The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #99895   Message #1997208
Posted By: Joe Offer
15-Mar-07 - 02:45 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req/Add: Mike! (Johnson Girls)
Subject: ADD: Mike
There are some lyrics on the Johnson Girls Website, but not for this song. There's a clip from the song at Folk-Legacy Records.

Here are the lyrics from American Ballads and Folk Songs (Lomax & Lomax, 1934)

MIKE

Section men a-workin' there all side by side;
Section men a-shirkin', as the hot sun fried.

Chorus:
Damn be the President,
My name's Mike,
I got a hand in it,
I drive the spike.

Mike he come from Tipperary, his name's O'Burke.
Fought like he was stewed, but didn't fight to work.

A-levelin' up the road bed ain't no fun,
Nor a-drivin' down the spikes in the boilin' sun.

Heat boils down, and shakes along the blazing rails,
Hangs around your head until your mind nearly fails.

Shovel in the ground when he hoists the tie;
Supper time a-comin' in the sweet by 'n' by.

Mike was pilin' ties near the ditch by the road
Out among the jimpson where the boys ain't mowed.

He picked up a crosstie without much vim,
Blacksnake wiggles up between his pants and him.

Mike lit out for Oklahoma, ain't come back,
Showed no hesitation as he tore down the track.

Caught up with a special, an' he hollered like a man,
"Bedad, if you can't run, let me ahead wot can."


From the Belden Collection Harvard University. Sent by J. Brown.
There's not much on this song in the Traditional Ballad Index:

Mike

DESCRIPTION: "Section men a-workin' there all side by side." One of them, Mike, boasts of his work on the railroad. He works and fights hard. One day he works in the jimson, picks up a crosstie, is attacked by a snake, and flees
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: work railroading animal
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 1869 - Transcontinental railroad complete
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lomax-ABFS, p. 23, "Mike" (1 text)
Roud #15523
Notes: The chorus of this piece runs, "Damned be the President, My name's Mike, I got a hand in it, I drive the spike." I assume this refers to the famous "driving of the golden spike" (May 10, 1869 in Promontory, Utah), completing the first transcontinental railroad. This is only a guess, though. - RBW
File: LxA023

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Instructions

The Ballad Index Copyright 2006 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.