I die wid my hammer in my han’, Lawd, Lawd.”

John Henry had a pretty little woman,

She rode that Southbound train;

She stopped in a mile of the station up there,

“Let me hear John Henry’s hammer ring, Lawd, Lawd.”

John Henry sittin’ on the left-han’ side

An’ the steam drill on the right;

The rock it was so large an’ John Henry so small,

He laid down his hammer an’ he cried, “Lawd, Lawd.”

John Henry had a pretty little woman,