An Introduction to America’s Music

CHAPTER 14 | THE RISE OF URBAN FOLK MUSIC 353

Alan Lomax reached maturity during the Great Depression and, just as

the economy was recovering, saw war break out in Europe. He came to per-

ceive folk music as the distilled political expression of working people, hence a

means to rally popular sentiment against evil. Convinced that he was working

on behalf of true A merican patriotism, Lomax treated folk song as an ideologi-

cal equivalent of the broadside ballads and abolition songs of earlier days. In

a collection compiled by the Lomaxes, father and son, Alan Lomax set down

his belief in folk song as a living force. For Lomax, a collector of folk songs was

not merely an observer but also an agent with a political goal. In midcentury

America, he was not alone in his conviction that folk song was a potent force

for political change.

CD 2.20 Listening Guide 14.4 “John Henry” ANONYMOUS

Listen & Refl ect

1. In the same year he made this fi eld recording, Alan Lomax also recorded a group singing
   “Carrie Belle” (see LG 4.1). What similarities and differences can you hear between these
   two work songs?


2. “John Henry” tells a story: it is both a work song and a ballad. What features does it share
   with “The Gypsy Laddie” (see LG 9.2) and how does it differ?

timing section text comments

3:04 stanza 7 John Henry he told his shaker

He said, “My shaker, you better pray

If I misses this deal on a deal going down

Tomorrow be your burying day,

You’ll know tomorrow be your burying day”

Delay of the fi rst ax stroke by two

beats puts it once again on beat 3 of

each bar.

3:32 stanza 8 Well John Henry told his captain

Said, “Just bring your steam driver down here

And before I let your steam driver beat me

down

Going to die with my hammer in the wind

I’m going to die with my hammer in the wind”

4:00 stanza 9 John Henry he had a little woman

And her name was Polly Ann

John Henry taken sick and he had to go to bed

Polly Ann drilled steel like a man

Whoa Polly Anne drove steel like a man

note Field recording by Alan Lomax.

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