G                    D              Cadd9           Em7
I watched the rain; it settled in. We disappeared for days again.
G               D           Cadd9         G
Most of us were staying in, lazy like the sky.
G                 D              Cadd9              Em7
The letters flew across the wire filtered through a million liars.
    G                        D                 Cadd9          G
The whole world smelled like burning tires the day John Henry died.
   G               D                Cadd9             Em7
We knew about that big machine that ran on human hope and steam.
G                 D               Cadd9         G
Bets on John were far between and mostly on the side.
   G               D                  Cadd9                 Em7
We heard he put up quite a fight. His hands and feet turned snowy white.
G                    D                 Cadd9              G
That hammer rang out through the night the day John Henry died.
           Em7         Cadd9        G      D
When John Henry was a little bitty baby
   Em7      Cadd9              G      D
nobody ever taught him how to read
       Em7              Cadd9         G     D
but he knew the perfect way to hold a hammer
        Cadd9                            Am
was the way the railroad baron held the deed.
 G                  D             Cadd9            Em7
It didn't matter if he won, if he lived, or if he'd run.
G                        D             Cadd9            G
They changed the way his job was done. Labor costs were high.
 G                   D                 Cadd9           Em7
That new machine was cheap as hell and only John would work as well,
        G               D                 Cadd9          G
so they left him laying where he fell the day John Henry died.
     Em7         Cadd9         G      D
John Henry was a steel-driving bastard 
         Em7         Cadd9            G      D
but John Henry was a bastard just the same.
   Em7          Cadd9            G      D
An engine never thinks about his daddy 
       Em7          Cadd9              Am
and an engine never needs to write its name.
   G                     D               Cadd9         Em7
So pack your bags, we're headed west and L.A. ain't no place to rest.
       G                  D                 Cadd9           G
You'll need some sleep to pass the test, so get some on the flight
    G                     D           Cadd9                    Em7
and say your prayers John Henry Ford 'cause we don't need your work no more.
    G                     D               Cadd9          G
You should have known the final score the day John Henry died.