Every morning at the mine

you could see him arrive

He stood six-foot-six

and weighed two-forty-five

Kind of broad at the shoulder

and narrow at the hip

And everybody knew you

didn't give no lip to big John

Big bad John

Nobody seemed to know

where John called home

He just drifted into town

and stayed all alone

He didn't say much

kind of quiet and shy

And if you spoke at all

you just said hi to big John

Somebody said he

came from New Orleans

Where he got in a fight

over a caging queen

And a crashing blow

from a huge right hand

Sent a Louisiana fella to

the promised land, big John

Big bad John

Then came the day

at the bottom of the mine

When the timber cracked

and men started crying

Miners were praying

and hearts beating fast

And everybody thought they'd

breathed their last except John

Through the dust and the

smoke of this man made hell

Walked a giant of a man

that the miners knew well

Grabbed a sagging timber

and gave out with a groan

And like a giant oak tree

just stood there alone, big John

Big bad John

And with all of his

he gave a mighty shove

Then a miner yelled out

there's a light up above

And twenty men scrambled

from a would be grave

And now there's only one left

down there to save, big John

With jacks and timbers

they started back down

Then came that rumble

way down in the ground

Smoke and gas

belched, out of that mine

Everybody knew it was the

end of the line for big John

Big bad John

Now they never reopened

that worthless pit

They just placed a marble

stand in front of it

These few words

are written on that stand...

At the bottom of this mine

lies a big, big man, big John