John Henry, narrated by Denzel Washington, music by BB King

[Music] [Music] with the hammer in my hand and if one day i find myself out all alone i'll handle it till the evening and found my way back home and pound my way back home and pound my way back home and found my way back home [Music] way back a good while ago when the united states was still busting out of his baby shoes there lived a man named john henry now ain't no history books going to tell you about john henry because he was just too plain big for them books but when it comes right down to it john henry was the mightiest doggone greatest nation builder this country's ever seen oh sure you had your washingtons and your jeffersons but they was just presidents you see john henry was a steel driving man now some folks think they know all about john henry and his famous race with the steam drill but most of them don't even know a steel stake from a beefsteak see i was around when john henry was king of the railroad camps and i remember him just as clear as the kentucky moon on an august night so you all listen up because i'm gonna tell you the guaranteed gold-plated 99.9 truth about john henry now it all started in a little village way down south in cotton country mama and papa henry were just your ordinary share cropping folk no different from the rest of us they lived in a log cabin and one springtime morning mama henry gave birth to a baby named john henry now folks knew right away there was something different about john henry shoot ain't no ordinary baby born with a hammer in his hand and ain't no ordinary baby weighs over 45 pounds but john henry did and that wasn't even the strange part not two hours out of his mama's belly john henry ups and starts talking oh if it ain't too much trouble he said just as sweet as sugar would you all mind bringing me something to eat i'm mighty hungry now nobody ever heard a two-hour old baby talking before but after a while mama henry asked john henry what he wanted to eat well he said figuring and calculating on his fingers i'd like eight ham bones uh two pots of black eyed peas a three foot slab of corn bread three kettles of cabbage soup a big heap of collard greens four pans of peach cobbler and and two pots of coffee strong coffee that is if it ain't too much bother so john henry ate pretty good and he was so tucked out when he was done by jiminy he slept for a solid week well the years went by john henry grew bigger [Music] at two years old he was juggling chickens for fun at six he was wrestling with razorback hogs and juggling chickens at the same time and at 10 why at 10 john henry was already a teenager but there was nothing in the whole wide world that john henry liked more than swinging a hammer and singing a song [Music] he'd hammer hickory sticks he'd have a fence post cooking pots brass nails boulders anything he could get his hands on he'd pound in the morning clang in the evening his arms grew as solid as oak stumps and his chest busted out bigger than a barrel while he grew so big that one day he couldn't even fit through the front door of his parents cabin and that's when john henry decided it was time to leave home mama he said one morning i'm a man now i'm a natural man and i'm gonna find me a job with a hammer in my hand [Music] so john henry left home and he walked north through the countryside and as the sun went down at night making the whole land light up like fire he sang a song to a natural himself while i was born one morning put the hammer in my hand and if one day i find myself out all alone i'll hammer till the evening found my way back home pound my way back home found my way back home found my way back home one afternoon while he was walking in the lonesome woods he stumbled across a road of iron rails those rails sparkled in the sunshine like silver and beneath them was freshly cut wood ties which smelled sweeter than a bag of balsam and john henry exclaimed to no one in particular by jiminy if this ain't a railroad track then i'm an ox and a both at the same time [Music] now john henry who was no ox and certainly no was correct in his assessment he had in fact stumbled onto the great chesapeake and ohio railroad line which was just being built around that time [Music] the cno line as people like to call it was going to connect up the eastern with the midwestern part of the united states [Music] the railroad cut through some of the deepest darkest most howling wilderness of west virginia along hills and hollers up mountains and down valleys through woods as thick as a cornfield and cutting time [Music] well john henry knew right away he was on something big and after a day of following those rails he reached the top of her eyes and from that rise he saw where the tracks ended far in the valley and a whole assembly of men were living and working from up there he could hear the clang and clink of hammer's hidden steel stakes and to john henry it was the sound of heaven itself a beautiful harmony of hammers ringing over the hills like like songbirds in early spring now that's a job for me john henry yelled beaming from ear to ear a job for a natural man who wants to build this land with a hammer in his hand with that john henry scrambled down that rise as fast as his feet could take him and when he got to camp he was amazed it was like nothing he had ever seen before [Music] there were men from all over the world working together with hammers there were black men and brown men and red men there were yellow men and white men too [Music] so when john henry got to camp he just pushed his way straight ahead to the end of the line picked up a nine pound hammer and started driving steel stakes like it was going out of style clang hidden here bang hitting there ding hitting this one dang hitting that well after a while everyone on that line stopped what they was doing and started looking at this rather large enthusiastic stranger they saw right away that john henry was just a naturalist man they had ever laid eyes on why he hammered those steaks so hard that smoke rose from them and some of them even caught fire soon the captain came over and started watching john henry too son he said after a while you're the dawn cracker steel driving man i ever seen name's captain tom and i'd be honored if you'd work for me starting tomorrow john henry put down his hammer and smile pleased to meet you captain tom my whole life i've been waiting to build this land with a hammer in my hand and i don't aim on waiting any longer if it ain't any bother to y'all i'm gonna start right now and with that john henry set straight to work on the c o railroad now driving still ain't no fourth of july picnic usually it takes a team of three men all working in rhythm to knock one stake into the ground and usually there's a man called a shaker who has to hold the steel in place while it's being hit but john henry had his own way of doing things first he had the blacksmith build him two 40-pound hammers which most men couldn't even lift he'd hold one hammer in each hand like a pair of drumsticks then he'd take a steel stake hurl it into the ground as if he was playing darts and smash it down with one hammer and then the next bing bang boom the whole time just singing a hammer song the fact is john henry couldn't really hammer without singing and vice versa because for him singing and hammering was just different parts of the same [Applause] [Music] a thing man but i was born one morning with a hammer in my hand and if one day i find myself out all alone i'll handle the evening and [Music] well john henry got so good at driving that steel he could do the work of ten men and half the time he could hammer upside down underarm overall backhanded blindfolded sideways front ways and a few ways so complicated they can't even be explained without an acre of blackboards in a barrel of chalk heck he worked so fast that he needed his own watermen just to keep his hammers from catching fire and when he drove steel people 300 miles away could feel the earth jump so john henry worked that line and he was happy as a bold weevil in a cotton ball sometimes he'd ramble around the country months at a time landline all over the land while john henry laid more line than any other man living or dead before or since well one day in late summer when john henry was back working the cno line right around big bend mountain a stranger came into camp now this stranger was all duded up and dressed to the nines a real city slicker who worked for none other than cornelius vanderbilt now this fella brought with him a big contraption which nobody had ever seen before it was made of six kinds of steel and covered with dials and gauges and drills and hammers ah this hair machine is called a steam drill the stranger explained when he got in the cab and it can drive steal five times faster than any man now this fella wasn't making no friends by saying a thing like that because nobody likes thinking a piece of metal can do their job but them folks got to scratching their heads looking over that machine and figuring that maybe just maybe it could so them folks grew mighty quiet about the mouth and just when things got so silent you could hear a ladybug yawn when john henry stepped forward i'll die with a hammer in my hand before any machine beats a man he set it straight out with no bragging assassin then he went on a man's a man and ain't no machine that's better than a man a man's got a heart inside a big old beating heart but a machine ain't got nothing but a soul a cold steel on hearing this those folks nodded in agreement but the stranger smiled and there was a glint of gold in his eye does that mean you're willing to compete with my steam drill to see who can drive more steel he asked if that's what i got to do john henry said i'll do it because i'm a natural man and so the contest was set for two days away at nine o'clock in the morning john henry versus the steam drill and won't you know it two days later just as the sun was stealing up over big bend mountain folks came from all over the land came streaming into that valley they came by foot by horse by buggy and by locomotive train itself just to see john henry whoop up on that steam drill at nine o'clock the crowd fell silent and the official man shot his gun into the air the contest had begun on the right side was the steam drill and that steam drill straightaway lurched into the leader gurgling and a spouting and making metal racket to high heaven there were fellas shoveling pine knots in his belly for fuel and that machine was drilling holes into the ground just as fast as buckshot [Music] on the left side was john henry sweating and flexing and letting loose with full john henry force clang hidden here bang hidden there [Music] the whole time singing his song while his hammers kept the backbeat [Music] so in this way the hours went by one hour two hours three four five hours [Music] the sun climbed high up in the sky then rolled back down [Music] and john henry's hammers got so hot they were just glowing like the sun itself [Music] but that steam drill was still ahead [Music] at four o'clock that afternoon john henry and the steam drill were neck and neck [Music] they reached the opening of big bend tunnel and went right inside folks waited outside where they could hear the contest going on they heard the whine and screech of that steam drill spitting and screaming like an alley cat and over that awful sound they could hear john henry's voice sweeter than the summer's corn echoing out of that john tunnel i'm a born a natural man i was born in the morning with a hammer in my hand with these hammers of steel i can whip any steam drill at five o'clock just as the day was cooling down there was another gunshot [Music] and the race had ended all was silent in big bend tunnel outside a hush came over the crowds and that valley was as quiet as a juke joint on sunday morning after a few minutes the official man came walking out of the tunnel he strode right down those tracks held his hand up high and yelled out john henry drove more steel than the steam drill john henry beat the machine and whoo boy you should have heard that crowd explode into yipping and yelling and screaming just as pleased as plum pudding that john henry had won folks was us celebrating and folks was a dancing then john henry came out of that tunnel covered from head to toe in cold dust coughing and holding his gut as if something had burst inside so the crowds hushed again and john henry laid himself on the ground [Music] you have to forgive me folks he said but i had to beat that steam drill and i did and now i'm going to my grave with a hammer in my hand [Music] well nobody can believe what they was hearing why john henry just whooped that steam drill but as he was laying there with his hammers crossed over his heart and his face covered in cold dust john henry upped and died up and died right there in front of all those folks as the sun was going down for the night [Music] now some folks say john henry died of a broken heart because he knew the steam drill one day would take the place of every steel driving man in the land [Music] others say he died of breathing too much cold dust it turns out john henry didn't really die at all he just sort of went on a long deep sleep from which he hasn't yet woken and if you don't believe me shoot you can see for yourself now all you gotta do is take a train any train out into the empty countryside and in the evening or late at night when the moon is big and fat and the wind is just right you listen to the wheels chugging on the track back and forth back and forth like the beat of a drone and by jiminy that's the sound of john henry pounding steel stakes till kingdom come [Music] yes sir we folks that's the sound of john henry hammering his way back home [Music] so [Music] hey [Music] [Applause] [Music] bye [Music] okay

Channel: Andrew X

Views: 60,516

Rating: 4.8830895 out of 5

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Id: wkbKUXgKdYQ

Length: 23min 27sec (1407 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 01 2021