I love Richie Havens, but, unfortunately, he changed the lyrics of Billy Edd Wheeler's brilliant coal mining song, which completely altered the meaning of the song... Billy Edd's version tells the story of a coal miner who dreams of escaping the danger and the drudgery of the mines by thinking about the freedom of a flying bird, but the only way he can ultimately escape the mines is by dying... It is, in my view, the greatest "unknown" coal mining song ever written...