Listen to the hammer ring.
Can you hear it ring,
Keepin' time just as steady as a clock?
Can you hear the sound,
Of the hammer swingin' down?
Bill Henry, he's a'bustin' up that rock.
I was 25, just barely in my prime.
Convicted of a crime I hadn't done.
And, sentenced for life,
I had to do my time,
On a prison camp,
Beneath the Georgia sun.
Well, the first thing that you learn,
Bill Henry, he's the one,
That you better stay out of his way.
The meanest man around,
He'll put you in the ground.
Many men he sent unto their grave.
Listen to the hammer ring.
Can you hear it ring,
Keepin' time just as steady as a clock?
Can you hear the sound,
Of the hammer swingin' down?
Bill Henry, he's a'bustin' up that rock.
They put me on a crew,
And the only thing we do,
Is carry rock from sunup to sundown.
Bill Henry's only job,
Was bustin' up the rock,
That the wardon sold to the componies in town.
Now, Bill had a wife,
And he loved her more than life.
But there for here he could never be.
And, to no one's surprise,
The wardon every night,
Would take a drive to see Bill's Mary Lee.
I cannot tell you how,
or when Bill found out.
But, he knew about the wardon and Mary Lee.
And, filled with hate inside,
He waited for the time,
He was gonna take the wardon to his knees.
The day came around,
As the wardon made his rounds.
It's in June of 1943.
He walked up and spoke to Bill,
And turned his back to him,
And that's the hardest that I ever saw Bill swing.
Listen to the hammer ring.
Can you hear it ring,
Keepin' time just as steady as a clock?
Can you hear the sound,
Of the hammer swingin' down?
Bill Henry, he's a'bustin' up that rock.
Listen to the hammer ring.
Can you hear it ring,
Keepin' time just as steady as a clock?
Can you hear the sound,
Of the hammer swingin' down?
Bill Henry, he's a'bustin' up that rock.
Bill Henry, he's a'bustin' up that rock.