Jackhammer Blues
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
Contact Publisher - TRO-Essex Music Group

I've got those jackhammer blues, I've been trippin' on a hard rock pile,
I've got the jackhammer blues, I've been trippin' on a block o'slag,
I can hear my hammer trippin' while I'm tryin' to get some sleep at night.

Jackhammer, jackhammer eatin' that rock away;
Look at my jackhammer chompin' that rock away;
Takes fourteen cranes and dumptrucks just to follow me around a day.

I'm a jackhammer man, I love to hear that hard bit ring;
Brrroom, brrroom, brrroom, brrroom, I love to hear that hard bingobling;
I've been down this old road and I'll build it back new again.

Jackhammer jars my shoulders, jackhammer jars my head;
Jackhammer jars my shoulders, jackhammer shivers my head;
I shake and shimmy all night long when I put my little self to bed.

My jackhammer clatters, it bucks, it jumps, it jars;
My jackhammer clatters, it bucks, it jumps, it jars;
My wife kicked me out o'bed, I got to sleep out here under the stars.

I kept on drilling my bit, folks, kept a-hammering right on down your street;
I kept on drilling my bit, folks, kept a-hammering right on down your street;
Found a hard steel woman whose shakin' just can't be beat.

I've got a bit of money saved up workin' on a jackhammer line;
I've got a bit of money saved up workin' on a jackhammer line;
I slide all my money down to the mailbox, shoot it to that women o' mine.


© Copyright 1963 (renewed) by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. & TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI)
Available on:
Album cover art where song appears

Columbia River Collection
Woody Guthrie