> Folk Music > Songs > Take This Hammer

Take This Hammer

[ Roud 4299 ; Ballad Index FR383 ; Mudcat 55453 ; trad.]

Take This Hammer is a prison work song sung by Lead Belly and collected by John and Alan Lomax.

Doc Watson sang the Spike Driver Blues in a 1963 live recording on the Folkways album Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City.

Johnny Silvo sang Take This Hammer in 1968 on his and Sandy Denny’s Saga album Sandy and Johnny.

Jon Boden sang Take This Hammer as the 13 March 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Lyrics

Jon Boden sings Take This Hammer

Take this hammer and carry it to the captain,
Take this hammer and carry it to the captain,
Take this hammer and carry it to the captain.
You can tell him that I’m gone, Lord,
You can tell him that I’m gone.

If he asks you was I running,
If he asks you was I running,
If he asks you was I running,
You can tell him I was flying, Lord,
You can tell him I was flying.

And if he asks you was I laughing,
If he asks you was I laughing,
If he asks you was I laughing,
You can tell him I was crying, Lord,
You can tell him I was crying.

I don’t want no cold iron shackles,
I don’t want no cold iron shackles,
I don’t want no cold iron shackles
’Cause it hurts my feet, Lord,
’Cause it hurts my feet.

I don’t want no cornbread and molasses,
I don’t want no cornbread and molasses,
I don’t want no cornbread and molasses
’Cause it hurts my pride, Lord,
’Cause it hurts my pride.

Swing this hammer, it looks like silver,
Swing this hammer, it looks like silver,
Swing this hammer, it looks like silver
But it feels like lead, Lord,
But it feels like lead.