battle for hat, JH battle with drill -- Do We NEED MORE AFR AMERICANS studyinng the blues and black folklore and music. ????????????????????? I"m not saying that we need just one black person to do this, but a whole group of them. Give him examples Zora calling SL a culture hero Downhome Boys--Police brutality and a long string of standin on corner songs ----

TO DO # # # # # * * * * *USE THIS IN THE BEGINNING OF PART 1 -- OR -- ON THE NEW WEBSITE'S HOMEPAGE # # # It has become clear to me from my research that in order to fully appreciate and understand the story of JH we must put it in its cultural and historical context: the African American experience during the Jim Crow era. At the time of the creation and of ballad.black workers were ruthlesslyly exploited by being forced to work mercileely hard and treated with brutality ... Those Afric Ammer who strove to survive those terrible times would have interpreted the ballad in relation to their own lives, and that means they would not (underline) have seen the story of John Henry as a race-neutral story. They would have seen John Henry as a black man, who, like them, was trapped in a world of oppression, a world of brutal white bosses, poor wages, long hours spent working "from sun to sun," chain gangs, and convict lease and other forced labor. This is what led to the creation of the rebel and complaint versions of the "John Henry" ballad.

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TO DO # # # # # Note to end of next to last pragraph referring to Lomax Shack Bullies and Levee contractors Blues fell this morning Racehoss book and Slavery By another Name.

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* * * * * * The process of driving steel should be explained on my website. I believe that it is not. I might be able to fit it in around the discussion of the rebel verses or prior to them. I also might want to add some general background info about JH-- Big Bend Tunnel / C & O railroad early 1870s / Scott Nelson / Garst etc.

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The your drill is broke and your hole is choked and YOU can't drive steel like me line shows that the drill was an ectension of JH. I John Oliver Killens book JH saya that the captain and the drill are the same thing

Theodore Browne wrote a play about JH titled Natural Man and I believe Langston Hughes wrote a play with a character modeled after JH and the character's name was John Henry. I think the play's title was The Organizer.

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TO DO:

# # # # Transcribe the Daniel Rock (Daniel in the Lion's Den) song from Alan LomaxsI first heard in Greil Marcus's youtube talk "Black Face The and Now" I downloaded the song and it is on my computer and I recorded it on my iPhone on the "Extras" app on the voice recorder.

A. write proposals to The Nation: 1. Dylan/JH as equality/Blowin in the Wind 2. Police brutality in Stagolee/MJH's SL/head held high/Deep South--Ray and Nathan/Down Home Boys

B. post question to Expecting Rain about Bob Dylan--did he record JH?

C. Send letter to Gus White asking him about Memphis Slim version of JH

D.. letter to Greil Marcus--ask about the musical group called "Clipping" which he mentioned in his column and the "fake John Henry" comment. I could make it very short letter and say I have a lot to ask but only ask a couple things first and keep letter short (Portugal's young SL / Nix Ciomics / JH as unlynching / SL as police brutality Downhome Boys, etc.)

E. Write to Lamont Jack Dappa Pearley about JH

F. Write to Alan Balfour -- mailing list

# G. write to Dick Weismann JH - 100 Books every folk music fan should own

H. write to Blind Boy Paxton's manager and music producer/folklorist Tim ???

I. add Steel Driving methodolgy to website

J Incorporate Dylan quote into Part 2 discussion on website

K Contact Andrew Calhoun -- suggest he do his own version incorporating the verses

L contact Jim Moran Comparative Video 101 -- suggest that Guy Davis record JH with rebel verses

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I MIGHT WAnT TO GET INTO THE IDEA THAT JH HAS BEEN REDUCED TO ONE DIMENSION--he wasn't just a story of man vs machine and the related idea of technology stripping men of their jobs/livelihood. I think Brett Wiliams emphasized the story was a story of FAMILY. I get into this a little in my post to Weeniecampbell where I talk about how Williams and Norm Cohen argue against the loss of jobs interpretation to JH:

On a related point, I think the idea that John Henry challenged the drill in order to save jobs is largely overstated and an oversimplification of the story. Here is a quote from a post to mudcat.org by researcher John Garst,

Norm Cohen and Brett Williams, in their books (*Long Steel Rail* and *John Henry: A Bio-Bibliography*) argue against the job-saving interpretation because it is "too narrow" (Cohen) and because the story is really one of a "family tragedy" (Williams).

"For each John Henry left unemployed there will be a job for a steam-drill operator—not to mention for the factory worker who makes the steam drill and the mechanic who repairs it … The tragedy is not that the old ways of performing tasks are superannuated by newer ones, but that society finds it more convenient to discharge the old laborer than retrain him, or at least retire him in dignity." (Cohen, pp 74-75)

I began to realize "It is this family context that gives John Henry his human dignity and complexity, renders his most profound statement, "A man ain't nothin' but a man," so proud and sad, and makes fictional parodies of him so often offensive. The song is a wonderful reaffirmation of the worth of a human life—a worker's in a workplace which denies it, a black man's in a context reminiscent of slavery, a southerner's during a time of bitter humiliation and drastic change—and, ultimately, of every ordinary person who through dignity and strength of will can be great. The ballad not only praises John Henry's courage and skill, but it also reminds us that the details of his personal life matter. Like all of us, he is a member of a family." (Williams, p 124)

I began to realize that the popularization of the ballad and the story of the steam drill (and possibly even the quest to find the real JH and if, where, and when the contest took place) had turned John Henry into a mostly one-dimensional figure. Despite the overriding emphasis in pop given to the contest aspect of the stroy in pop culture an elsewhere, a substantial number of versions of the ballad make no mention of John Henry's victory over the steam drill, and a good number of versions (including ones recorded by Leadbelly and Furry Lewis) don't mention the drill at all. Many of the verses about John Henry are about loss and death, --there are more dimensions/layers to the story

It's my belief that, back in the days of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era, when black people sang about or told the story of John Henry, one of their greatest heroes, they and the members of their audience who were also black would have interpreted that story in relation to their own lives. And their interpretation must have been significantly different from today's popularized version of John Henry's story, a largely one-dimensional, race-neutral story of man against machine and the associated idea of the loss of jobs to technology. The real John Henry may have been an ex-slave and/or a convict lease worker. But whether or not he was, African Americans would have seen themselves in John Henry, and that means that they would have seen him as a man who was trapped in a world of oppression. And we can see this in the versions I have on my website, versions which place the story of John Henry in the context of the African American experience: brutal treatment from inhumane bosses, forced labor, back-breaking and dangerous work, serious injury and death on the job, meager wages, and work that never stopped "from sun to sun."

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THE 2 PARAGRAPHS BELOW WERE ORIGINALLY IN MY WEBSITE AND THEN EDITED. Specifically, the paragraph labelled "x" was edited to remove things related to Nelson's suspicions of upbeat versions of JH and to his belief that JH originally sounded like a dirge and to the Parchman Farm version of JH. The paragraph labelled "y" was deleted entirely. SAVE THESE IN CASE I NEED TO MAKE FURTHER CHANGES OR NEED TO KNOW WHAT WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN

x) One of the most helpful things I found in my research was a book titled Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend by historian Scott Reynolds Nelson. Nelson believes that a black convict lease worker named John William Henry was the actual man who raced and defeated a steam drill. His research on the history of American railroad construction made him keenly aware of the fact that railroad work was extremely hard and dangerous. This, plus his study of the hammer songs associated with railroad building--some of which referenced John Henry and his death--made him suspicious of the typically upbeat versions of John Henry, versions which had been recorded many years after the legend was born. Also, his book brings out the fact that black convict lease workers had been used to build certain railroad tunnels. The hammer songs were described by Nelson as "bitter," cursing "hard work, bosses, and unfaithful women," and predicting "pain and death." Nelson believes that originally John Henry was not so much a story praising a hero as it was "a chilling song about death--a song that men at work sang to warn themselves about the dangers of overwork." He suspects that John Henry originally sounded something like a dirge. He also pointed to a version in which the ballad is sung as a work song by Parchman Farm convicts in a recording from the late 1940s (complaint version 8). The Parchman version contains familiar verses, but the tone of the recording is far from being an upbeat version of the song. And despite the familiar verses, the lyrics make no mention of a steam drill, a contest, or John Henry's glorious victory. But we do hear a commonly occurring verse, a verse in which John Henry goes up to the mountain and is so discouraged by its size that he lays down his hammer and he cries. The Parchman version also contains a verse in which John Henry complains to his captain that another railroad pays more money. A link to the recording is below. The lead singer is a convict named Benny Will Richardson and he is accompanied by fellow unidentified convicts.

http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=10703 (link to Parchman Farm recording)

y) Nelson's suspicion that John Henry may have originally been a mournful sounding song rather than an upbeat one fits with Booth's description of the version of John Henry (rebel version 1) he heard in the black brothel. He described that version as a "sad, slow moan, dirgelike in its low, primitive prolongation." The upbeat tone that is typical of most recordings of the song may have come from the influence of white musicians. Woody Guthrie used a lively tune and a honking harmonica when he took a John Henry hammer song containing the line "This old hammer killed John Henry, but it can't kill me" and transformed it into the song "Dust Cain't Kill Me" which opens with the verse "That old dust storm, killed my baby, but it cain't kill me, Lord, it cain't kill me." It's possible that white musicians created a similar transformation with the ballad of John Henry by dropping a darker sounding tune and substituting for it a brighter sounding one.

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TO DO: Add "Two Poor Boys" to my list of recordings of JH

Rebel versions 2 and 3:

Rebel versions 2 and 3 are open to several interpretations depending on whether the word "beat" in the third line of both versions is taken to mean "strike repeatedly with the intent of inflicting pain and physical harm" or to mean "defeat an opponent."

Rebel Version 2 (from Odum & Johnson p. 235)

John Henry went to captain,

Say, “Man ain’t nothin’ but a man.

Befo’ I let you beat me down

I die wid de hammer in my han’.”

Rebel Version 3 (from Johnson p. 126)

John Henry told his captain,

“A man ain’t nothing but a man.

Before I’d let you beat me down

I’d die with the hammer in my hand.”

One interpretation to versions 2 and 3 is that John Henry is stating that he will fight to the death (i.e. until he falls dead with his hammer in his hand) against any attempt by the captain to beat (repeatedly strike) him. During the days of the Jim Crow south, it is likely that many black people, and certainly those who had been beaten by a captain or boss, or who had seen a beating administered by a captain or boss, would have made this interpretation. (Note XX - levee camp contractors bosses beat workers rousters hit by captain??)

Another possible interpretation is that John Henry is warning his captain against trying to defeat him by breaking him down in some way, either mentally or physically, or possibly both. In this case, we can envision the possibility that the captain and John Henry had been at odds with each other and the captain was intending to work John Henry so hard that he would be driven into submission and be broken of his rebellious spirit. POSSIBLY STATE THIS IS SIMILAR TO VERSION DRIVE ME DOWN or vice versa

A third interpretation is that John Henry is stating his resolve to defeat the drill, and, by extension, also defeat the captain. This interpretation arises from the fact that there are some versions of the ballad in which the captain is aligned with the steam drill, including versions in which he states his intention to bring a drill to the worksite or he declares that John Henry can not defeat the drill. Under this interpretation, the third lines to version 2 (Befo’ I let you beat me down) and version 3 (Before I'd let you beat me down) are another way of saying "Before I let you and your drill beat me down." (See Note 7)

The "Your drill is broke" version of John Henry

Racial resistance exists in the lyrics of a version of the ballad performed by unidentified black prisoners of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Oakley. It was recorded by John Lomax in 1933, and appears on a CD entitled Jail House Bound: John Lomax's First Southern Prison Recordings, 1933. In this version, John Henry gloats to his captain about his victory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ3YN_aRii0 (insert link to online youtube recordin)

John Henry he said to his captain,

"Look a-yonder at what l see

Say your steam drill is broke and your hole a-done choked

And you can't drive steel like me

And you can't drive steel like me"

A key element of this version is that the steam drill is referred to as being the captain's drill as John Henry points out to the captain that "your steam drill is broke" and "your hole a-done choked." Additionally, he crows to his captain that "you can't drive steel like me." In other words, the contest in which John Henry has emerged the victor was not only a contest between him and the steam drill, but also a contest between him and the captain. In addressing his captain after his victory, John Henry clearly takes great pleasure in rubbing in the fact that he has won and that both the steam drill and the captain himself have lost.

The "your drill is broke" verse is another example of a verse from the ballad in which John Henry violated Jim Crow's boundaries of acceptable behavior for a black man in interacting with whites. A man's gloating about his victory over another man is difficult enough for the loser to take, but the gloating of John Henry--a black man--about his victory over the captain--a man who was not only white but who also was an authority figure and who also happened to be John Henry's overseer or boss--would have been unbearable for the captain. He and the white spectators at the contest would have viewed John Henry's behavior as an act of extreme disrespect and as a threat to the captain's authority. Any black man who had acted as John Henry had would almost certainly have suffered terrible consequences for eliciting the anger of the captain. Both black and white listeners would have been fully cognizant of the great risk John Henry took as they heard this verse sung, and it's likely that many of them would have interpreted the singing of this verse as an act of racial resistance. (See Note 11)

In addition to the Mississippi State Penitentiary version, John Henry boldly proclaims his superiority over his captain in two other versions, one which appears in Louis W. Chappell's John Henry: A Folk-Lore Study and another in Guy B. Johnson's John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend.

John Henry shouted to the captain,

Said, "Your hole's choked and your steam drill is broke,

And your steam drill can't go down with me." (from Chappell, page 124)

Guy B. Johnson page 105

John Henry said to his Captain,

"Captain can't you see,

Your hole is choked and your steel is broke

And your hammer can't go down with me?" (from Johnson, page 105)

TO DO:

* * * * * * The process of driving steel should be explained on my website. I believe that it is not. I might be able to fit it in around the discussion of the rebel verses or prior to them. I also might want to add some general background info about JH-- Big Bend Tunnel / C & O railroad early 1870s / Scott Nelson / Garst etc.

Add Big Bill Broonzy version where he laughs at the captain wh thinks the tunnel is collapsing - captain is a fool LAUGHING BARREL - couldn't laugh around whites because they might think you were laughing at them

1. Expand part 4 by adding Captain you ought to be ashamed--you called the payroll and didn't call my name. from page 119 of Guy B Johnson book. Note that JH may have said this so it could be a complaint version in which JH complains directly to his captain.

2. Fury Lewis At Home in Memphis -- this version may have JH saying tunnel won't be death of me but it is not clear. This version does have line with JH saying he has to go about his father's work--is this alluding to Christ saying this? Did Furry see JH as a Christ figure who sacrificed himself to save jobs of his fellow steel drivers. Or as a Christ figure who sacrificed himself to smash stereotypes of black men per Alan Dundes/Mother wit??? Coes this clash with other ideas I've suugested such as Furry seeing Jh's death as a terrible waste? I could argue that it may clash, but Furry could have had different views about JH at different times or that the conflicting ideas are just part of the complexity of the legend of JH--despite Furry's protests in JH he still sees him as a hero.

3. Add to manhood section that Roger Abraham Deep Down in Jungle says that the drill threatens to emasculate JH by taking away his role of being the family's breadwinner. This supports idea that JH is about manhood--race with drill symbolic of fight for manhood.

4. Junius bird run me like oxen team-- ties in with Governed/Driven by that drill which is on p. 106 of Guy B Johnson book

5. See page 122 and 123, 125, 128 of Guy B Johnson book-- these are puzzles???

6. Add the version by Unidentified Mississippi State Penitentiary (Oakley)prisoners from the album Jail House Bound: John Lomax's First Southern Prison Recordings, 1933. See link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ3YN_aRii0

This version has a verse that I think Harry Belafonte sings where JH says to the captain: Your drill is broke and your hole is choked and you can't drive steel like me. THIS IS A version of resistnce because a black man would never GLOAT to his captain about his victory over him.

7. Add the "Captain's drill" versions to Part 1 of website as part of the "Other versions of resistance" because JH is challenging the Captain (Before I let YOUR steam drill beat me down). Also, specifically identify some of the Captain's drill versions in Part 2 (or Part 3???).

8. Check Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff book (Original Blues) for what they say about WC Handy's article on significance of blues which says "The blues are ambiguous." Do they get into coded protest???

9. Ask about Daniel in the Lion's Den recorded by Lomax and discussed by Greil Marcus on his video on Youtube titled "Blackface Then and Now."

10. Before I let you drive me down: Lomax's Land Where the Blues on page 307 has the line "They drove you down here in them times...

Include comment on how one report on work conditions?? reported that not getting paid was the biggest complaint of black? workers. Note that JH may have said this

Furry Lewis's "Don't you never take no pattern after me" verse

TO DO link to Lewis recording of Don't you never be a steel drining man and WIliamson Brothers AND rILEY pUCKETT

Furry Lewis sang a variation to the "Don't be a steel driving man" verse in a recording of "John Henry" which appears on the album Shake 'Em On Down, a reissue of two albums from 1961 titled Back On My Feet Again and Done Changed My Mind which were recorded at Sun Studios in Lewis's hometown of Memphis. The verse from that recording is transcribed below and a link to the recording is below the transcription.

John Henry had a little baby boy

He was settin' at home on his mother's knee.

Cryin' "Baby take your Daddy's advice,

Don't you never take no pattern after me, Lord, Lord..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqvZwFRceO8&spfreload=10

In the "Don't you never take no pattern after me" verse, Lewis makes a more strongly worded and broader protest than the protest in the "Don't be a steel driving man" verse. The "Don't you never take no pattern after me" verse is not just a rejection of the hammer and the occupation of steel driving; it goes much further than that. It has John Henry telling his son "Do not follow in my footsteps, do not hold me up as a model for you to emulate." In other words, John Henry is rejecting the way in which he has lived his own life, or at least seeing it as undesirable for his own son. In singing this verse--in having the words "Don't you never take no pattern after me" come from John Henry's mouth--Lewis may have been going as far as rejecting the most celebrated part of the John Henry legend, dismissing the glorification of John Henry for his battle with and victory over the steam drill, a victory which Lewis may have seen not as a triumph but as resulting in a tragically foolish and wasteful loss of life. (Maybe this is why we don't hear Lewis sing about the drill and JH's victory ???????) reject abandon dismiss renounce

DID Furry see a connection/similarity between JH and MLK JR (jsut as Julius Lester did) in that they both lost their lives trying to help laborers????

Furry Lewis's "Don't you never take no pattern after me" verse

TO DO link to Lewis recording of Don't you never be a steel drining man and WIliamson Brothers AND rILEY pUCKETT

Furry Lewis sang a variation to the "Don't be a steel driving man" verse in a recording of "John Henry" which appears on the album Shake Em On Down (italics), a reissue of two albums from 1961 titled Back On My Feet Again and Done Changed My Mind (italicas) which were recorded at Sun Studios in Lewis's hometown of Memphis. The verse from that recording is transcribed below and a link to the recording is below the transcription.

Insert verse (and LINK to recording on YOutube)

Need source: The source definitely is Shake em on down CD BIBLIOGRAPHY Folk music USA I wrote compLied instead of compiLed # # # #

John Henry had a little baby boy

He was settin' at home on his mother's knee.

Cryin' baby take your Daddy's advice,

Don't you never take no pattern after me, Lord, Lord...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqvZwFRceO8&spfreload=10

In the "Don't you never take no pattern after me" verse, Lewis makes a more strongly worded and broader protest than the protest in the "Don't be a steel driving man" verse. The "Don't you never take no pattern after me" verse is not just a rejection of the hammer and the occupation of steel driving; it goes much further than that. It has John Henry telling his son "Do not follow in my footsteps, do not hold me up as a model for you to emulate." In other words, John Henry is rejecting the way in which he has lived his own life, or at least rejecting it as inappropriate /undesireable for his son). In singing this verse--in having the words "Don't you never take no pattern after me" come from John Henry's mouth--Furry Lewis may have been going as far as rejecting the most celebrated part of the John Henry legend, rejecting the glorification of John Henry for his battle with and victory over the steam drill, a victory which Lewis may have seen not as a triumph but as resulting in a tragically foolish and wasteful loss of life. (Maybe this is why we don't hear Lewis sing about the drill and JH's victory ???????)

DID Furry see a connection/similarity between JH and MLK JR (jsut as Julius Lester did) in that they both lost their lives trying to help laborers????

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I found the first rebel version of John Henry in Ernest Booth's Stealing through Life by using Google's N-Gram viewer

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BEGINNING OF DONT BE A STEEL DRIVING MAN SECTION COPIED FROM SAFE-MAIL

EDIT THIS COPY ONLY

DO NOT EDIT THE OTHER COPY WHICH IS FOR BACKUP ONLY ! ! ! !

The don't be a Steel Driving Man Verse

* * * * A Blues Bibliography by Robert Ford is possibly the best source for info on articles about blues and bluesmen.

* * * * * * Write to Robert Santelli and ask him about the story about Furry Lewis having his lyrics printed. Santelli is now Exec Director of Grammy Museum. I found the Grammy address on Grammy.org

## # # # # In my search for other modes of resistance in John Henry, I need to check the versions in the Negro Workaday Songs book/article from Odum and Johnson.

@ @ @ @ I need to add the version You ought to be ashamed you called the payroll and didn't call my name--according to one writer, black laborers complained more about not getting paid than being beaten

Ballads provide further evidence favoring the Alabama site. Rich Amerson's version places John Henry and “the Captain” (not “his Captain”) “'tween them mountains.” The title of “Captain” matches that used by Frederick Dabney, and according to local lore the contest took place outside the east portal of Oak Mountain Tunnel, which is between Oak and Coosa mountains, as is the town of Dunnavant. John Jacob Niles collected a version in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, in which “A man in Chattanooga, two hundred miles away” heard the fall of John Henry's hammer. Chattanooga is about 135 miles from Dunnavant. In the same version they buried John Henry “And let two mountains be his grave-stones.” According to the version of Harvey Hicks, “John Henry died on a Tuesday.” Spencer wrote that John Henry died on 20 September, which in 1887 was a Tuesday. PER JOHN GARST UNDERGROUN RAILROAD

* * * * * * TO DO TO DO $ $ $ $ MAKE CHANGES TO THIS PARAGRAPH (below) ON MY WEBSITE TO MATCH THIS * * * * * * * * *

Charters's book was published in.....

REWRITE BELOW (see addition/change to this part which is the part preceding the Don't be a steel drivin man) Furry Lewis's inclusion in "John Henry" of a variation to the above "Go Down Ol' Hannah" verse suggests the possibility that he saw John Henry as a convict laborer--or some other type of forced laborer--compelled to work under oppressive conditions. Another possibility is that Lewis saw him as a free laborer (i.e. not working in involuntary servitude) who was subjected to THESE (not such????) conditions. Either way, Lewis's use of the verse suggests he regarded John Henry and his fellow steel drivers as victims. Additionally, the verse appears to be a protest which unites John Henry's legendary heroic struggle with the heroic struggles of men trying to survive oppressive forced labor or (or not AND %%%%%%) or other difficult work conditions. OR----trying to survive extremely harsh work conditions or oppressive forced labor.?????????????? (Furthermore,) It suggests that black men saw their lives intertwined with John Henry's in that together they suffered from racial and economic exploitation. Black laborers identifying with John Henry is discussed further below under the "Don't BE A STEEL driving man" section.

* * * * * TO DO: CORRECTION to Junius Byrd section first paragraph--The captain's response is in the last 2 (not 3) lines * * * * * * * % $ # @ ! * & ^ % $ # @ ! $ % ^ ^ ^&& &*

TO DO: Include the Furry Lewis Don't pattern yourself after me verse.

TO DO Introduce the 2nd furr lewis version as a similar but broader!!!! DON'T PATTERN YOURSELF AFTER ME

(version from Furry Lewis in Shake Em on Down album)

don't pattern yourself after me.

Furry rosy cheeks version and hammer won't be the death of me version and before I be billed??? by your steel drivin gang

(POSSIBLY PUT THIS AT THE TOP OF PART 5 OR CREATE A SPECIAL FURRY LEWIS COLLECTED VERSION OF jOHN hENRY.)

Lewis recorded "John Henry" a number of times and there are signifiicant differences in the lyrics he sang in his various recordings. Collectively, his recordings show the different ways that Lewis and other African American performers placed protest and resistance in the ballad. The protest was brief and understated enough in each song that it went almost completely unnoticed by white listeners, including white scholars, critics, and others who wrote about the ballad. But in my opinion, it is highly likely (to me) that the protest was loud and clear to black listeners. jAMES BALDWIN NOTED THAT PROTEST WAS BRIEF (or possibly understated rather than brief) IN BLACK MUSIC possibly when he wrote about "farewell to storyville" "demolition of black quarters"

******** MAY ALSO BE A REJECTION OF WHITE AMERICAN/PURITAN WORK ETHIC ##################

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** ** * * ** ** * ** * ** * * *

The "Don't be a steel driving man" versions of "John Henry"

Another element of resistance in the John Henry ballad is a verse in which John Henry instructs or asks his son to avoid becoming a steel driver himself. For example, in the late 1920s, Furry Lewis recorded a long two-part version of the ballad (released as two sides of a 78-rpm record) with Part One containing the verse below. Lewis's two-part 78-rpm recording is available on several compilations including the CD Furry Lewis (1927-1929): Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order on the Document Records label.

John Henry had a little baby,

Which he sit in the palm of his hand

Cryin' '"Baby, baby take your daddy's advice,

Don't you never be a steel drivin' man, man,

Don't never be a steel drivin' man, man."

This particular verse expresses a type of resistance similar to that expressed in the hammer songs which contain a verse in which a steel driver gives his hammer to another man and asks him to take it to the captain and bring him the news that he has abandoned his place on the job. An example is below. (See Part 1 of this website for more examples of hammer songs.)

(from Guy B. Johnson's John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend, page 76)

Take this hammer,

Hammer to the captain.

Take this hammer,

Hammer to the captain.

Tell him I'm gone

Lawd, Lawd, tell him I'm gone.

Both the "Tell the captain I'm gone" verse and the "Don't be a steel driving man" verse serve as rejections of the hammer and the work of steel driving. One verse expresses it with a steel driver turning in his hammer and leaving his job, while the other expresses it through John Henry showing concern for his son by requesting that he not become a steel driver. Additional examples of the "Don't be a steel driving man" verse are below.

(version performed at the end of "Jook", the final scene of Zora Neale Hurston's play Cold Keener: A Revue (put title in italics )) MULES AND MEN DOES NOT HAVE THIS verse

John Henry had a lil baby

Holdin' him in his right hand.

Says, "lil baby don't you cry,

You'll never be a steel drivin' man,

You'll never be a steel drivin' man."

(version of "John Henry" recorded by the Williamson Brothers and Curry under the title "Gonna Die With My Hammer In My Hand." The recording is included on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.)

John Henry had but one only child

Fit in the palm of your hand

The very last words John Henry said,

"Son, don't be a steel-drivin' man, Lord, Lord,

Son, don't be a steel-drivin' man."

(version from page 120 of Louis Chappell's John Henry: A Folk-Lore Study)

John Henry had one only son,

He could stand up in the pa'm of your hand;

And the very last word John Henry said was

'Son don't be a steel driving man,

Son, don't be a steel driving man.' (See note 1a)

(from a recording by Riley Puckett and Gid Tanner as transcribed on page 107 of Guy B. Johnson's John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend)

John Henry had just only one son,

He could stand in the pa'm of your hand.

Last words that John Henry said,

"Son, don't be a steel-drivin' man." (See note 1b)

Note 1a/1b. The verse from page 120 of Louis Chappel's book appears in a very long version of the ballad which Chappell received from a man named C. J. Wallace of Charleston, West Virginia. Many of the verses in Wallace's version of "John Henry" are strikingly similar to the verses in an old recording made by country music performers Riley Puckett and Gid Tanner. These two versions are similar both in their lyrics and in the order of appearance of the verses. The similarity is so strong that it seems highly likely that the Puckett/Tanner recording was a heavy influence on Wallace's version or vice versa or possibly they were both heavily influenced by a third version. Guy B. Johnson's transcription of the Puckett/Tanner version's "don't be a steel drivin' man" verse is above, and It appears on page 107 of Johnson's book. The book identifies the Puckett/Tanner recording as Columbia Record, 15019-D and notes that Puckett and Tanner recorded another version which is 15142-D on Columbia.

The sentiment expressed by John Henry in the "Don't be a steel driving man" verse contrasts sharply with the idea that he raced the steam drill in order to save his job and the jobs of his fellow steel drivers. The verse is almost the antithesis of this idea. It implies that the jobs are not worth saving. Or at least not worth saving for the next generation. And definitely not worth saving for someone he deeply loved: his own son.

The "don't be a steel driving man" verse can be particularly striking to those who are familiar with some of the documented versions of the ballad containing a verse in which John Henry tells his son that he wants him to become a steel driving man or that he will become a steel driving man. Variations to this verse include ones in which John Henry's son himself declares that he will be or wishes to be a steel driver. These verses contrast sharply with the "don't be a steel driving man" verses in that they serve to embrace, rather than reject, the hammer and the occupation of steel driving.

Two examples of these verses are below. They were published in Johnson's book on page 98 and were sent to him by white folklorist Onah Spencer. Spencer's version is very long and appears to be a collection of verses which he gathered from various versions of "John Henry." According to Johnson, Spencer told him that he lived in a black village in Cumminsville, Ohio for 25 years, and his sources were workers in the area who were newly arrived from the South. (See note 22?/////////////)

Note 22: Spencer told Johnson that the ballad was used to '[initiate] the new help to the spirit of the job, for if there was a slacker in a gang of workers it would stimulate him with its heroic masculine appeal.'

(from Johnson, p. 98)

John Henry took that liddle boy,

Helt him in the pahm of his han',

And the last words he said to that chile was,

"I want you to be a steel drivin' man,

I want you to be a steel drivin' man."

(from Johnson, page 98)

John Henry ast that liddle boy,

Now what are you gonna be?

Says, "If I live and nothin' happen,

A steel drivin' man I'll be,

A steel drivin' man I'll be."

Additional versions containing verses such as the two above appear on page numbers 98, 101, 102, 103, and 111 of Johnson's book and page numbers 103, 112, and 114 of Chappell's book.

The sentiment expressed by John Henry in the "Don't be a steel driving man" verse contrasts sharply with the idea that he competed against the steam drill in a race in order to save his job and the jobs of his fellow steel drivers. The "Don't be a steel driving man"verse is almost the antithesis of this idea. The verse implies that the jobs are not worth saving. Or at least not worth saving for the next generation. And definitely not worth saving for someone John Henry deeply loved: his own son.

So where did the "don't be a steel driving man" verse come from? How did it originate? It probably largely sprang from interpreters (i.e. performers) of the ballad viewing and identifying with John Henry as a victim of racial and economic exploitation. From the time that the John Henry legend first took shape in the late 19th century until well into the 20th century--a period during which the United States was transitioning from a rural, agricultural economy to a modern, more urban and industrial economy--many free and imprisoned black men were exploited in the construction of tunnels, roads, railroads, and levees and in the mining, lumber, and steel manufacturing industries in ways similar to the ways in which they had been exploited for hundreds of years as slaves in the South's cotton, rice, tobacco, and sugarcane fields. (This exploitation is documented in a number of books including Douglas A. Blackmon's Pulitzer Prize winning Slavery by Another Name.) Much of this non-agricultural work was strenuous and extremely dangerous, so dangerous that a large number of these laborers lost their lives. Many others suffered disabling injuries and endured various brutalities perpetrated upon them by armed guards, bosses, and overseers. Certainly, a substantial number of these men would have interpreted the John Henry legend and sung about it in a way that fit with their own experiences. Since they were victims, they would have imagined John Henry as a victim also. And in singing about John Henry telling his son not to be a steel driving man, they were commenting upon and thereby protesting John Henry's victimization and their own victimization. And they were also protesting the most painful things of all: the inevitability of each one of their own sons and daughters suffering through the same or a similar victimization, and the hard reality that there was nothing they could do to prevent this fate from befalling their children.

STOPPED EDITING HERE

Put Kill a mule buy another in the saw my partner fallin dead section OR in the INTRODUCTORY part of this webPage before I list / discuss the particular versions and note that some describe cruelty and abuse. And then say it was so bad that this adage/saying became a repeated story Kill a Mule...

Furry Lewis's "Don't you never take no pattern after me" verse

Need source: The source definitely is Shake em on down CD BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Henry had a little baby boy

He was settin' at home on his mother's knee.

Cryin' baby take your Daddy's advice,

Don't you never take no pattern after me, Lord, Lord.

Don't never take no...

TO DO: Make a note that I should write about how Furry Lewis has a bunch of verses in which he uses resistance ; can get better pay on the C&O, rosy cheeks, don't take no pattern after me, don't be a steel drivin man, JH saw his partner fallin dead. This tunnel (or hammer) won't be the death of me, "biiled by your steel driven gang, beat by your steel drivin gang--Paul Oliver suggests Furry was confused and thought race was against the gang, complaint against being underpaid, Furry cried on one recording of JH, CHECK if Furry sang about JH beating drill or even mentions the drill. In his two part version he sings of JH having races--but he may not say race was against the drill. Antelli noted Furry's attention to lyrics and had them printed.

Sources:

Lewis, Furry. Furry Lewis (1927-1929): Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order. Vienna, Austria : Document Records, 1990. (DOCD-5004)

TO DO: Lewis, Furry. Shake 'Em on Down. Berkeley, California : Fantasy, 1992. (FCD-24703-2) [This CD reissues two Furry Lewis albums, Back on My Feet Again and Done Changed My Mind, which were both recorded in 1961 at Sun Studios in Memphis, TN.]

Cold Keener. 1930. Published in Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays, ed. Jean Lee Cole and Charles Mitchell. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2008.

Anthology of American Folk Music. Collected by Harry Everett Smith. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Folkways Recordings/Sony Music Special Products, 1997, 1952. [This anthology includes a recording of "Gonna Die With a Hammer In My Hand" recorded by Williamson Brothers and Curry.]

alternate bibliog

Hurston, Zora Neale. Cold Keener. 1930. Published in Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays, ed. Jean Lee Cole and Charles Mitchell. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2008.

Williamson Brothers and Curry. See: Anthology of American Folk Music.

END OF DONT BE A STEEL DRIVING MAN SECTION COPIED FROM SAFE-MAIL

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TO DO:

Complaint to captain that "you never called my name" when payroll was called--this is Johnson's book as version XV. I should do a section on how some report / study was done which showed that the thing that black workers hated the most was not getting paid. I could tie it in with the complaint versions of being underpaid.

Blues/black music as protest PROTEST / RESISTAMCE

Per my discussion with Ken, black people singing a song of complaint or discontentedness or dissatisfaction ( I'm broke, I can't pay the rent, my clothes and shoes have holes, etc) was an act of resistance defiance or protest because whites expected blacks to act happy go lucky / grinning sambo / conduct themselves in a childlike manner, etc. They were supposed to act content with their situation. Lawrence Gellert quoted a white man who said that blacks were happy and if you find one who isn't, he would string him up. A black man was not supposed to strive to improve his situation. Blacks were expected to fail and a successful black man was considered uppity and could be a target for whites. Ralph Ellison wrote that blacks could not be individuals--they could not strive for what white people had without endangering themselves. If they painted their house, whites might burn it down. If a black child expressed an interest in having something that whites had, his parent would tell him "that's for white folks not us." In the book Been In The Storm So Long, Litwack says blacks wearing fine clothes could be stripped of the clothes (and I think accused of stealing them???)

The word "Blues" can imply discontent. Saying you have the blues can be more than just being "sad" or blue for no specific reason. Saying you have the blues is saying there is something wrong / not right. Blacks had to act happy / content but singing about a man or woman giving you the blues allowed blacks to express unhapppiness and whites could accept that kind of unhappiness in blacks because they could identify with it. But this also may have let blacks go a step further and sing about other things giving you the blues-- needing rent money, working too hard, having a hard life, etc. which could be veiled or indirect complaints about mistreatment by whites / the racial heirarchy / racial power structure. And this was taken a step further in some cases as singers voiced their complaints more directly by singing songs like Jim Crow Blues or Broonzy's Black, Brown Beige.

Having the blues (or singing about it or listening to blues music) can lead to tears (due to sadness) but it can also lead to blame -- identifying what or who gave you the blues and PROTEST

TO DO * * * * *

* * * * Furry Lewis's 1920s version of John Henry (and possibly other versions by Lewis) and John Jackson's version on Rappahannock Blues album are NOT LIVELY / UPBEAT / CELEBRATORY. I NEED TO UPDATE MY WEBSITE with this info adding it to Paul Robeson version. Look for other versions also. I think Pink Anderson's is also like Lewis's--it's kind of lively but not UPBEAT, does not hace that positive/celebratory tone/vibe like Springsteen's or versions by Leadbelly for example.

SOMETHING TO CONSIDER

wHEN REVIsING THE wILLIS lAURENCE jAMES VERSION, I wrote about the Jim Crow social conventions and the legal system oppressing black men (see paragrapgh below), and it occurred to me that I should write about this to help put the legend in the context of black life and why JH was such a big black hero and symbol of manhood. I even wrote in Willis section about JH being a free man with dignity who did not have to subject himself to the demeaning Jim Crow social conventions and oppressive law. Maybe I should write about this and expand upon it on a separate page.

In the two verses above, John Henry is a bad man, and--because of his badness--he is not subject to the limitations which were placed on other black men by the white system of power. Taking these verses in the context of the legend, the figure of John Henry in James's version is not an evil man, but instead a "ba-a-ad", i.e. great and powerful, man. So ba-a-ad that white men feared and respected him, and let him do as he pleased. James's John Henry was not bound by the laws of the white man's legal system, a system which was often used as a tool to oppress black people. And he did not have to abide by the restrictive Jim Crow social conventions that white people established for black people. In this John Henry song, the great steel driver is living (to paraphrase Greil Marcus in his writing about Stagolee) the black man's fantasy of no limits. He is not just "a steel-drivin' man", he is something much more, something that every black man wanted to be: a free man, a black man with dignity who could cross the boundaries established for black men without suffering any consequences.

Page 105 of Scott Reynolds Nelson book on JH has lyrics to Swannanoa Tunnel which includes hammer song verses. He says that the tunnel was built in North Carolina by convicts

* * Youtube has several different versions of JH by LeadbellY

TO DO: Add to website that Lewis Jones wrote that a wheeler is a huge wheeled shovel--see

page 37 of Lost Delta Found.

* * **** TO DO: update the bibliography by adding the Furry Lewis Take Your Time album to it

*** Furry Lewis album Take Your Time album has Natural Born Eastman on it -- I shouldtry to listen to all his versions of this song****

Bluesman Furry Lewis made a long string of "John Henry" recordings, and there is a verse which appears in at least three of them in which John Henry looks at the sun and then looks at his work partner and sees him falling dead. One of the recordings appears on the album Fourth and Beale which was recorded in 1969. A transcription of the "falling dead" verse and a link to it are below. (The "falling dead" verse is the last verse of the recording.)

John Henry looked at the sun one day,

And the sun had done turned red.

And he looked back over his shoulder, Lord,

And he see'd his partner fallin' dead, dead, dead.

Link to Furry Lewis version on his Fourth and Beale album.

The verse also appears in another Lewis recording of "John Henry" on the album Take Your Time. It was also recorded in 1969. The verse and a link to the recording are below. (On this particular recording, the verse appears in the middle rather than at the end of the song.)

John Henry looked at the sun,

And the sun had done turned red.

And he looked back over his shoulder, Lord,

And he see'd his partner fallin' dead, dead.

I see my partner fallin' dead dead (Lewis sings this last line and variations to it several times before moving on to the next verse.)

Link to Furry Lewis version on his Take Your Time album.

In his book The Country Blues, Samuel Charters included a transcription (see below) of another performance of "John Henry" by Lewis which contains the "falling dead" verse. (See Note 4.)

John Henry looked at the sun one day

The sun had done turned red.

He looked back over his shoulder, Lord,

He seen his partner falling dead.

My partner's falling dead

Note 4: Charters did not identify the particular recording from which his transcription was done. I have attempted to identify it, but have not succeeded. Possibly the recording has never been released.

The book was published in 1959, 10 years before the two Lewis recordings of "John Henry" cited above. Considering the fact that there are at least three instances of Lewis singing this particular verse in performances of "John Henry," it is clear that his use of the verse did not result from spur of the moment improvisation. Instead, the verse clearly was important for Lewis in relation to the story of John Henry, and it apparently held that importance for at least the 10-year period spanning the publication of Charters's book in 1959 to Lewis's two recordings of the ballad in 1969.

ALTHOUGH THIS VERSE by itslef does not describe the cruelty and abuse suffered by JH and his fellow steel drivers, it is implied????

ddddd

.... Either way, Lewis's use of the verse suggests he regarded JH and his feloow steel drivers as victims, and the verse appears to be a protest against the cruelty of the railroad builders who utilized bosses and overseers to mercilessly drive the steel drivers to the point of collapse and even death.

Other Types of Protest or Resistance in John Henry

Note: Before copying and pasting to Rebel versions site, make sure FONT is CORRECT

ALSO Do the rewrite for explaining complaint version in terms of racial protest.

yyyyyyyyyy

for bibliographyFolk Music U.S.A.: Vol. 1

yyyyyyyyyyyVarious Artists FW04530 / FE 4530

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

******** TO DO: FIX THE REST of the LINKS to open to a new page

Note 4. The racial identities of the complaint version informants.

Versions 1 through 4: Complaint versions 1 and 2 are from Guy B. Johnson's John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend and versions 3 and 4 are from Chappell's John Henry: A Folklore Study. The racial identities of the informants for versions 1 through 4 can not be determined from Johnson's and Chapell's books.

Versions 5 through 10: At least six of the complaint versions (versions 5 through 10) are from black performers. Version 5 is from Odum and Johnson's Negro Workaday Songs. Versions 6, 7, and 10 are musical sound recordings of African American musicians Pink Anderson, Blind Arvella Gray, and Furry Lewis, respectively. Version 8 is a musical recording of African American convicts at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm. Version 9 is a musical recording of an African American Parchman Farm convict named Ed Lewis.

Version 11:

Version 11 is an Alan Lomax musical recording from December 1934 of a musician named Reese Crenshaw. Based upon his bluesy style of guitar playing, there is a strong possibility that he was African American. Bruce Bastin's book Red River Blues (pages 53 and 54) shows that Crenshaw was an inmate at the State Farm in Milledgeville (Georgia). According to Bastin, most of the inmates at the prison were white. Of course, this does not rule out the possibility that Crenshaw was black. Based on the 1934 recording date, Crenshaw may be the same Reese Crenshaw who, according to the 1940 United States Federal Census was born in about 1902 and was living in Tallokas (Brooks County), Georgia. The census shows that he was black. Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc's book Blues: A Regional Experience (page 268) identifies a musician (vocal and guitar) from the Georgia Piedmont region named Reese Crenshaw who was possibly born in Warren County on March 4, 1896. Possibly he is the same person from the 1940 census or from Bastin's book.

Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc's book Blues: A Regional Experience (page 268) identifies a musician (vocal and guitar) from the Georgia Piedmont region named Reese Crenshaw who was possibly born in Warren County on March 4, 1896. The 1940 United States Federal Census, includes a black man named Reese Crenshaw, born in about 1902, living in Tallokas (Brooks County), Georgia. One of these two African Americans may be the person who recorded complaint version 11.

Versions 1 through 4: Complaint versions 1 and 2 are from Guy B. Johnson's John Henry: Tracking Down a Negro Legend and versions 3 and 4 are from Chappell's John Henry: A Folklore Study. The racial identities of the informants for versions 1 through 4 can not be determined from Johnson's and Chapell's books.

Add INDENTing

MAKE SURE I darken all the black text

Note: Ricahrd Dorson's story of JH in Laughing barrel says that JH was a better worker because he was free (i.e. not a slave)--versus??? Gary Fink's book on SOuthern Labor and Race notes that defenders of convict lease system argued that you could get more work out of a convict black laborer than a free man.

Next, the paper draft and the first printout of "notes for editing JH" have some rewrite ideas for the complaint version introductory info

John Lee Hooker's version of John Henry people come for miles around to hear JH's hammer ring!!!!

TO DO: The green highlighted stuff on first page of printout and the blue highlighted stuff on the last 2 pages.

The captain demeans John Henry by addressing him as "boy" and is portrayed as an uncaring overseer who has no concern about the effect of the cold on John Henry's hands. The captain's only interest is for John Henry to continue working as he requires him to make the hammer "roll."

demands to "hear???? that hammer roll." This last verse ("I want??? to hear that hammer roll") is particularly telling/key.

*****Note: lyrics from Part 1 of JH by Furry recorded 1928/1929? "hew the mountain down" "Don't you never be a steel drivin man" "before I be beat by your steel drivin gang"

REVISION of INTRODUCTORY scetion to COMPLAINT versions:--This revision has been posted to website.

In addition to the 12 rebel versions of the ballad, I identified 11 complaint versions. In this second set of versions, John Henry complains to his captain of inadequate wages or mistreatment on the job. And in doing so, he crosses over the boundary of what white people in the Jim Crow south considered to be acceptable behavior for a black man in addressing or interacting with his white overseer or boss. Blacks were expected to be submissive, cheerful, and content with their lot in life, not express dissatisfaction and make complaints. This was pointed out by field researcher Lawrence Gellert in the preface to his song collection Negro Songs of Protest. He noted that during his first trip to the South he was told that "N**gers are a happy and contented lot. Find me one that ain't and I'll give you a ten-dollar bill, suh. Worth it to string up the biggity black so and so..." John Henry's behavior in the complaint versions makes him a voice of dissension and places him in the position of being viewed by his captain and employer as a troublemaker and a potential threat to the racial status quo. A summary of the complaint versions is below and it is followed by a list of the key verse (or verses) from each version in which John Henry states his complaint.

In complaint version 1, John Henry insults his captain by telling him that he is “nothing but a common man” and complains about his wages by saying that “your money is getting mighty slim.” John Henry also complains about his wages in version 8 by telling the captain that he can make better money with another railroad line. Additionally, there are six versions (complaint versions 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 and 10) in which John Henry doesn’t just complain about poor pay, but also informs his captain that he is quitting the job by asking for the pay he is due and telling him that he can get better wages working somewhere else (see Note 5). Also, in a recording by Pink Anderson (version 6), John Henry complains to the captain that he is always hurrying him. He makes the same complaint in a recording by Blind Arvella Gray (version 7). And in a version by Reese Crenshaw (version 11), John Henry is working on a chain gang (see Note 6) and complains to the captain about "dogging" him. Lastly, in version 4, John Henry complains to the captain by asking why he works him so hard, and, in this version’s final verse, he refuses to work by stating that he won’t work in the sun or the rain and will lay around awaiting the arrival of the pay train. The sources for at least six of the eleven complaint versions are black performers or black informants. A seventh version is in all probability from a black performer. The racial identities of the sources for four of the versions are unknown. For details about the racial identity of each source, see note 4.

INSERT COMPLAINT VERSIONS (NON"T FORGET TO UPDATE THE SOURCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY!!!) write to Hawkeye Herman

USE !!!!!! A-1 In the complaint versions above, John Henry is clearly very direct and to the point in airing his grievances to his captain. He does not act in the indirect or deferential manner which was expected of a black man. He is quite blunt and makes no attempt to soften what he is saying. For example, when he informs his captain that he is quitting his job, he couples his request for the pay he is due with a complaint that he can get better pay elsewhere. Considering the manner in which blacks were expected to conduct themselves, John Henry's request for payment practically amounts to a demand and most likely would have been regarded by his captain and the company which employed him as an act of black insolence.

USE !!!!!!! B-1 In contrast to the complaint versions of John Henry--which in this discussion serve as examples of a black man (i.e. John Henry) acting and using language in a manner which opposes what is expected by whites--is a song from Harry Oster's book Living Country Blues titled "Why You Knocka Me Down?" which is an example of a black man using language and behaving in a manner which complies with what is expected by whites. The lyrics deal with a black man (the singer) asking a white man for the reason that he knocked him down. The black man is so polite--he prefaces his question by saying "Excuse me, Mr. Johnson, I haven't meant no harm"--that he practically apologizes for bringing up the incident.

Excuse me, Mr. Johnson. I haven't meant no harm,

Why you knocka me down. Why you knocka me down?

You knock me to the riverside, you knock me over the line.

USE !!!!!! C-3 Oster, in discussing the themes and functions of country blues, used the lyrics above to illustrate a point made in his discussion concerning the frustrations experienced by sharecroppers and tenant farmers in their relationships with their bosses and the owners of the plantations upon which they farmed (see Chapter 3 of Oster's book). He states that "When the farmer does give vent to his grievance to the boss, he usually does so humbly."

Based on the discussion above, I believe that i looking at the meaning and significance of the complaint versions of "John Henry" we need to bear in mind that John Henry's words and actions in these versions must have made a great impression on African Americans living under the constraints of the Jim Crow system. For them, abiding by the expectations of the white ruling class by wearing a mask of contentment and happiness and interacting with whites in a humble, compliant, or sometimes even obsequious manner was a necessity for survival. Any of them who dared to act as John Henry does in the complaint versions would have been taking a huge risk with potentially disastrous or even fatal consequences. John Henry's willingness to take that risk--his decision to stand up for himself and suffer the consequences--must have deposited a powerful message of resistance in the minds of the many African Americans to whom John Henry was not only a hero but also a great symbol of black manhood.

///////////////////////////////////////

Standing on the Corner

Police Station Blues, Big Bill Broonzy (I Feel So Good by Bob Rie/eisman bio on Broonzy mentions he recorded this and another song "They Can't Do That" which were his first recordings involving racial commentary) (Big Bill Broonzy In Chrnological Order" volume 1, 1927-1932 on Document DoCD-5050per this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyObYW7KNkI

https://books.google.com/books?id=_RWp0PuQ28wC&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=police+%22standin+on+the+corner%22+-arizona&source=bl&ots=SznYcPB8Nu&sig=gSp_mSEgLIU0xyTkMfOsiZ2vGlM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ESo5VffAKMKngwT5rIDQBg&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=police%20%22standin%20on%20the%20corner%22%20-arizona&f=false

(recorded by Broonzy in 1930 per Blue Smoke: The recorded Journey of Big Bill Broonzy by Roger House)

House states that Broonzy's song is an adaptation of Nolan Welsh's "Birdwell blues" recorded in 1926 which was better economic times. Recorded with Louis Armstrong and Richard Jones in Chicago.

A lot of these songs were recorded in 1930 (depression)

Henry Thomas song Don't Ease Me In has the line standing on the corner...workhouse bound.

I'm On My Way Blues, Washboard Sam, (Wasboard Sam Complete recorded Works in Chronological Order Vol 2. 1937-1938 on Document DOCD-5172)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2NX64JIPt8

Birdwell Blues, 1926, Nolan Welsh (Blue Smoke by Roger House --see above for more details) (recorded with louis Armstrong and Richard jones)

I was standing on the corner, did not mean no harm (twice)

And the police came, dragged me from the house. (house is not the corner????)

Jimmy Gordon (song numbered 173 on p. 136 in Paul Oliver's Blues Fell This Morning, about a numbers runner standin on corner sentenced to rock- pile 6 months "like I done a terrible crime")

Standin' on the corner, standin' on the corner,

Wasn't doing nothing wrong, wrong, wrong

Standin on the corner, wasn't doing mothing wrong.

O-o-oh that policeman was looking, he gabbed me by my arm.

When I got a hearing...

Bulldog Blues, Blind Boy Fuller http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=154113 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TpLU83yrck

Well I was standin' on the corner, Lord, Fifth and Main. (In another version by Fuller, the streets are Broad and Main)

Said that police rid by, said, "Tell me your right name."

Then I told him my name, read in the bosom of my shirt

Said, "I'm a woman lover, sure don't have to work."

Said, "It ain't no use sir, sad me workin' so hard."

Said, "I got too many women in the white folks' yard."

Junker Blues, 1941 Champion Jack Dupree (page 96 of Garon's book)

I was standing I was standing on the corner

with my reefers in my hand.

Up step the sergeant,

took my reefers out my hand.

My Mamma Was a Sailor, Julius Daniels (page 142 of Garon's book)

Standing on the corner, talking with my brown. (twice)

Up step the policeman, take both of us down.

My Occupation, Brownie McGhee (Guitar Styles of Brownie McGhee) (tracing songs/quote about boss=woman/protest)

Standing on the corner one day at 6th and Main,

Police drove by and asked me my right name.

I told him my name, written in the bosom of my shirt,

I'm a woman's lover, sure don't have to work.

I ain't never had a woman that I couldn't get back again,

My main occupation's taking women from their men.

Blue Yodel No.9, 1930, Jimmie Rodgers with Louis Armstrong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BFbY9Vw8DM

Standin' on the corner, I didn't mean no harm

Along come a police, he took me by the arm.

It was down in Memphis, corner of Beale and Main

He says big boy, you'll have to tell me your name.

I said you'll find my name on the tail of my shirt.

I'm a Tennessee hustler, I don't have to work.

Listen all you rounders, you better leave my women alone.

'Cause I'll take my special, and run all you rounders home.

(S/T Lookin for the Bully / also woman/women take care of him like in McGhee's song)

Long Gone Lost John, 1927, Papa Charlie Jackson (Papa Charlie Jackson, Volume 2, 1926-1928, Document Records)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfT30q08-u4 (lyrics on WC forum)

He was standing on the corner, talkin' to his brown

He doubled up his fist and knocked the police down.

The police jumped up, said, "Which-a-way did he go?"

The last time I seen 'im, he was runnin' the Gulf of Mexico.

The Government Street Blues II, Roosevelt Charles (p. 317 of Living Country Blues by Harry Oster)

I was standin' on the corner, 13 an' Government Street.

I had my flask baby, i had my flask in my han'

Said a roller roll up, he said, "Jump in Bud, (Note: a "roller" is a police car)

Be a long time 'fore you get another drink again."

Take me to the parish jail, yes, an' he locked me in,

Yeah, the judge found me guilty, an' the D.A. wrote it down.

Said, "Thirty days in jail" with my back turned to the wall.

(p. 173 of Oster book "She Had Been Drinkin"" S/T Lookin' for the Bully, Also, see p. 134, p. 77-80)

No title. (sung by coal miners, p. 276 American Negro Folk-songs by Newman Ivey White)

Standing on a corner, smoking a cheap cigar,

Waiting for a freight to catch some car,

If the brakeman sees me (brakeman takes place of lawman)

He'd throw me overboard.

different version performed by Sidney Stripling recorded by John Work in Georgia in 1941 http://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000005/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Stripling

Standin onn the corner "John Greenway -- he wrote a book I believe http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiTALKBLU2.html

http://rolandanderson.se/bedbugs.php

The link above goes to a webpage with several versions

Ask Roland Anderson where these versions come from

http://rolandanderson.se/index.php

http://musicoftreme.com/2014/01/26/list-of-songs-on-treme-episode-1-season-3-sept-23rd-2012/

list of songs on Treme Blue yodel #9 by Jimmie Rodgers

Penal Farm Blues Scrapper Blackwell on page below. The page mentions that there are a number of standin on the corner songs.

http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2012/02/page/2/

Also see

https://books.google.com/books?id=YHB0pN8zUg4C&pg=PT17&lpg=PT17&dq=blues+%22standin+on+the+corner%22+-arizona+-yodel&source=bl&ots=oWFnSpqFKn&sig=brg758tAXvl7EioMQdj8hwHgnag&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yTQ5VfiqMoK-ggT7q4KYBw&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=blues%20%22standin%20on%20the%20corner%22%20-arizona%20-yodel&f=false

Norman Blake "Chatanooga sugar Babe" white folk singer

Little Sadie / on the corner -- http://moldfarm.com/category/banjo/old-time/

Newman Ivey White book -- also see other sources listed below the verses above in White's book (see also p. 204 "Dummy Train")

The Mad Daddy by The Cramps Tanding on the croner wearin my shades up comes a cop/police. etc.

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=6280.5;wap2

see Lonzie Thomas "Red Cross Store" in above link

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=10305.0

see reply #5 in above forum link

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/game/slanginrocks.html

The Game "Slangin' Rocks" rap song?

http://genius.com/Young-buck-4-kings-lyrics

4 Kings by Young Buck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw8bAqIotzQ

Bone Thugs n Harmony

Bob Dylan "In Search of Sadie" / "Little Sadie" Self-Portrait LP

Gellert version

Harvey Hull/ reed

Talkin' to myself blues lyrics 1921 - 1942 by michael taft. Can search this on Google books

Standin on the corner mentioned in books about race etc.

https://books.google.com/books?id=qbBbAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200&dq=police+%22standin+on+the+corner%22+-arizona&source=bl&ots=DuAjWkjZz5&sig=CvbdwkcH6Yn-Dbdjor2x1i-6Uaw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ESo5VffAKMKngwT5rIDQBg&ved=0CEAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=police%20%22standin%20on%20the%20corner%22%20-arizona&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=-G76U3ikkFAC&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20&dq=police+%22standin+on+the+corner%22+-arizona&source=bl&ots=BXaLGBhKNz&sig=8ukcEXWNrGPCodgF53ZPghHnxGc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ESo5VffAKMKngwT5rIDQBg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=police%20%22standin%20on%20the%20corner%22%20-arizona&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=QfeLAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT67&lpg=PT67&dq=police+%22standin+on+the+corner%22+-arizona&source=bl&ots=2l5We_p1uu&sig=OAUKxE5UQuAtphVeyhg0oR90Sqo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ESo5VffAKMKngwT5rIDQBg&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=police%20%22standin%20on%20the%20corner%22%20-arizona&f=false

http://www.loc.gov/item/ftvbib000043/ Lookin for the buuly performed by Sidney stripling recorded by john Work

Notes for Editing John Henry

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http://research.culturalequity.org/get-radio-detailed-show.do?showId=11

file:///C:/Users/Jim/Desktop/JH%20Cpt%20is%20WRONG.htm

Captain you are wrong version:

Show Details

:: Title :: Bound for Glory - 3A

:: Station :: Columbia Broadcasting System

:: Date :: 01-05-1945

:: Description :: Armed Forces Radio Service presents "a trainload of American ballads and blues, fiddle tunes, and tall stories." Topics range from the development of New York City, the contributions of Irish-Americans and John Henry.

:: Note 1 :: Notes read: Bound for Glory 3A - Josh White, Woody Guthrie - Show about the UN - CBS, 1-5-45.

:: Note 2 :: "This train is bound for glory / wheelin and a-dealin and a rockin and a-rollin" Narrated by Woody Guthrie: alll ("This Train"); Burl Ives ("Drill Ye Tarriers"); Josh White ("John Henry" with narrative and "I Got a Head Like A Rock and a Heart Like a Marble Stone").

Track List

Seq No Topic Duration Media File

1 America's contribution to the war effort against the Axis powers 00:14:11

Songs: [Drill You Tarriers, Drill], [I Got A Head Like A Rock], [John Henry], [The Biggest Thing That Man Had Ever Done (The Great Historical Bum)], [This Train Is Bound For Glory]

Participants: [Guthrie, Woody], [Ives, Burl], [Lomax, Alan], [McGhee, Brownie], [Terry, Sonny], [White, Joshua]

v

I

Keeping in mind that John Henry was a great symbol of black manhood, and that he openly challenges his captain in the rebel and complaint versions of "John Henry," we might ask ourselves the question of whether it is possible that some versions of the ballad include a symbolic or coded challenge against the captain. This question might be answered with a "Yes" by the scholars and researchers who believe that the spirituals and early blues and other black folk music included coded messages of resistance. They might argue that it's possible that some, possibly many, African Americans would have interpreted the contest with the drill as being symbolic of a challenge to the captain, and, by extension, to the white system of power that the captain represented.

Was the steam drill a coded substitute for the captain? I believe that this may have been the case in the minds of at least some black musicians and in the minds of at least some of those who made up their audiences. I am of this opinion because I agree with those who believe that resistance was coded in early black music. Another reason I believe that the drill was a substitute for the captain is that the lyrics in a substantial number of documented versions of "John Henry" attach ownership of the drill--i.e. control over or responsibility for it--to the captain. These versions will be discussed in some detail later, but first I will present examples of how black musicians used substitution to place coded resistance in their music. Before getting into this discussion, I want to stress that I am not claiming that African Americans viewed the race with the drill as purely symbolic. Certainly, a large part of the appeal of the legend for blacks (as well as whites) is that it is the story of one man's seemingly impossible victory over a powerful machine. But I do believe that, for at least some blacks, there may have been another layer of meaning to the legend with the drill serving as a substitute for the captain. While it is possible that an actual historical figure named John Henry raced and even defeated a steam drill, it is also possible that singing about the event could have taken on a special coded meaning as the years passed and the legend grew and spread throughout the country.

Add this aspect to the end of discussion

In addition to openly and directly challenging the captain in the rebel and complaint versions of the ballad, John Henry challenges his captain openly—but indirectly—in a good number of other documented versions. He does this through a variation to the third line of the “die with my hammer” verse. In this variation, the possessive pronoun “your” is used to identify the steam drill as belonging to the captain.

John Henry said to his captain

“Well a man ain’t nothing but a man,

And before I’ll be beaten by your steam drill

I’ll die with my hammer in my hand,

I’ll die with my hammer in my hand.”

////////DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD MCGHEE TERRY OOOOOOOOO

Sonny Terry /Brownie McGhee

We can see John Henry as a figure of black resistance in a version of the ballad by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee which includes the verse below in which John Henry tells his captain to "shut up" and that he (the captain) has made a mistake. A recording of this version appears on the CD titled Classic African-American Ballads from Smithsonian Folkways, SFW CD 40191

John Henry was hammerin' on top of the mountain,

Captain said, "John that mountain is sinkin' in."

John Henry said, "Shut up! Captain you don't know what you sayin'

That ain't nothin' but my hammer suckin' wind."

Any black man who would talk to his captain or boss or any other white authority figure as John Henry does in the verse above would be risking severe punishment for disrespecting a white man.

There are at least two other recordings of the ballad which contain a verse similar to the one above. One of these is another version by Terry and McGhee which was performed on an Armed Forces Radio Service program broadcast on CBS radio on January 5, 1945. In this second version, John Henry does not tell the captain to "shut up," but he does again directly tell him that he has made a mistake. The verse and a link to the radio program are below. (The song appears at about six minutes into the program.)

Link to second version by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee

The Captain said to John Henry

"I believe this mountain's sinkin' in."

John Henry said to his captain, "You are wrong.

That's only my hammer suckin' wind.

That is only my hammer suckin' wind."

Another version with a verse similar to the two by Terry and McGhee was recorded in southeastern Arkansas in the fall of 1963 by a blind black musician named Bailey Dansley The verse and a link to the recording are below. Note that Dansley mistakenly switches the roles of John Henry and the captain in the first line of the verse and then switches them back to their usual roles in the second and later lines. Also, be aware that there are several inaccuracies in the transcribed lyrics on the webpage containing the audio file of Dansley's performance, including a failure to recognize the switching of roles in the first line.

Link to Bailey Dansley recording

Henry told his Captain, "The mountain's fallin' in.

No, Captain, yous a bad mistake. (meaning "No, Captain, you made a bad mistake.")

That my hammer handle riingin' in the wind.

That my hammer handle ringin' in the wind, God knows.

My hammer handle ringin' in the wind."

In the three similar verses above, John Henry does the same thing he does in the complaint versions: he crosses over the boundary of what white people in the Jim Crow south considered to be acceptable behavior for a black man. Under Jim Crow social customs, it was taboo for a black man to tell his captain or boss to "shut up" or directly tell him that he had made a mistake. Conduct such as this would have been interpreted by John Henry's captain as an impudent act by a member of an inferior race who had the gall to think himself to be the equal of a white man.

The three verses discussed above are variations to a verse which appears frequently in documented versions of the ballad, a verse in which John Henry acts in a much more socially acceptable manner for a black man by telling his captain of his error in an indirect way.

The captain said to John Henry

"I believe this mountain's sinkin' in."

John Henry said to his captain, "Oh my!

That ain't nothin' but my hammer suckin' wind.

Ain't nothin' but my hammer suckin' wind."

In the above verse, rather than directly correcting his captain, John Henry instead indirectly and tactfully informs him of the source of the ominous sound he hears. And, in so doing, he comforts his captain and eases his fear of the possibility that the mountain is caving in on them inside the tunnel. Still it could be argued that there is also an element of resistance in this particular version of the verse--a much more subtle one--in that the white authority figure (the captain) is in a position of weakness through being portrayed as confused and frightened while, on the other hand, the black laborer (John Henry) is in the position of strength in that he can see that his powerful hammering has struck great fear in the captain.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Willis Laurence James version

Another version in which we can see John Henry as a symbol of black resistance is the one below which was collected by an African American music professor and folklorist named Willis Laurence James. James collected it from Georgia and it is in the 12-bar blues format.

John Henry was a man didn't 'bey no law (twice)

Didn't need no gun, could whip an' man he cross.

De white man say, John Henry, do lak yo' please (twice)

Done hear 'bout yo', all de way f 'om Tennessee.

In the two verses above, John Henry is a black bad man. Taking these verses in the context of the many documented versions of the song, including the versions cited in this essay, the figure of John Henry in James's version may be interpreted as being not an evil bad man, but a "ba-a-ad"--that is, great and powerful--man. So ba-a-ad that white men let him do as he pleased and he did not have to abide by the laws of the white man's legal system, a system which largely existed as a tool used to oppress blacks. In James's version of "John Henry," the great steel driver is living (to paraphrase Greil Marcus in his writing about Stagolee) the black man's fantasy of no limits. He is not just "a steel-drivin' man;" he is something much more, something that every black man wanted to be: a free black man.

In James's version of "John Henry," the great steel driver is a free black man. He is living (to paraphrase Greil Marcus in his writing about Stagolee) the black man's fantasy of no limits.

With/In this particular version of "john Henry", we can clearly see the song as/in the context of it being /// He is living (to paraphrase from Greil Marcus) the black man's fantasy of no limits.

We can see John Henry as a figure of black resistance in the version below........A version of the song in which John Henry is a bad man was collected by a black music professor and folklorist named Willis Laurence James. It was collected from Georgia and is in the 12 bar blues format.

Insert verses TO DO proofread verses and correct for exact language)

John Henry was a man didn't 'bey no law (twice)

Didn't need no gun

Could whip an' man he cross

Deee white man say John Henry--do lak yo please (twice)

Done hear 'bout yo'

All de way from Tennessee

In the two verses above, John Henry is a bad man. Taking these two verses in the context two verses above in the context of the many documented versions of the song, including the versions cited in this essay, the figure of John Henry in James's version may be interpreted as being not an evil bad man, but a "ba-a-ad"--that is, great and powerful--man. So ba-a-adthat white men let him do as he pleased and he did not have to abide by the laws of the white man's legal system, a system which largely existed as a tool used to oppress blacks. In James's version of "John Henry," the great steel driver is an absolutely free black man. With/In this particular version of "john Henry", we can clearly see the song as/in the context of it being /// He is living (to paraphrase Greil Marcus in his writing about Stagolee) being the black man's fantasy of no limits.

Inseiuytrrse.

Introduction

saw a message of opposition against oppression lying beneath the surface of a story about a contest in which a powerful black man opposes a steam drill.

Some researchers have put forth the idea that the struggle between b and w may have been an unspoken but implied part of the legend, but my research shows that this struggle was not only a part of the legend but that it also was expressed on a much more direct and visible/tangible level.

Additionally, they point to the possibility that racial restsance was also expressed on a symbolic level in the ballad with JH's race with the drill representing a black challenge to the white world.

The 25 versions of JH which I cite and discuss below suggest that at least some Afr Ame, possibly many, saw JH as a figure of bl resitance and rebellion--a racrebel. While Some researchers have put forth the idea that the struggle between b and w may have been an unspoken but implied part of the legend, but my research shows that this struggle was not only a part of the legend but that it also was expressed on a much more direct and visible/tangible level.

The acts of resistance lend creedence to the idea put forth by some interpreiters of the ballad that JH's race with the drill did not just represent a contest between man and machine but also represented a struggle between black and whiote with JH challenging the white world. While JH teams up with his captain in some versions of the ballad, there are a large number of versions of it in which JH refers to drill as "your drill." two sides to same coin etc.

Black resistance in three common verses of "John Henry"

Bring me a [heavier hammer] Ollie Gilbert's version asks for lighter hammer. Per Steven Tracy's John Henry book, a hammer song in Newman Ivey White book states that the ahmmer is mos' too heavy

1.Rosy cheeks

2. Polly drove steel like a man

3. But it may be that this sverse held a much darker meaning for a least certain singers of the ballad and their audiences. For example, I imagine that those who worked on the construction of railroad tunnels or who possessed knowledge of the

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=2056.0 WEENie Campbell post from ALAN BALFOUR about unexpurgated folk song and mack mccormick Bud Russell and includes Lowell Fulsom's version which has line like Lightnin Hopkins Bud russell drove pretty women like ugly me

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

To Do:

Print out or copy all completed pages as a Backup to Word or my e-mail.

Possibly include

Bud Russell Blues

back in 19 and 35, women couldn't hide from the men.--Give my Poor heart ease.

OUR SINGING COUNTRY-- the captain killed him because he couldn't go

The driving the women verse may have been tied to an actual event. Due to the frequent appearance/ apperance of the lyric in a large number of songs-recordings appearances of the lyric, it may have been a quite brutal event. (drove that bully til he went stone blind, etc. driving vs working(drove that bully...) Driving connotes using force --the captain killed him cause he wouldn't go from Lomax's Our Singing Country

maverick/floating phrases are loaded with meaning (shorthand) per David Evans

http://generalbriefing.tumblr.com

Below is link to a blog titled General Briefing which calls attention to the Sarah Haley Like I was a Man article

http://generalbriefing.tumblr.com/post/62176366720/sarah-haley-like-i-was-a-man-chain-gangs-gender

My research on the John Henry ballad and legend focuses primarily on gaining a better understanding of what John Henry meant to African Americans. In going this route, I am not trying to discount the fact that John Henry's heroic appeal extended to both black and white people; certainly, the story of John Henry and his contest against a steam drill made him a model of courage, strength, and perseverance for many people, regardless of their skin color, who were trying to overcome difficulties and obstacles in their lives. However, the story of John Henry was the story of a black man, and, during the days of Jim Crow, John Henry had an added dimension for black people. For them, he was a powerful symbol of black manhood, a symbol who emerged and rose to prominence during a time when the black man was denied his manhood by the social, legal, governmental, and economic systems of white America. I am exploring this particular dimension of John Henry in order to gain a more complete understanding of the significance of the legend. My discussion below will look closely at what John Henry meant to African Americans and will include examining him in his role as a symbol of black manhood. And in viewing that role, I will also look at John Henry in relation to how black manhood is connected to the African American struggle for freedom.

XXXXXXXX The versions of John Henry which I cite and discuss below suggest that at least some African Americans, possibly many, saw John Henry as a figure of black resistance and rebellion. In these versions--almost all of which are from black performers or informants--John Henry does something quite extraordinary: he challenges his captain by refusing to be brutalized, mistreated, overworked, or underpaid. In doing so, he steps over the boundaries established by white society for black men in the days of Jim Crow. In those days, acts of resistance such as the ones by John Henry against his captain--by a black man against a white authority figure--amounted to acts of racial defiance and rebellion against the white system of power. In other words, these acts of resistance cast John Henry in the role of a race rebel. Also, these acts signal the possibility that some or even many African Americans looked beneath the surface of a story about a powerful black man opposing a steam drill and saw a hidden message of racial opposition. Possibly, some even saw John Henry's battle against the drill as a symbol of the black struggle for freedom.

------------------

My research shows that, in the past, for at least some people, John Henry was a hero who was very different from the image we have of him today. The existence of the rebel and complaint versions reveal that, years ago, at least part of the reason John Henry was a hero was that he stood up to or fought back against a cruel or unfair captain (who beat of mistreated him). This does not match how John Henry is viewed today. Today's interpreters of the legend have overlooked or ignored John Henry's challenges against his captain and instead see his heroism as arising from his fight against the loss of his and his co-workers jobs and from his victory over the drill.

----------

This paragraph was cut out and a revised paragraph substituted. My research on the John Henry ballad and legend focuses primarily on gaining a better understanding of what John Henry meant to African Americans. Originally, John Henry was an African American hero. But, as the song and legend about his great victory in a contest with a steam drill spread to all parts of the United States, he became transformed into an Everyman figure whose heroic appeal extended to people of all races. The popularization of his legend has made him a model of courage, strength, and perseverance for all people of all races who are trying to overcome difficulties and obstacles in their lives. But John Henry had an added dimension for African Americans. For them, he was a powerful symbol of black manhood, a symbol who emerged and rose to prominence during a time when the black man was denied his manhood by white society. My discussion below will look closely at what John Henry meant to African Americans and will include examining John Henry in his role as a symbol of black manhood. And in viewing that role, I will also look at John Henry in relation to how black manhood is connected to the African American struggle for freedom.

This paragraph was also cut out and a revised paragraph substituted My research shows that, in the past, for at least some people, John Henry was a hero who was very different from the image we have had of him. The existence of the rebel and complaint versions reveal that, for these people, at least part of the reason John Henry was a hero was that he stood up to a cruel captain and resisted being beaten, overworked, underpaid, or mistreated. But, as pointed out above, folklorists and scholars have not viewed John Henry as a hero who challenged his captain or who was at odds with him in any way. Instead they see John Henry's sole adversary as the steam drill and view his heroic appeal as coming primarily out of his victory over it.

In addition to the update on what I've found so far about the legend, I want to give you an idea of the direction in which my research may be headed. One of the things I've observed after reviewing many versions of "John Henry" is that, if you judge based upon the frequency that the commonly occurring verses appear in the song, John Henry's victory over the drill is relatively less important than the "a man ain't nuthin' but a man" verse. This verse of pride and defiance appears much more frequently than the verse describing John Henry's victory (John Henry drove fourteen feet, the steam drill only made nine). It's true that there are so many verses to the ballad that many of them are going to be left out in a typical performance. And early recordings of the song were also limited in the amount of time in which the song could last. But wouldn't the musician most often sing the verses that were most meaningful to him? The "a man ain't nuthin' but a man" verse was probably the most meaningful verse in the ballad, especially for a black man trying to endure life in the Jim Crow south. Blacks could have interpreted this verse as being about John Henry--a black man--asserting his manhood and his humanity in defiance of a white authority figure and the system which denied him both his manhood and his humanity. For blacks, this aspect of the legend--this act of standing up and defying the system-- was likely just as important as if not more important than John Henry's victory over the drill.

On a related point, I think the idea that John Henry challenged the drill in order to save jobs is largely overstated and an oversimplification of the story. Here is a quote from a post to mudcat.org by researcher John Garst,

Norm Cohen and Brett Williams, in their books (*Long Steel Rail* and *John Henry: A Bio-Bibliography*) argue against the job-saving interpretation because it is "too narrow" (Cohen) and because the story is really one of a "family tragedy" (Williams).

"For each John Henry left unemployed there will be a job for a steam-drill operator—not to mention for the factory worker who makes the steam drill and the mechanic who repairs it … The tragedy is not that the old ways of performing tasks are superannuated by newer ones, but that society finds it more convenient to discharge the old laborer than retrain him, or at least retire him in dignity." (Cohen, pp 74-75)

"It is this family context that gives John Henry his human dignity and complexity, renders his most profound statement, "A man ain't nothin' but a man," so proud and sad, and makes fictional parodies of him so often offensive. The song is a wonderful reaffirmation of the worth of a human life—a worker's in a workplace which denies it, a black man's in a context reminiscent of slavery, a southerner's during a time of bitter humiliation and drastic change—and, ultimately, of every ordinary person who through dignity and strength of will can be great. The ballad not only praises John Henry's courage and skill, but it also reminds us that the details of his personal life matter. Like all of us, he is a member of a family." (Williams, p 124)

Here is a link to Garst's post.

http://mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?messages__Message_ID=3470521

I believe that a study of how the ballad was popularized over the years might lead to some interesting conclusions.

Garst has been researching "John Henry"

. I'm not saying that it has nothing to do with the legend and it , but I think it is largely overstated

This verse could have been interpreted by black men as a black man defying

This verse of pride and defiance--John Henry's assertion of his manhood and his humanity--appears much more frequently than the verse describing John Henry's victory (John Henry drove fourteen feet, the steam drill only made nine). It's true that there are so many verses to the ballad that many of them are going to be left out in a typical performance. And early recordings of the song were also limited in the amount of time in which the song could last. But wouldn't the musician most often sing the verses that were most meaningful to him? The "a man ain't nuthin' but a man" verse was probably the most meaningful verse in the ballad, especially for a black man trying to endure life in the Jim Crow south.

Again judging by frequency of occurrence, the verse appealed to white performers also, But, of course, I would argue that the appeal is a little different for whites.

A related point that I want to make is that I think the

http://mudcat.org/detail_pf.cfm?messages__Message_ID=3470521

(We Americans love defiance and rebellion. Even more than victory. Our most important non-religious holiday is celebrated July 4, the day we declared our independence, not the day (Sept. 3) the Treaty of Paris was signed with Great Britain.)

The Ballad of the Easter Bunny

Copyright © 2019 James P. Hauser

Come gather 'round people and I'll tell you a tale

Of How Easter Bunny landed in jail

Not a tale of Santa, not a tale to make jolly

But a tale of an ever exPanding orange blob of madness and of folly

After gathering Eggs, in Mexico, Bunny hopped

'cross the Rio Grande

And over the border wall Bunny leapt with fantastic elan

But the border guards said "You can't enter this land"

And Bunny Smiled while knowing... he ha-ad the upper hand

'Cause Bunny was schooled by his cousin Brer Rabbit

And overcoming the odds was his favorite habit

So he meekly protested "Oh please don't stop me

I’m delivering these eggs to the White House, you see"

But the border patrol put him under arrest

With his 10,000 eggs gathered for an Easter contest

They slapped the cuffs on him and led him away

"The Prez won't be happy" the great bunny did say

They put Bunny in detention and wrote down the ages

Of all of the eggs and they put them in cages

When the President found out, he was on...the White House lawn

And for coloring the eggs, he Held...a fabulous...multi-colored crayon

He said "This Easter egg roll can't be run by Bo-Peep"

So where's my Mexican Bunny that I hired for cheap"

And from the border, came the answer--news which led to dismay

News of 10,000 new citizen chicks born Easter Day!

Born in the Valley

Copyright © 2019 by James P. Hauser

Well, when I was just a little boy

Sittin' down on my daddy's knee

Poppa said "Son, I'm a steel-workin' man

Hard workin' and proud and free"

Poppa was born down in the valley

The son of a steel workin' man

When the rich folks built a fishin' club

Up in the hills by the dam

Born in the valley

Born in this valley of steel

Born in the valley

Where steel was King of the Land

Poppa saw the wall of water comin'

But all he could do was cry and moan

When the flood swept away his wife and first son

Made death the King of his Home

Over 2,000 dead, on a spring day

Iron horses were tossed into the sky

An obscene price paid for nothin' but fish

Made Lucifer laugh and God cry.

Born in the valley

Born in this valley of tears

Born in the valley

Where the flood was King of the land

When I had a little boy of my own

And he was sittin' down on my knee

The mill let go three hundred men

And one of those men was me.

Well, I was born in the valley

And I’m the father of a fine young son

I’ve raised him up to be strong and do good

And I pray that he shall overcome

Born in the valley

Born in this valley of rust

Born in the valley

Town’s dyin’ and turnin' to dust.

Today a dam's near overflowin'

With confusion, hatred, and pain

Proud men promised to save us

But they sure didn’t stop the rain.

Oh, I pray that dam won't be breakin'

'Cause it will rain down fire and blood

Then will the lucky few fishin’ in the hills cry

For their brothers that they buried

with the flood?

Can the valley in the west save us?

Our prophets and our kings debate

Well Mister, I was born down here in Johnstown

Where I can see the whole damned world's fate.

I was born in the valley

I’m the father of a Johnstown son

I’ve raised him up to be strong and do some good

And I pray that he shall overcome

Flood in the valley

Questions… blowin' in the wind

Flood in the valley

Oh, won't you sing sweet robin sing

Please sing sweet robin sing