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Take This Hammer    (1915)

Take this hammer, carry it to the captain
Take this hammer, carry it to the captain
Take this hammer, carry it to the captain
Tell him I'm gone
Tell him I'm gone

If he asks you was I runnin'
If he asks you was I runnin'
If he asks you was I runnin'
Tell him I was flyin'
Tell him I was flyin'

If he asks you was I laughin'
If he asks you was I laughin'
If he asks you was I laughin'
Tell him I was cryin'
Tell him I was cryin'

They want to feed me cornbread and molasses
They want to feed me cornbread and molasses
They want to feed me cornbread and molasses
But I got my pride
Well, I got my pride

Lyrics by traditional.
Recorded by Lead Belly; many others.
The elements of both the ballad of "John Henry" and the "Take This Hammer" complex appear to date from the late nineteenth century, probably the 1870s. A manuscript variant of "Take This Hammer" from 1915 was published by the folklorist and English professor Newman Ivey White. The version here is from Lead Belly in 1942.

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