The Fabulous Tale Of Johnny Banjo

Once upon a time, in a land of riverboats and cotton fields, there was a boy named Johnny Banjo who loved to make music, whether with a fiddle or a washboard or a guitar or a harmonica, although the banjo was his favourite instrument of all.

Not only that, though, but this boy had a very rare and precious talent; for, whenever he played, he made things dance. He could make anything dance whether it be people or animals or even sticks and stones.

Johnny Banjo loved making things dance. He’d sit by the riverside sometimes, on a big rock, and make the fish dance and the frogs all jump about or he’d go to the lakeside and make the ducks
dance around and the pebbles skim and skip across the water all by themselves and even the light dance upon the surface of the lake or he’d go into the fields and make all the grass and grain wave in time to his music or go into the orchard and make apple trees dance around so much that all their apples would fall to the ground or he’d go to the farmyard and make all the horses and the pigs and the chickens and the cows dance.

You might think, hearing about Johnny Banjo’s amazing talent, that he would be rich and living in a big mansion house but he was never interested in money, only playing music for the fun of it.

Although he always managed to make enough money to get by because all he had to do was go into any town or village and play his banjo or his harmonica and people would dance and throw money in his hat.

Most people really liked Johnny Banjo and were always happy to see him , getting him to play at their parties and weddings but there was one person who couldn’t stand him and that was the devil.

The devil hated people being happy, you see, or dancing to anyone else’s tune but his own and so he was always trying to get Johnny Banjo by any means within his dark power.

Once, for example, he sent two of his little devils to run around Johnny’s house and set fire to it and it would have burned to a cinder if Johnny had not had his banjo with him, for he ran down to the riverside and, when he played, the whole river rose up and became a woman in a long, flowing blue dress and then, dancing and twirling all the way to his house, put out the fire.

Another time, the devil sent an army with cannons to blow his house into matchwood but then Johnny, seeing the army aiming their cannons, started to play his banjo and made all the cannonballs dance about in the air, flying this way and that and whizzing round the heads of soldiers so that the army had no choice but to sound a retreat and run away.

But the devil would not give in and so it sent little devils round about to all the villainous and wicked people that he could think of; crooks and conmen, robbers and bootleggers; the worst kind of people and got them to swear to a sheriff and then to a judge that Johnny and his Banjo playing were nothing but trouble. One man who was a greedy banker even swore under oath that Johnny had robbed his bank by making all the money jump out of the safe and dance into a big sack while another man said that Johnny had stolen his wife by bewitching her with devilish fiddle playing.

And, though there were many good people who were willing to stand up in court and protest Johnny’s innocence; the judge was one of the most corrupt and mean judges that the devil had been able to find and so sentenced Johnny to be executed by hanging.
“I’ll make you dance, Johnny Banjo”, said the Judge, beating out a rhythm with his gavel, “Dance at the end of a rope upon the gallows”.

And so, Johnny was put in chains and a gallows built specially for him that made a ringing sound when a man was hung from it but though the crooked warden of the prison had confiscated every one of Johnny’s musical instruments, he could still whistle a tune and when he did, the wind came dancing round about the prison yard and blew down the gallows.

Of course, they rebuilt the gallows several times but each time they did, Johnny whistled a happy tune and the wind came back, dancing about and twirling like a whirlwind till it blew down the gallows again.

Eventually, the wicked warden ordered that Johnny was to be bound and gagged and then, sadly, the morning after that, poor Johnny was hung.

Then, down to hell, Johnny went where he saw the devil had a great, big skillet which he was holding over a fire and poor souls, in their bare feet, were leaping and dancing around upon it in pain and the devil said to Johnny, laughing, “You see, Johnny, I can make people dance too”.

But Johnny just smiled back at the devil and said, “I may be in hell but I didn’t forget to bring my harmonica”.

And then, Johnny lifted up his hat and underneath was his mouth organ and then he started to play a tune upon it and, when he played the tune, the devil couldn’t help but dance; his cloven hooves clacking like clogs against the brimstone floor of hell and, eventually, the devil danced so much and got so tired that it fell down dead.

Then all the poor souls in hell danced to Johnny’s tune and, forming a line behind him, they all danced up out of hell and all the way to heaven.

Now, Johnny Banjo is in heaven; still playing music but not alone because now he has a big band of angels with harps and trumpets and all other kinds of instruments that play along with him and, when they do, all the stars and the planets and the constellations in the heavens have a hoedown, dancing and whirling with joy.