Load-Bearing Hero/Quotes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Then came the day at the bottom of the mine,
When a timber cracked and men started crying.
Miners were praying, and hearts beat fast
And everybody thought they had breathed their last
Cept' 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 he just stood there alone,
Big John


Big John
Big John
Big Bad John
Big John


And with all of his strength, he gave a mighty shove.
Then a miner yelled out, 'There's a light up above!'.
And 20 men scrambled from a would-be grave
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.
And as smoke and gas belched out of that mine,
Everybody knew it was the end of the line,
For Big John.


Now they never re-opened 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[1], Big John'.

Big Bad John, Jimmy Dean and Roy Acuff
Don't make me put this down!
  1. "a Hell of a man" in some recordings.