Story
The song tells the story of a mysterious and quiet miner who earned the nickname Big John because of his height, weight, and muscular physique ("He stood six foot six and weighed two forty-five"). He supposedly came from New Orleans, where he killed a man over a Cajun Queen.
One day, a support timber cracked at the mine where John worked. The situation looked hopeless until John "grabbed a saggin' timber, gave out with a groan / and like a giant oak tree just stood there alone", then "gave a mighty shove", opening a passage and allowing the 20 other miners to escape the mine. Although the miners were about to reenter the mine with the tools necessary to save him, the mine fully collapsed and John was believed to have died in the depths of the mine. The mine itself was never reopened, but a marble stand was placed in front of it, with the words "At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man---Big John". (Some versions of the song change the last line to "lies a big, big man" to replace what was at the time considered to be borderline profane language.)
Its 1962 sequel, The Cajun Queen, describes the arrival of "Queenie", Big John's Cajun Queen, who rescues John from the mine and marries him. Eventually, they have "a hundred and ten grandchildren". The sequel's events are more exaggerated than the first, extending the story into the realm of tall tales.
In June 1962, the story continued (and evidently concludes) with the arrival of Little Bitty Big John, (the flip side to Steel Men on Columbia 4-42483), learning about his Father's act of heroism.
In 1964, Dottie West recorded a sequel to the song called My Big John. This song was told from the point of view of the "Cajun Queen" that drove John away---her search for him, then discovering about his death.
Read more about this topic: Big Bad John
Famous quotes containing the word story:
“... if there’s a house, then there is a wall ... between them and the outside world. The ideal is to stay inside and to never have to go out, and the whole idea of staying home is really important. I think men do get out, but it is not glamorized the way it is here in America, where the big story is to ride out and go someplace and to travel.”
—Gish Jen (b. 1956)
“Who were the fools who spread the story that brute force cannot kill ideas? Nothing is easier. And once they are dead they are no more than corpses.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“Even such is Time, which takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, and all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust,
Who in the dark and silent grave
When we have wandered all our ways
Shuts up the story of our days.
And from which earth, and grave, and dust,
The Lord shall raise me up I trust.”
—Sir Walter Raleigh (1552–1618)