Big Bad John

“Big Bad John” is a country song originally performed by Jimmy Dean, who wrote and composed it.  It was released in September 1961 and by the beginning of November it had gone to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It won Dean the 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year. The song and its sequels tell a story typical of American folklore, reminiscent of Paul Bunyan or John Henry. Big Bad John was also the title of a 1990 television movie starring Dean. The song is about a mysterious and quiet miner who earns the nickname Big John because of his height, weight, and muscular physique – “He stood six foot six and weighed 245”. He apparently hails from New Orleans, where, with “a crashin’ blow from a huge right hand”, he allegedly killed a man over a Cajun Queen. One day, a support timber cracks at the mine where John works. The situation looks 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. Just as men are about to re-enter with the tools necessary to save him, the mine fully collapses and John is believed dead. The mine itself is never reopened, but a marble stand is 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 considered profane language.