American Folk songs of black/afram origin

[IllmaticDelta]

Basically a variety of songs of afram origin that have become part of the repertoire of Folk musicians. Some of these you make not know or be aware of their origin because you may have heard of them from white performers or other non-black americans. These songs range from sacred songs such as negro spirituals and black hymns to various secular types including, game, murder ballads, bad-man ballads, chain gang-prison songs, blues-ballads, banjo+fiddle etc..

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Stagger Lee

The historical "Stagger Lee" was Lee Shelton, an African-American pimp living in St. Louis, Missouri in the late 19th century. He was nicknamed "Stag Lee" or "Stack Lee", with a variety of explanations being given for the moniker: he was given the nickname because he 'went "stag"', meaning he was without friends; he took the nickname from a well-known riverboat captain called "Stack Lee"; or, according to John and Alan Lomax, he took the name from a riverboat owned by the Lee family of Memphis called the Stack Lee, which was known for its on-board prostitution.[2] He was well known locally as one of the "Macks", a group of pimps who demanded attention through their flashy clothing and appearance.[3] In addition to these activities, he was the captain of a black "Four Hundred Club", a social club with a dubious reputation.[4]

On Christmas night in 1895, Shelton and his acquaintance William "Billy" Lyons were drinking in the Bill Curtis Saloon. Lyons was also a member of St. Louis' underworld, and may have been a political and business rival to Shelton. Eventually, the two men got into a dispute, during which Lyons took Shelton's Stetson hat.[5] Subsequently, Shelton shot Lyons, recovered his hat, and left.[6] Lyons died of his injuries, and Shelton was charged, tried and convicted of the murder in 1897. He was pardoned in 1909, but returned to prison in 1911 for assault and robbery, and died in incarceration in 1912.[7]

The crime quickly entered into American folklore and became the subject of song as well as folktales and toasts. The song's title comes from Shelton's nickname, "Stag Lee" or "Stack Lee".[8] The name was quickly corrupted in the folk tradition; early versions were called "Stack-a-Lee" and "Stacker Lee"; "Stagolee" and "Stagger Lee" also became common. Other recorded variants include "Stackerlee", "Stack O'Lee", "Stackolee", "Stackalee", "Stagerlee", and "Stagalee".[9]

A song called "Stack-a-Lee" was first mentioned in 1897, in the Kansas City Leavenworth Herald, as being performed by "Prof. Charlie Lee, the piano thumper."[10] The earliest versions were likely field hollers and other work songs performed by African-American laborers, and were well known along the lower Mississippi River by 1910. That year, musicologist John Lomax received a partial transcription of the song,[11] and in 1911 two versions were published in the Journal of American Folklore by the sociologist and historian Howard W. Odum.[12]

The song was first recorded by Waring's Pennsylvanians in 1923, and became a hit. Another version was recorded later that year by Frank Westphal & His Regal Novelty Orchestra, and Herb Wiedoeft and his band recorded the song in 1924.[13] Also in 1924, the first version with lyrics was recorded, as "Skeeg-a-Lee Blues", by Lovie Austin. Ma Rainey recorded the song the following year, with Louis Armstrong on cornet, and a notable version was recorded by Frank Hutchison in 1927.[10]

Before World War II, it was commonly known as "Stack O'Lee". W.C. Handy wrote that this probably was a nickname for a tall person, comparing him to the tall smokestack of the large steamboat Robert E. Lee.[14] By the time W.C. Handy wrote that explanation in the 1920s, "Stack O' Lee" was already familiar in United States popular culture, with recordings of the song made by such pop singers of the day as Cliff Edwards.

The version by Mississippi John Hurt, recorded in 1928, is regarded as definitive.[10] In his version, as in all such pieces, there are many (sometimes anachronistic) variants on the lyrics. Several older versions give Billy's last name as "De Lyons" or "Deslile". Other notable pre-war versions were by Duke Ellington (1927), Cab Calloway (1931), and Woody Guthrie (1941).[10]

The Song and Myth of Stagger Lee

There is a song that has been recorded by James Brown, Nick Cave and Neil Diamond. The Clash, Pat Boone, Fats Domino and Bob Dylan. Duke Ellington, The Grateful Dead, Woody Guthrie, The Ventures, Ike & Tina Turner, Ma Rainey and Jerry Lee Lewis. Tom Jones did it. So did Beck, Mississippi John Hurt, the Black Keys and Elvis Presley.

Over 400 different artists have recorded this song since the first recording in 1923.

Margaret Walker and James Baldwin wrote poems from the song. It's been refashioned as a musical, two novels, a short story, an award-winning graphic novel, Ph.D. dissertations and, in 2008, a pornographic feature film.

The song has lived as Ragtime, a Broadway showtune, Blues, Jazz, Honky Tonk, Country, 50s Rock and Roll, Ska, Folk, Surf, 70s punk, Heavy Metal, 90s punk, Rap. Even Hawaiian. The song's character lives large in Gangsta Rap.

The song tells the story of a murder. On Christmas Eve, 1895, in a St. Louis saloon, "Stag" Lee Shelton, a black pimp, shot William "Billy" Lyons. Eyewitnesses say Billy snatched Stag's Stetson hat. Boom, boom, boom, boom went Stag's forty-four. You don't mess with a man's hat.

The events of that night were immediately cast into song. Like a game of Chinese Whispers it swept through the South, following railway lines and paddle steamers of the Mississippi. Told and retold. Sung and resung. Changing a little bit each time. Reality slipped away and the myth was created.

The legend of Stagger Lee is one of the most important and enduring stories from American folklore. It is a tale that originated from African-American oral tradition, and it also has become a very popular story within the white community.

There are many different versions of the tale, but here is the general storyline. Stagger Lee (also known as Stagolee, Stack O' Lee, Stackerlee, Stackalee etc.) gets into a dispute with a man named Billy DeLyon (also known as Billy the Lion or Billy Lyons) after losing his Stetson hat to Billy while gambling. Stagger Lee pulls a gun--sometimes identified as a .45, other times as a "smokeless .44"--on Billy who then pleads to be spared for the sake of his wife and children. Showing no compassion at all, Stagger Lee cold-bloodedly shoots and kills his opponent.

The killer's reputation for "badness" is a key to the story. According to some classic musical recordings of the legend (such as "Mississippi" John Hurt's "Stack O'Lee Blues"), the authorities are too frightened of Stagger Lee to arrest him for his crime. In some versions of the tale, he is eventually caught by the authorities, but the judge refuses to sentence him to prison because he fears that the badman will strike back against him. In certain tellings of the story, Stagger Lee appears in hell after he is killed or executed, but is so "bad" that he takes control of the devil's kingdom and turns it into his own badman's paradise.

“SHOT IN CURTIS'S PLACE
“William Lyons, 25, coloured, a levee hand, living at 1410 Morgan Street, was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o'clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and Morgan streets, by Lee Sheldon, also coloured.
“Both parties, it seems, had been drinking, and were feeling in exuberant spirits. Lyons and Sheldon were friends and were talking together. The discussion drifted to politics, and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon's hat from his head.
“The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon drew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen [...] When his victim fell to the floor, Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away.”
- St Louis Globe-Democrat, December 26, 1895.

other versions

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Rock Island Line

"Rock Island Line" is an black American blues/folk/prison work song song performed and first recorded commercially by Lead Belly in the 1930s.
Ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it appeared as a spiritual as early as 1929. The first recorded performance of "Rock Island Line" was by inmates of the Arkansas Cummins State Farm prison in 1934.[1] Many artists subsequently recorded it, including popular renditions by Lead Belly and Lonnie Donegan.[2]

The verses tell a humorous story about a train operator who smuggled pig iron through a toll gate by claiming all he had on board was livestock. The song's chorus includes:

The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road
The Rock Island Line is the road to ride
The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road
If you want to ride you gotta ride it like you find it
Get your ticket at the station for the Rock Island Line

The Weavers, featuring Pete Seeger, had a big hit with Lead Belly's Goodnight Irene in 1950 just one year after his death. The Weavers also recorded a version of the Rock Island Line.

But it wasn't the Weavers who would turn this song into a hit. The unlikely performer who did that was a Scottish singer named Lonnie Donegan. When he recorded the Rock Island Line in 1954, Donegan was virtually unknown. He played the banjo in the Chris Barber Jazz Band, one of a handful of New Orleans-style jazz groups that were a popular attraction in clubs around London at the time.

During performances, a tradition had developed that when the jazz band took a break, a smaller group led by Donegan playing guitar, would sing a set of American folk songs with an up-beat tempo. Donegan says it all started with an interest in the roots of jazz.

"Being interested in the jazz, I was also interested in the origins of the jazz which is all the Afro-American folk music and so on. And playing the banjo and guitar, it was very simple to get involved in strumming the guitar and singing the blues which we did for our own amusement and education as it were. This drifted on to the stage, by means of the boys going off for a beer and me getting up and singing. And it became a popular spot with the customer," Donegan says.

Donegan says that while these songs came from American folk music, they were different in several ways. "First and foremost it is American folk music and because I was involved in jazz, which is another form of American folk music, everything I sang had a little tinge of jazz influence in it. It wasn't just pure folk music. It wasn't a reiteration of what I'd already heard, we had added something to it, made it a little bit different because of the jazz input. Also, not being American, being Scottish stroke Irish, I suppose that also made a difference to the delivery when it came."

When asked what they called this music, one of the players came up with the term skiffle. Chas McDevitt started playing in a skiffle group in the '50s. He is the author of Skiffle: The definitive inside story. He says the word was first used in northern American cities to describe the sound created at informal gatherings in which musicians played homemade instruments, often with the goal of raising money to help someone pay his rent.

"All this is American origin, really. It happened in America in the '20s and '30s, the rent parties and things of that where people would pick any instruments that were hanging around. It harks back to those days," says McDevitt.

When Decca Records brought the Chris Barber Band into the studio to record their jazz, they also recorded some of Donegan's skiffle music.

One of the songs that Donegan performed, along with Chris Barber on bass and Beryl Bryden playing the washboard, was The Rock Island Line.

"It's probably the archetype example of Afro-American folk song. It's got everything in it. You know, from the recitee at the beginning, which you now call rap man, to a gradual accelerando as they say in music, an excitement and tension and also had a little story there with it. It's got everything you would want from a folk song."

Released as a single in 1956, it surprised everyone including Donegan by becoming a pop hit, rising on the British charts all the way to number nine. Donegan was suddenly a star. He left the jazz band and formed his own skiffle group. He went on a tour of America and played on the Perry Como Show.

Donegan followed it with a few more hits, but he says it was The Rock Island Line that changed his life. "It changed it absolutely from being a little banjo player sitting in the back of a jazz band to being the biggest star in England, really."

And it introduced skiffle music to a much wider audience. "It lifted the attention from just being a niche jazz situation into the general public's view and they Mr. and Mrs. Jones sitting at home listening to the radio had never heard any of this before. They don't go to jazz clubs. They didn't hear The Rock Island Line, didn't know anything about it. And suddenly here's this guy on the television and in the radio smashing on the guitar jumping up and down screaming. (They said) 'what the hell is that?' And the kids loved it. And so they all rushed out and bought $10 guitars and copied everything I did."

Chas McDevitt says it wasn't long before England was in the midst of a skiffle craze. "Once it was a hit everybody started buying guitars and playing. And it branched out from the jazz clubs to the coffee bars... and before you knew it there were thousands of groups everywhere playing skiffle, because it was so easy to play on just three chords, most of the songs were pretty simple. Everybody got a chance to play. You got the washboard player and some of the groups used tea chest bass or tub bass."

The skiffle craze lasted only about a year and a half, but its influence was far reaching. Many of the musicians who would become part of the British Invasion of the 1960s started out playing skiffle.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison first played together in a skiffle group called the Quarrymen and The Rock Island Line clearly had a place in their hearts. All three were recorded playing it at times when they were just fooling around. McCartney gave the tune his familiar polish during a rehearsal in the mid-'70s.

And John Lennon's sense of humor is evident in this home recording he made in his New York apartment in the late '70s.

Lennon and McCartney are just two of the many artists who have interpreted the song over the years. Soon after Donegan's version became a hit, noted train song singer Johnny Cash came out with a fine version of his own.

Satirist Stan Freberg made fun of the song's obscure lyrics in a bit he recorded with Peter Leeds. Freberg plays a singer auditioning the song for an impatient producer.

Blues singers Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, who once toured with Lead Belly, recorded a distinctive version of the Rock Island Line in the late '60s.

Harry Belafonte tried to give the song a kind of Vegas feel in a recording he made in the '70s.

A group of Los Angeles-based hipsters calling themselves the Knitters had some fun with the song in the mid-'80s.

Which brings us back to where we began this story, Little Richard's impassioned performance from 1988. And who knows how many future generations will find new inspiration in this old song?

Bethany Yarrow, the daughter of Peter Yarrow from the singing group Peter, Paul and Mary, found that young people get excited about folk music when they can relate to it. Yarrow is currently working on a collection of songs that she calls "Deep Folk."

"I'm trying to let people who's ears are only really accustomed to music today, trying to give them a way into these songs and a way to hear them... So I started delving back into folk music and trying to make evident the links between the history of American music and music how it is today," says Yarrow.

Yarrow says one of the old songs that she feels is linked to the music of today is The Rock Island Line.

"It has to do for me with the rhythmic. Today, a lot of the music, especially R&B and Hip Hop is all based on the rhythm, and that's what people dance to; that's what people move to. For me the rhythm of the train and the rhythm of work and the rhythm of The Rock Island Line kind of chugging along was what I really tried to tap into."

 

[Larry Lobster]

Will black people play guitar like that again?

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Will black people play guitar like that again?

like what?

 

[Larry Lobster]

like what?

Like gods.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Not to get off track but

Like gods.

of course

 

[IllmaticDelta]

"Black Girl" ("In the Pines & Where did You Sleep Last Night")

also known as "Black Girl" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", is a traditional American folk song which dates back to at least the 1870s

Like numerous other folk songs, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" was passed on from one generation and locale to the next by word of mouth. The first printed version of the song, compiled by Cecil Sharp, appeared in 1917, and comprised just four lines and a melody. The lines are:

Black girl, black girl, don't lie to me
Where did you stay last night?
I stayed in the pines where the sun never shines
And shivered when the cold wind blows

Black Girl, In The Pines, Longest Train has been commonly traced to black convict coal miners. Sharpe collected a version in Kentucky and it is found around the southern mountains. As long as the convicts kept up with their work load traditionaly they'd be allowed to receive women, and be left alone. "Black girl, black girl what have I done, to have you turn your back on me, Ive robbed no bank I've killed no man I've done no hanging crime". The practice of leasing out convict for coal mining, and other forms of hard labor started right after the Civil War ended and continued in the mines until 1928, the practice didn't finally end until the mid 1960's, and for that matter it may have started up again.

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[IllmaticDelta]

John the Revelator

"John the Revelator" is a traditional gospel blues call and response song.[1] Music critic Thomas Ward describes it as "one of the most powerful songs in all of pre-war acoustic music ... [which] has been hugely influential to blues performers".[2] American gospel-blues musician Blind Willie Johnson recorded "John the Revelator" in 1930 and subsequently a variety of artists have recorded their renditions of the song, often with variations in the verses and music.

The song's title refers to John of Patmos (or traditionally John the Apostle) in his role as the author of the Book of Revelation. A portion of that book focuses on the opening of seven seals and the resulting apocalyptic events. In its various versions, the song quotes several passages from the Bible in the tradition of American spirituals.

Blind Willie Johnson recorded "John the Revelator" during his fifth and final recording session for Columbia Records in Atlanta, Georgia on April 20, 1930. Accompanying Johnson on vocal and guitar is Willie B. Harris (sometimes identified as his first wife), who sings the response parts of the song. Their vocals add a "sense of dread and foreboding" to the song, along with the chorus line "Who's that a writin', John the Revelator" "repeated like a mantra".[2]

Johnson's lyrics reference a number of passages from the Bible:

[call] Well who's that writin'? [response] John the Revelator[3]
Who's that writin'? John the Revelator
Who's that writin'? John the Revelator
A book of the seven seals[4]
[call] Tell me what's John writin'? [response] Ask the Revelator
What's John writin'? Ask the Revelator
What's John writin'? Ask the Revelator
A book of the seven seals
Well who art worthy, thousands cried holy[5]
Bound for some, Son of our God[6]
Daughter of Zion, Judah the Lion[7]
He redeemeth, and bought us with his blood[8]
[Repeat verses 1 & 2]
John the Revelator, great advocator[9]
Get's 'em on the battle of Zion
Lord, tellin' the story, risin' in glory
Cried, "Lord, don't you love some I"
[Repeat verses 1 & 2]
Well Moses to Moses, watchin' the flock[10]
Saw the bush where they had to stop[11]
God told Moses, "Pull off your shoes"[12]
Out of the flock, well you I choose[13]
[Repeat verses 1 & 2]
The song was released as one of the last singles by Johnson and is included on numerous compilations, including the 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music.[1][14][15]


Son House rendition
Delta blues musician Son House recorded several a cappella versions of "John the Revelator"in the 1960s. His lyrics for a 1965 recording explicitly reference three theologically important events: the Fall of Man, the Passion of Christ, and the Resurrection.

[call] Who's that writin'? [response] John the Revelator[3]
Tell me who's that writin'? John the Revelator
Tell me who's that writin'? John the Revelator
Wrote the book of the seven seals[4]
[call] Who's that writin'? [response] John the Revelator
Tell me who's that writin'? John the Revelator
Well who's that writin'? John the Revelator
Wrote the book of the seven seals
You know God walked down in the cool of the day[16]
Called Adam by his name[17]
And he refused to answer
Because he's naked and ashamed[18]
[Repeat verses 1 & 2]
You know Christ had twelve apostles[19]
And three he led away[20]
He said, "Watch with me one hour,[21]
'till I go yonder and pray."
[Repeat verses 1 & 2]
Christ came on Easter morning
Mary and Martha came down to see[22]
He said, "Go tell my disciples[23]
To meet me in Galilee."[24]
[Repeat verses 1 & 2]
This version was included on the 1965 album The Legendary Son House: Father of the Folk Blues (Columbia). An alternate version from the same session is found on the 1992 reissue Son House — Father of the Delta Blues: The Complete 1965 Sessions (Columbia).


Renditions by other artists
"John the Revelator" has been recorded by numerous musical artists,[25] including Thee Headcoats, Jay Boy Adams, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Trey Anastasio Band, Beck, Frank Black, A. A. Bondy, Nick Cave, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Golden Gate Quartet,[26] Gov't Mule, the Indelicates, Phil Keaggy, John Mellencamp, Lee Roy Parnell, R.E.M., Benjamin Siksou (in his musical show Valises Blues), the Silencers, Cameo, Curtis Stigers, Steve Vai, Joe Grushecky, the Growl, the Sword, Tom Waits (for a 2016 tribute album to Blind Willie Johnson), and Gillian Welch. James Brown, Taj Mahal, and Sam Moore recorded a version for the film Blues Brothers 2000, which includes an additional verse written for the movie and performed by Joe Morton. A performance by Curtis Stigers and the Forest Rangers' is heard during an episode of the television series Sons of Anarchy.[27] The traditional song has inspired similarly titled songs by Depeche Mode and Dave Matthews Band, as well as the White Stripes' "Cannon" and Clutch's "Profits of Doom".

 

[IllmaticDelta]

It's Nobody's Fault but Mine

"It's Nobody's Fault but Mine" or "Nobody's Fault but Mine" is a traditional song first recorded by gospel blues artist Blind Willie Johnson in 1927. The song is a solo performance with Johnson singing and playing slide guitar. It tells of a spiritual struggle, with reading the Bible as the path to salvation, or, rather, the failure to read it leading to damnation.

I have a Bible in my home, I have a Bible in my home
If I don't read my soul will be lost ... nobody's fault but mine

Blind Willie Johnson recorded "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine" in a time when illiteracy was common in the rural South. Blinded as a young child, Johnson was singing this song as a warning to those who had learned to read, but concerned themselves too much with earthly matters, but Johnson tries to point the way to salvation. He admits to having fault, and he blames himself for not taking advantage of the skill he has, reading, and saving himself. The context of this song is strictly religious. It is a melancholy expression of his spirit, as the blues style echoes the depths of his guilt and his struggle.

In performing this song, Johnson alternated between vocal and solo slide-guitar melody lines, using a bottleneck (or sometimes a jackknife) on the first and second or sometimes third and fourth strings. He also provided an alternating bass figure with his thumb.

Other versions

"It's Nobody's Fault but Mine" has been interpreted and recorded by numerous blues and other musicians, usually using the title "Nobody's Fault but Mine" and often with variations in the lyrics or music. English rock band Led Zeppelin recorded "Nobody's Fault but Mine", which is credited to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, for their Presence album. The following lists those versions credited as "Traditional" or to Johnson.

1944 – Bunk Johnson with the Yerba Buena Jazz Band as a single (Good Time Jazz Records 37)
1949 – Sister Rosetta Tharpe single (Decca 48089)
1965 – The Staple Singers from the album Freedom Highway
1967 – John Renbourn from Another Monday
1969 – Nina Simone from Nina Simone and Piano
1973 – Paul Butterfield (with Better Days) from Better Days
1977 – David Bromberg from Reckless Abandon
1977 – Van Morrison from The Wonderland Tapes
1986 – Martin Simpson from Nobody's Fault But Mine
1990 – Kaiser/Mansfield from Trimmed and Burnin'
1991 – Johnny Shines from Traditional Delta Blues
1993 – Grateful Dead from dikk's Picks Volume 1
2000 – Ben Harper from Burn to Shine (additional live material)
2000 – Glenn Kaiser Band from Winter Sun
2001 – Blind Boys of Alabama from Spirit of the Century
2003 – Joan Osbourne with The Holmes Brothers from Shout, Sister, Shout: A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe
2003 – Kelly Richey from Kelly Richey Live...As It Should Be
2005 – Abigail Washburn from Song of the Traveling Daughter
2006 – Kenny White from Yonder Comes the Blues
2007 – Paul Jones & Dave Kelly from An Evening with Paul Jones & Dave Kelly (DVD)
2007 – Alvin Youngblood Hart & the Carolina Chocolate Drops from The Great Debaters (soundtrack)
2008 – Martin Harley from Grow Your Own
2008 – Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet with Bela Fleck from Live at Austin City Limits Music Festival 2008 (EP)
2008 – Beth Rowley from Little Dreamer
2010 – Nina Hagen from Personal Jesus
2010 – Willie Nelson from Country Music
2010 – Eric Bibb from Booker's Guitar
2010 – Tom Jones from Praise & Blame

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (or simply "Motherless Child") is a traditional Negro spiritual. It dates back to the era of slavery in the United States when it was common practice to sell children of slaves away from their parents. An early performance of the song dates back to the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers.[1][2] Like many traditional songs, it has many variations and has been recorded widely.

Description
The song is clearly an expression of pain and despair as it conveys the hopelessness of a child who has been torn from their parents. Under one interpretation, the repetitive singing of the word "sometimes" offers a measure of hope, as it suggests that at least "sometimes" I do not feel like a motherless child.[3]

Although the plaintive words can be interpreted literally, they might alternatively be metaphoric. The “motherless child” could be a slave separated from and yearning for his or her African homeland, his or her spouse, parents, siblings or child(ren) (from all or any of which he or she may have been separated in the trafficking process) or a slave suffering “a long ways from home”—home being heaven—or most likely all.

Some of the musical structure of "Motherless Child" was employed by George Gershwin for "Summertime," the opening piece of the musical Porgy and Bess

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

More!

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Statue of John Henry outside the town of Talcott in Summers County, West Virginia

A sign by the C&O railway line near Talcott, West Virginia.






John Henry

John Henry is an African American folk hero. He is said to have worked as a "steel-driving man"—a man tasked with hammering a steel drill into rock to make holes for explosives to blast the rock in constructing a railroad tunnel. According to legend, John Henry's prowess as a steel-driver was measured in a race against a steam-powered hammer, a race he won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand as his heart gave out from stress. The story of John Henry is told in a classic folk song, which exists in many versions, and has been the subject of numerous stories, plays, books, and novels.[1][2] Various locations, including Big Bend Tunnel in West Virginia, Lewis Tunnel in Virginia, and Coosa Mountain Tunnel in Alabama, have been suggested as the site of the contest.

In popular culture
The tale of John Henry has been used as a symbol in many cultural movements, including labor movements[13] and the Civil Rights Movement.[14]

“ John Henry is a symbol of physical strength and endurance, of exploited labor, of the dignity of a human being against the degradations of the machine age, and of racial pride and solidarity. During World War II his image was used in U.S. government propaganda as a symbol of social tolerance and diversity.[15] ”


Music
The story of John Henry is traditionally told through two types of songs: ballads, commonly called "The Ballad of John Henry", and work songs known as hammer songs, each with wide-ranging and varying lyrics.[2][12] Some songs, and some early folk historian research, conflate the songs about John Henry with those of John Hardy, a West Virginian outlaw.[12] Ballads about John Henry's life typically contain four major components: a premonition by John Henry as a child that steel-driving would lead to his death, the lead-up to and the results of the race against the steam hammer, Henry's death and burial, and the reaction of John Henry's wife.[12]

The well-known narrative ballad of "John Henry" is usually sung in at an upbeat tempo. The hammer songs (or work songs) associated with the "John Henry" ballad, however, are not. Sung slowly and deliberately, these songs usually contain the lines "This old hammer killed John Henry / but it won't kill me." Nelson explains that:

... workers managed their labor by setting a "stint," or pace, for it. Men who violated the stint were shunned ... Here was a song that told you what happened to men who worked too fast: they died ugly deaths; their entrails fell on the ground. You sang the song slowly, you worked slowly, you guarded your life, or you died.[5]:32

There is some controversy among scholars over which came first, the ballad or the hammer songs. Some scholars have suggested that the "John Henry" ballad grew out of the hammer songs, while others believe that the two were always entirely separate.

Songs featuring the story of John Henry have been recorded by many blues, folk, and rock musicians of different ethnic backgrounds. Many notable musicians have recorded John Henry ballads, including Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash,[16] Drive-By Truckers,[17] Joe Bonamassa,[12] Furry Lewis,[2] Big Bill Broonzy,[2] Pink Anderson,[12] Fiddlin' John Carson,[12] Uncle Dave Macon,[12] J. E. Mainer,[12] Leon Bibb,[12] Lead Belly,[12] Woody Guthrie,[12] Paul Robeson,[15] Pete Seeger,[15] Van Morrison,[15] Bruce Springsteen,[15] Gillian Welch,[15] Cuff the Duke,[15] Ramblin' Jack Elliott,[12] Jerry Reed,[12] Jerry Lee Lewis.,[12] Merle Travis,[18] Harry Belafonte,[19] Mississippi John Hurt (as "Spike Driver Blues"),[20] Lonnie Donegan,[21] Jack Warshaw,[22] Jason Molina,[23] Trail West[24] and Steve Earle.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

@IllmaticDelta

- Learning so much. Is there any signifying folk songs from before 1900?

 

[Pit Bull]

 

[IllmaticDelta]

@IllmaticDelta

- Learning so much. Is there any signifying folk songs from before 1900?

you mean like the dozens?