John Henry chords by Johnny Horton

SimplifiedD · A · G

GuitarPianoUkulele

Verse 1
D 
Ah,  (D major) that's fine.
A 
That's really  (A major) good.
Gene Sullivan there,
D 
 (D major) Columbia recording artist
with Past the Biscuits.
That really takes me back
home.
Another Columbia recording artist
whose top's for Louisiana
hayride pickin' and singin'
is Johnny Horton,
A 
known as the Singing Fisherman.  (A major) 
D 
A 
 (D major) Say, Singing Fisherman, how are the bass  (A major) bitin'?
Well,
I'll tell ya,
D 
 (D major) frankly, they're bitin' real good,
especially on the little bait
A 
 (A major) that I've invented.
You go out early in the mornin',
you know...
D 
Hold on,  (D major) John.
A 
 (A major) He'll be talking all night, folks.
Take over,
D 
 (D major) John, with a song.
What do you say?
John Henry Walsh
A 
D 
A 
D 
A little bitty  (A major)  (D major) boy  (A major)  (D major) 
No bigger than the palm of
A 
Freddy's hand  (A major) 
D 
 (D major) Johnny's mama looked down
A 
D 
A 
at  (A major) Henry and she said  (D major)  (A major) 
D 
A 
D 
 (D major) She  (A major) said, my Johnny's gonna  (D major) be a steel driving man,
man, man
A 
D 
Johnny's gonna be  (A major) a steel driving  (D major) man,
yeah
John Henry said to his captain
Said a man ain't nothin' but a man
A 
D 
 (A major) But be (D major) fore I let the
steam drum beat me down
I'm gonna die with this hammer in my hand,
oh, oh
A 
D 
Gonna die with this hammer in  (A major) my  (D major) hand
John Henry said to his shaker
A 
Shaker, why don't you  (A major) pray
D 
If  (D major) my hammer misses that
little piece of steel,
boy, tomorrow'll be a fair day, day,
A 
D 
day, tomorrow'll be a  (A major) fair day  (D major) 
Johnny Henry said to his shaker, shaker
A 
why don't you  (A major) sing?
D 
 (D major) If my hammer misses that
little piece of steel,
boy, listen to that coal steel ring, ring,
A 
D 
ring, listen to that  (A major) coal steel  (D major) ring
A 
D 
G 
D 
Oh!  (A major)  (D major)  (G major)  (D major) 
The captain, he said to John Henry
A 
Did I believe the mouth was sinkin'  (A major) in?
D 
John  (D major) Henry laughed at his captain,
he said
Ain't nothin' but my hammer suckin' wind,
Lordy, Lordy
Ain't nothin' but my
A 
D 
 (A major) hammer suckin'  (D major) wind
John Henry had a little woman
A 
Her name was Polly An (A major) n
D 
Johnny  (D major) got sick and he had to go to bed
But Polly Ann drove that stupid flock of men,
Lordy, Lordy
A 
D 
Polly Ann drove that  (A major) stupid flock of  (D major) men
They took Johnny and
Red to the graveyard
A 
Stuck him six feet under the  (A major) sand
D 
Yeah,  (D major) there's a locomotive
that come rollin' by
Johnny lies a steel drivin' man
And there yonder lies a steel
A 
D 
A 
D 
 (A major) drivin'  (D major)  (A major) man  (D major) 
Thank you very much.