An Introduction to America’s Music

352 PART 3 | FROM WORLD WAR I THROUGH WORLD WAR II

CD 2.20 Listening Guide 14.4 “John Henry” ANONYMOUS

date: recorded at Mississippi State

Penitentiary, 1959

genre: African American work song

performer: Ed Lewis, vocal and ax strokes

meter: duple

form: strophic

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• coordination of meter to ax strokes


• pentatonic melody


• strophic form

timing section text comments

0:00 stanza 1 Whoa John Henry went up on the mountain

You know that mountain it was so high

Whoa John Henry he laid his hammer down he

cried

“Captain, a ten-pound maul is too small, O Lord,

A ten-pound maul too small”

Recording begins with an ax stroke

on beat 3, followed by three vocal

pickup notes. The fi rst syllable of

“Henry” lands on the fi rst downbeat,

with a strong emphasis. Subsequent

ax strokes are on beat 3 of each bar.

0:32 stanza 2 Whoa John Henry he says to the captain,

“Captain, pay me my whole back day

I will make more money on that IC Line

I will on this M&O

Whoa than I will on the M&O”

Vocal line becomes more ornate,

apparent in the last two lines of

stanza.

1:03 stanza 3 Well John Henry’s captain told him,

“I have a power steel driver down home

Well John Henry now if you’ll beat that power

driver down

Going to buy you a railroad of your own

I’m going to buy you a railroad of your own”

Continues in the more ornate vocal

style.

1:33 stanza 4 Well John Henry told his captain

He says, “A man ain’t nothing but a man

’Fore I would stand and see your power driver

beat me down

Would die with my hammer in my hand

Whoa I would die with my hammer in my hand”

The return to simpler vocal style

gives emphasis to text.

2:02 stanza 5 Oh well the people all hear my running

Well now the train coming down the track

Oh John Henry throwed his hammer on the

ground and he lay

Say, “Echo from my hammer coming back

Oh that’s the echo from my hammer coming back”

2:35 stanza 6 Well John Henry had a buddy

Said, “Buddy, why ain’t you taking your time?”

John Henry drilled down eighteen spikes

While his buddy was only driving down nine

Oh while his buddy was only driving down nine

Delay of stanza for a bar and a half

(6 beats) shifts the meter so that the

ax strokes now fall on the downbeat

of each bar.

172028_14_332-360_r3_ko.indd 352 23/01/13 8:38 PM