The Brothers Four - The Thinking Man John Henry Lyrics

Now a famous American folktale
When John Henry was a little baby
he was sittin' on his mammy's knee
well He picked up a slide rule and a book on mathematics
sayin', "Thinkin's gonna be the job for me"
sayin', "Thinkin's gonna be the job for me"
When John Old Henry was just a little baby
He decided when grew he was gonna be a thinkin' man
With a filter
So he decided to go to college
and study all about thinkin'
He did and he learned all about algebry and thinkin'
Geometry and thinkin'
Trigonometry and thinkin'
Calculus and thinkin'

He always had trouble with English, though
Grammer's gonna be the death of me, Lord Lord
Grammer's gonna be the death of me

He didn't do too well in Greek either
Homer's gonna be the death of me, Lord Lord
Homer's gonna be the death of me

Well John Henry finished college
and became a very competent thinker
Which is unusual
And he went out into the business world where they do a lot of heavy thinkin'
And got a job as a thinkin' man
Well this first job was with the John Burch Society,
thinkin' up communists .
He had a little trouble with his next job though
that was with the Ford Motor company, ha ha
He thought up the axel etso
Then John Henry got a job with the CIA
Thinkin up excuses
As you all know, the government is very economy minded
Concerned with cuttin' down on costs
So one day, the CIA brought in an efficiency expert.
Tryin to cut down on man power.
He looked around and hollered out
"Automation!"
"Automation!"
"Automation!"
Now the experts said to John henry,
I'm gonna' to bring me a computer 'round.
I'm gonna' to bring me a computer and electronic brain
cybernetics' gonna' put the answer down.
Computers help to keep the pay roll down.

Now the man who invented the computer,
was from a place called MIT.
Well he punched out cards
and tapes by the yards,
on the nearer, my God to thee.
on the nearer, my God to thee.

Now John Henry said to the inventor,
"oh your tubes don't mean a damn!
All your wires and your circuits,
they are just a modern quirk.
It's never ever gonna' beat a thinkin' man.
They are never gonna' beat the thinkin' man."

So it was proposed that John Henry and the computer have a race.
The inventor punched out a card for the computer.
John Henry stepped into the isolation booth.
Ralph Edwards read him a question.
And the race was on!

John Henry started a thinkin'
til' his head glowed cherry red
there was smoke from his ears and his eyes poured tears
and he thunk til' his brain dropped dead
think, thank, thunk
til' his brain dropped dead.

They took John Henry to the bughouse
But still his legend grows.
Now please don't get us wrong,
there's a moral to this song,
don't ever doubt the thinkin' power of men.

But, on the other hand,
don't ever sell your stock in IBM

[Thanks to Mercoli710 for adding these lyrics]