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Coal Mine Songs
Related threads:
Lyr ADD: Redneck War (Short & Shortridge) (6)
Coal Mining Songs (78)
BS: Appalachian Destruction (25)
Coal Mining Songs--New Book + CDs (17)
coal mining songs (48)
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Bagpuss Date: 23 Feb 09 - 04:13 AM Trimdon Grange - which I think is in the DT. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: bald headed step child Date: 23 Feb 09 - 10:09 AM The CD "Classic Mountain Songs from Smithsonian Folkways" contains a song by The Phipps Family called The Red Jacket Mine Explosion. It's set to the tune of Red River Valley. 45 miners killed at Keen Mountain, Va April 22, 1938. Powerful song. BHSC |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: JohnB Date: 24 Feb 09 - 10:05 AM I was thinking and reading the thread at the same time (wow) I saw Byker Hill, Springhill Mining Disaster and Blackleg Miner metioned. I don't think I saw Coaltown Road or Trimdon Grange. JohnB |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: heatherblether Date: 24 Feb 09 - 11:43 AM Skewen Main 1925 by Chris Hastings and Huw Pudner is another song welsh mining song ,about the closure of the Skewen Main colliery near Swansea. HB |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,Nikkiwi Date: 24 Feb 09 - 06:24 PM "Miners refrain" - gillian welch "Schoolday's end" - ewan maccoll |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: dick greenhaus Date: 24 Feb 09 - 11:31 PM Don't forget "The Coal in the Stone." |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: fumblefingers Date: 25 Feb 09 - 12:01 AM Merle Travis - Songs of the Coal Mines Black gold The Harlan County Boys Payday Come Too Slow The Browder Explosion Bloody Brethitt County Here's To The Operator The Miner's Wife The Courtship of Second Cousin Claude Miner's Strawberries Paw Walked Behind Us With A Carbon Lamp Preacher Lane Dear Old Halifax |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: DannyC Date: 02 Mar 09 - 08:20 PM You might wanna here this contemporary one. It's a powerful song called Reclaimed Land These folks made a serious song, boys. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST Date: 02 Mar 09 - 09:38 PM '42 Years' by Nimrod Workman.
Thanks. -Joe Offer-
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Jon Bartlett Date: 03 Mar 09 - 01:44 AM Coal mining songs from BC: A Miner's Life's an Unco Bubble Are You from Bevan? Bowser's Seventy Twa Check Jack O'Donnell's book of Nova Scotia mining songs (not sure of the title - he used to be musical director for Men of the Deeps). Jon Bartlett |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: oldhippie Date: 03 Mar 09 - 07:16 AM Coal Tattoo - Tom Juravich |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Mick Tems Date: 04 Mar 09 - 10:11 AM What about the South Wales mining song The Best Little Doorboy, recorded by Ewan McColl? |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin Date: 04 Mar 09 - 11:11 AM Jez Lowe was mentioned early on. There's a song at the back of my mind from one of his albums which I've been struggling to remember. Age, stupidity and the drink don't help at such times. The chorus was something like:
Hours are long, long are the sighs Down in the darkness where we lie Passing our life away I seem to remember it starting as:
I wish I was a rich man's son
And rob the ships from France and Spain And if we lost, perhaps we'd gain For the French might raise our pay I'll have to dig out the (vinyl) album and check it out. Lhiats, Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE NORTH COUNTRY MINER'S WIFE (Davenport From: RTim Date: 04 Mar 09 - 12:04 PM How about this one - one of my favorites and I sing it often Tim Radford THE NORTH COUNTRY MINER'S WIFE. Bob Davenport. One day while in the North Country A lassie there I spied All dressed in deep mourning So bitterly she cried She lost her man killed down the pit Crushed by a fall of stone So short a time she lay with him So long she'll lie alone. Now they were 17 years old When their married life began And at the age of 19 years She bore to him a son A few more months she had To be for him a wife So short a time together Before he lost his life. Long as she lives she'll never forget That cruel winter's day Long as she'll live she'll curse the pit That took her man away The owners think one day her bairn Will take its father's place But she'd sooner see him go to jail Than go hewing at the face. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Willa Date: 04 Mar 09 - 01:29 PM Max Boyce's Rhondda Grey |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Rifleman (inactive) Date: 04 Mar 09 - 01:41 PM John Tams' arrangement of The Gresford Disaster |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: meself Date: 04 Mar 09 - 02:49 PM Dirty Yankee/Yahi Miners, variation on same base as Blackleg Miner, discussed at length in a couple of earlier threads. Coal Town Road, by Alister MacGillvary. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,Brian Kell Date: 04 Mar 09 - 04:07 PM The best Christmas present I have had for a long while was a copy of "the Elliotts of Birtley" by Pete Wood. Herron Publishing Wellington Road Todmorden Yorkshire Ol14 5DY (ISBN 978-195406-823-3). Some cracking songs and a lot of background. I served my singing apprenticeship at the Elliots Cub in Birtley, Co Durham in the late 60's and will never forget it. My other major reference is Come all you Bold Miners by A. L Lloyd but that's been mentioned before. Gan canny. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: 2581 Date: 10 May 09 - 02:08 PM Here are 25 excellent American coal mining songs that I don't believe have been mentioned in any of the previous posts: 1. Dirty Black Coal - Ralph Stanley 2. Coal Miner's Grave - Hazel Dickens 3. High Flyin' Bird - Billy Edd Wheeler (in my view, the greatest coal mining song that no one knows about... it was covered by Jefferson Airplane, Richie Havens and others many years ago, but frequently the lyrics were changed...) 4. Lawrence Jones - Si Kahn 5. Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia - Utah Phillips (covered by Emmylou Harris, Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, Kathy Mattea and others) 6. Which Side Are You On? - Florence Reece (written in 1933 by a miner's wife in Harlan County, KY, during the bloody coal wars; now sung throughout the world! great cover versions by Pete Seeger, Natalie Merchant, Billy Bragg & Dick Gaughan) 7. Deep Mine Blues - Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time 8. Coal Mine Blues - IIIrd Tyme Out 9. Coal Minin' Man - Ricky Skaggs 10. The Dying Miner - Woody Guthrie (but check out the cover version by Bucky Halker & the Complete Unknowns) 11. Last Train From Poor Valley - Norman Blake 12. Crooked Road - Chris Knight 13. Miner's Lullaby - James Low - not to be confused with 14. Miner's Lullaby - Utah Phillips (check out the version by Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin) 15. Trip to Hyden - Tom T. Hall 16. Mother of A Miner's Child - Gordon Lightfoot 17. Rich Man's Coal - Special Consensus 18. High Sheriff of Hazard - Tom Paxton 19. Brookside Strike - Si Kahn 20. Don't Come Out of the Hole - Blue Highway 21. '31 Depression Blues - New Lost City Ramblers 22. The Old Coal Mine - Larry Sparks 23. Hole in the Ground - Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time 24. Dusty Diamonds - Lex Romane 25. Jenny's Gone Away - Michael Kline & Rich Kirby There are many more, not to mention dozens and dozens of brilliant British coal mining songs. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Tattie Bogle Date: 10 May 09 - 07:50 PM Union Miners. The Midlothian Miners' Song Jez Lowe: Black Diamonds, You won't make old bones Allan Taylor: Roll on the Day Bob Davenport: "Wi' me pit boots on". Gill Bowman: "Winter Sun" |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,raredance Date: 10 May 09 - 11:06 PM Below is the list of songs from "'And Now the Fields Are Green' A Collection of Coal Mining Songs In Canada" by John C O'Donnell. University College of Cape Breton Press, 1992. Some of the songs have already been mentioned above, but many other have not. I have a copy of the book if anyone has interest in the details of a particular song. APPRECIATION OF A DECEASED BROTHER ARE YOU FROM BEVAN? ARISE YE NOVA SCOTIA SLAVES. AT FOURTEEN I'M TRAPPING. BALLAD OF SPRINGHILL, THE. BALLAD OF THE FRANK SLIDE, THE. BALLAD OF JB McLACHLAN, THE. BILLY, COME WITH ME. BILLY, THE PIT HORSE. BLACK AROUND THEIR EYES, THE. BLACK-EYED MINER, THE. BLACK IS THE COALDUST. BONNY LABOURlNG BOY, THE. BOOTLEG COAL BOOTLEG TRUCKMAN. BOOTLEGGER ME. BOWSER'S PENITENTS BOWSER'S SEVENTY-TWA BOYS OF THE RESCUE CREW, THE BUMPS, THE. CALEDONIA. CALEDONIA EXPLOSION, THE. CANNY MINER LAD, THE. CAPE BRETON COAL. CAPE BRETON COAL MINERS, THE. CAPE BRETON MINER MAN CAPE BRETON SILVER. CHAIN RUNNER'S SONG COAL BY THE SEA, THE COAL IS KING AGAIN COAL MINER UNDER THE SEA, THE. COAL MINING DAYS. COAL TATTOO COAL TOWN ROAD COLLIER'S RANT COMPLAINTE DE SPRINGHILL, LA. CZAR OF BC DARK AS A DUNGEON DISASTER AT NUMBER I-B DON'T GO BELOW DON'T GO DOWN IN THE MINE, DAD DOWN AMONG THE COAL DOWN DEEP IN THE MINE DOWN DEEP IN A COAL MINE DOWN IN A COAL MINE DOWN IN SPRINGHILL'S BUMPY MINE DUST IN THE AIR END OF AN INDUSTRY, THE FAREWELL TO CALEDONIA. GEORGE ALFRED BECKETT. GOVERNMENT STORE, THE. HONEST WORKING MAN, THE I'M ONLY A BROKEN DOWN MUCKER. I WENT TO NORMAN'S. I WORK IN THE PIT JIM McLACHLAN SONG JOE HILL JOLLY MINER, THE. JOLLY WEE MINER MEN KELLY'S COVE. LITILE PINKIE ENGINE MAN WITH A TORCH IN HIS CAP, THE MEN UNDERGROUND, THE. MINER, THE MINER, THE (WITH A SHOVEL IN HIS HAND) MINER'S CRY, A MINER'S EPITAPH MINER'S LAMENT MINER'S LIFE, A MINERS' MEMORIAL HYMN MINES OF AVONDALE, THE MINING COAL MIRACLE AT COLLIERY TWO MIRACLE AT SPRINGHILL, THE. NEW ABERDEEN GOVERNMENT STORE, THE NEW WATERFORD'S FATAL DAY. 1938 DISASTER, THE. 1925 STRIKE SONG, THE NO 12, NEW WATERFORD NO 26 MINE DISASTER, THE NO 26, ONE MILLION TON NORDEGG BALLAD, THE OMEN, THE ON CUMBERLAND'S RUGGED MOUNTAIN ORAN: THA FAILEADH A' GHUAIL PEGGY GORDON PERCY MORRIS PHANTOM PAN CREW, THE. PLAIN OLE MINER BOY PLUCK ME STORE, THE RAP HER TO BANK REMEMBER THE MINER RESCUE FROM THE SPRINGHILL COAL MINE ROLL ALONG, UNITED MINERS. RORY DAN, THE MINER RUN, BOWSER, RUN SCENT OF COAL, THE SCHOOLDAYS END SEVEN LAMPS NORTH SHE LOVES HER MINER LAD SHIRT TALE, A SIXTEEN TONS SONG OF THE ESTEVAN MINERS. SORENESS OF MY SOUL, THE SPRINGHILL DISASTER OF 1958, THE SPRINGHILL MINE DISASTER 1891 SPRINGHILL MINE EXPLOSION OF 1956, THE STEP BY STEP THA FAILEADH A' GHUAIL THIRTY -INCH COAL UNDERNEATH THE SEA UNKNOWN MINER'S GRAVE WESTVILLE MINERS WHEN I FIRST WENT TO CALEDONIA WHEN YOU'RE DONE LOADING COAL WORKING MAN YAHIE MINERS, THE |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,Bardford Date: 10 May 09 - 11:52 PM There is a companion CD to a book called Coal Dust Grins by Alberta photographer Lawrence Christmas. Cambria Publishing Kind of an awkward-to-navigate site, but some fine portraits & bios of Canadian miners, and this: Coal Dust Grins Wasn't there a similar thread a while back? |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Susanne (skw) Date: 17 May 09 - 06:02 PM Some Jez Lowe songs have been mentioned but not, I think, 'These Coal Town Days', on the end of coal mining in a town. |
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Subject: Woddy Guthrie's "The Dying Doctor" From: 2581 Date: 09 Jun 09 - 11:12 PM Does anyone know if Woody Guthrie's "The Dying Doctor", a/k/a "The Company Town Doctor", is included on any CD or vinyl LP ? I have never been able to find it... |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: irishenglish Date: 09 Jun 09 - 11:44 PM Coal Creek Mine-by Green Bailey, as done by the Oysterband, as well as Swan Arcade's Coal Not Dole. Ashley Hutchings wrote a good one for a project I believe he abandoned about coal mining called Black Jack Blue John and Galena |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Mr Red Date: 10 Jun 09 - 07:02 AM Dave Webber (UK) wrote one in the 80's while at the Somers TFC when it was in the Somers Arms. Can't remember its name. then there is: Coal Hole Cavalry and in NZ I came across a song on a Blues LP called "Pnuemoconiosis Blues" on the subject often called "Miner's Lung" in the US. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,Bob Date: 10 Jun 09 - 01:41 PM Alex Glasgow's 'Close The Coal House Door' sang by the Wilson Family from the North East of England. Bob. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Rog Peek Date: 10 Jun 09 - 04:26 PM Dogs at Midnight - Tom Paxton There Goes The Mountain - Tom Paxton No Christmas In Kentucky - Phil Ochs Rog |
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Subject: North Country Miner's Wife From: 2581 Date: 11 Jun 09 - 01:17 AM Hey, Tim -- Where can I find "The North Country Miner's Wife" (Bob Davenport) that you posted the lyrics for? Best wishes, Tony |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,Bill the sound Date: 11 Jun 09 - 08:22 PM Just a few good Welsh songs Mardy by Dave Rogers Farewell to the Rhondda by Frank Hennessy Both Recorded by Dave Burns If I Had a Son by Phil Millichip Recorded by Phil-Vin Garbutt and several other artists |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST Date: 12 Jun 09 - 09:58 AM All the Nova Scotia songs I know are already noted, but Martyn Joseph has some sweet Welsh songs (Please Sir, Dic Penderyn, Proud Valley Boy, etc.) My Young Man by Kate Rusby is also a nice song. By the way, yesterday was Davis Day in NS. Read the link for the history. Davis Day |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE DURHAM LOCKOUT (Tommy Armstrong) From: GUEST,MikeL Date: 12 Jun 09 - 03:24 PM The Durham Lockout by Ian Campbell also written and performed by Tommy Armstrong In our Durham County, I am sorry for to say That hunger and starvation is increasing every day For the want of food and coals, we know not what to do But with your kind assistance, we will stand the struggle through I need not state the reason why we have been brought so low The masters have behaved unkind, as everyone well know Because we won't lie down and let them treat us as they like To punish us they've stopped their pits and caused the present strike The pulley wheel have ceased to move which went so swift around The horses and the ponies too are brought from underground Our work is taken from us now, they care not if we die For they can eat the best of food and drink the best when dry The miner and his marra, too, each morning have to roam To seek for bread to feed the hungry little ones at home The flour barrel is empty now, their true and faithful friend Which makes the thousands wish today the strike was at an end We have done our very best as honest working men To let the pits commence again, we've offered to them ten The offer they will not accept, they firmly do demand Thirteen and a half percent or let the collieries stand Let them stand or let them lie to do with them as they choose To give them thirteen and a half we ever shall refuse They're always willing to receive, but never inclined to give Very soon they won't allow a working man to live With tyranny and capital they never seem content Unless they are endeavoring to take from us percent If it was due, what they request, we willingly would grant We know it's not, therefore we cannot give them what they want The miners of Northumberland, we shall forever praise For being so kind in helping us, those tyrannizing days We thank the other counties too, that have been doing the same For every man who hears this song will know we're not to blame Mike Landsborough |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: TonyK Date: 13 Jun 09 - 05:16 PM Music of the Coal, that Dick mentioned above, is indeed fine. I also like Coal Tatoo as done by Billy Edd Wheeler, the author. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: gnu Date: 13 Jun 09 - 05:27 PM Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: gnu - PM Date: 12 Jun 09 - 12:50 PM Thought I would put in a plug for olddude's song Appalachia. It's in the list on this page. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,Joe G Date: 13 Jun 09 - 07:09 PM Jez Lowe has been mentioned a few times but he really is the modern master of coal mining songs: Cursed be the Caller Last of the Widows (one of the most beautiful & tragic songs ever written) Mike Neville Said it So it Must be True (a wonderfully wry reflection on the devestation of the industry) Greek Lightning ( a song that many sons of miners - like me - will weep to) & many more! |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: jaze Date: 14 Jun 09 - 11:50 AM Springfield Mountain Coal Miner- sung by Kate Wolf |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Allan C. Date: 15 Jun 09 - 06:22 AM A few years back Kenny Ray Horton and a guy who later changed his name to Garth Brooks put together a song that Kenny recorded called, "Canary Song". There are some clips out there on the net of some other folks doing it; but Kenny's version is the best. Part of the lyrics are: We'd always bring a bright canary Our link to the world of air For we knew while she kept singing We wouldn't suffocate down there. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Rumncoke Date: 15 Jun 09 - 10:26 AM Shouldn't that be 'while he kept singing' - hen canaries are not renowned for their song. Anne Croucher |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Allan C. Date: 15 Jun 09 - 07:40 PM Good point. Maybe I'll give the song another listen. It could be that I transcribed incorrectly. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: CANARY SONG From: Allan C. Date: 18 Jun 09 - 05:35 PM I double checked the lyrics. Unfortunately, they do have the canary as a "she". Good song, though. The whole thing goes like this: CANARY SONG While the mocking bird warbles Near the mountain spring Down in a mine a canary sings In a deep, dark hole where men didn't belong They listened to their lives in a canary's song I remember mountain mornings So quiet I could almost hear The wind in the red-tail's feathers And the breathing of the deer Those old tracks seemed to go forever And as a child I'd walk all day Finding diamonds in the cinders And taking chunks of coal away As morning faded to evening Then so, too, came my time To follow down in my daddy's footsteps And leave the mountain for the mine We'd always bring a bright canary Our link to the world of air For we knew while she kept singing We wouldn't suffocate down there While the mockingbird warbles Near the mountain spring Down in a mine a canary sings In a deep, dark hole where men didn't belong We listened to our lives in a canary's song And we'd listen for the sunrise For wings against the sky We'd listen for the dreams That make men try Once again I left the mountain To find work when the mine shut down Those old tracks don't go on forever They end in this old part of town All I brought was this canary As I awake in dreams of home I pray I'll hear a bird singing And hear a silence before the storm While the mocking bird warbles Near the mountain spring In a cold water room a canary sings Living in this hole where I don't belong I listen to my life in a canary's song |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: GUEST,Braddie Date: 25 Oct 09 - 05:03 PM Can anyone help please - a now deceased uncle used to sing about a Pontypridd miner who was looking for his wife it started "Now me and my jam tart for the market made a start" .... I would love to learn the words does anyone know the rest of it please - it went on to list lots of Welsh towns where he looked for her and ends up "I found her drinking in the Butcher's Arms". The listener is left wondering if this was a pub or a guy who sold meat! Thanks, John |
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Subject: Lyr Add: FIRE IN THE HOLE (M Daring & J Sayles) From: catspaw49 Date: 25 Oct 09 - 05:20 PM I don't see it mentioned in this thread, but this is a very nice mountain sounding piece written for the movie "Matewan"......an EXCELLENT film btw. FIRE IN THE HOLE (Mason Daring & John Sayles) You can tell 'em in the country, tell 'em in the town The miners down in Mingo laid their shovels down. We won't pull another pillow, load another ton, Or lift another finger till the union we have won. cho: Stand up boys, let the bosses know! Turn your buckets over, turn your lanterns low; There's fire in our hearts and fire in our soul But there ain't gonna be no fire in the hole! Well, Daddy died a miner, grandpa he did too, I'll bet this coal will kill me 'for my workin' days are through; In a hole that's dark and dirty, an early grave confined I plan to make a union for the ones I leave behind. (Written for the movie Matewan; Recorded on soundtrack album from Daring Records)......This one is already in the DT but I think it belongs on the thread. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Santa Date: 26 Oct 09 - 09:54 AM With a North East England bias, not enough Tommy Armstrong in the list, I think? I don't think he was credited with Trimdon Grange but there are also Oakey Street Evictions, The War between the Cages, and others. The Eliots of Birtley were mentioned, with the Jack Eliot LP for Topic giving us Rap Her To Bank and Cotia. Look to the singing of Johnny Handle, and his time with the High Level Ranters. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: INVALID MINER (Roger Watson) From: Young Buchan Date: 26 Oct 09 - 10:14 AM Two by Roger Watson. No 2 Top Seam is in the DT but Invalid Miner isn't. At 14 Jim left school With other lads the same, And like his father had done before A miner he became, my boys, a miner he became. A collier lad so bold One of the best was he And at the age of 45 They made him a deputy. A deputy he'd been For only just a year When a gas explosion down the pit Put an end to his career. The doctors did there best For a good three months and more Until they came and told him straight He never would see any more. The doctors did there best For a good twelve months or more Until they came and told him straight He never would walk any more. He's on the welfare now. It pays his children's keep, A load of coal four times a year And a pension every week. But what they'll never do No matter how hard they try Is to give him another pair of legs Or another pair of eyes. I emphasise again that this is by Roger Watson, because there is a (quite possibly apocryphal) story that someone once sang it at a club where Roger was present and didn't even credit him. Roger, thinking he might innocently have thought it was traditional, went up to him at the break and asked if he knew who had written it. The reply was "Yes. But I'm not telling you. F*** off and find your own material!" |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE EASINGTON EXPLOSION (Jock Purdon) From: Young Buchan Date: 26 Oct 09 - 10:42 AM By Jock Purdon. As far as I can see not in DT. I tend to sing it to Winding Banks of Erne (Durham Miners' Lockout) though Jock had a slightly different tune. The Easington Explosion Come listen all you mining lads that take the road inby. I'll tell to you a dreadful tale how 80 men did die. In Easington in '51 men saw the gates of hell And those that lived to see the sight, never lived the tale to tell. CHO:God comfort all you miners, your wives and children all; They strike no medals for mining men but they still are heroes all. It was on the 29th of May a dreadful twist of fate Found the fore shift on the face, the back shift on the gate. Explosion wracked the quarter seam, killing all but one Leaving many the miner's happy home without father, brother, son. It was firedamp beneath the seam, it was coal dust fed the flame That roared outby till it was spent, then roared back in again, Twisting all the roof supports from out their proper bed And leaving us in mourning for the dying and the dead. Inside the hour from Houghton-Le the rescue party come. They listened for the voices, but the voices all were dumb. The death of hope was firedamp, the gas the miners dread; And two rescue men with yellow birds were numbered with the dead. Now time has dried the widows' tears and stilled the orphans' cry; For some the memories linger on, for some the echoes die. "God comfort you" a woman cried and her words I still recall "They strike no medals for mining men, but you still are heroes all." |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE AUCHENGEICH DISASTER (Norman Buchan) From: GUEST,EK Anne Date: 26 Oct 09 - 11:42 AM Here are the words of a song about the Auchengeich disaster on 18th September 1959, in Lanarkshire, Scotland, when 47 men died in an underground fire. THE AUCHENGEICH DISASTER 1) In Auchengeich there stands a pit, The wheel above, it isna turnin'. For on a grey September morn The flames o' Hell below were burnin'. 2) Though in below the coal lay rich It's richer noo, for aw that burnin' For forty seven brave men are deid, Tae wives an' sweethearts ne'er returnin'. 3) The seams are thick in Auchengeich, The coal below is black an' glistening But och, its cost is faur ower dear, For human lives there is nae reckoning. 4) Oh, coal is black an' coal is red, An' coal is rich beyond a treasure; It's black wi' work an' red wi' blood -- Its richness noo in lives we measure. 5) Oh, better though we'd never wrocht, A thousand years o' work an' grievin'. The coal is black like the mournin' shroud The women left behind are weavin'. 6) Repeat v1. This song was recorded by Dick Gaughan on the Topic themed LP "The Bonny Pit Laddie", where it was mistakenly described as traditional. In fact, it was written by the late Norman Buchan (who was a teacher at the time and later a member of Parliament) and was first published in book form in his little red book '101 Scottish Songs' -- Collins Publishers -- in 1962, where it was credited to Tormaid (which is Gaelic for Norman). The tune he used was 'Skippin' Barfit through the Heather', because it was the singing of this song by Jessie Murray at a People's Festival ceilidh in Edinburgh in 1951? (organised by Hamish Henderson) that first aroused his abiding interest in traditional music. There's also a great site for those with interest in mining -- www.scottishmining.co.uk (sorry, no clicky) |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: 2581 Date: 26 Oct 09 - 07:48 PM Young Buchan -- Do you know where I can find "No. 2 Top Seam", "The Invalid Miner" and "The Easington Explosion" on a CD or LP? Best wishes, Tony from Kentucky |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Martha Burns Date: 26 Oct 09 - 08:52 PM Boy, coal miners were a singing bunch! With all of these songs, there's one of my favorites that no one has mentioned, and that's THE SHOOFLY. As I went a-walking one fine summer's morning, It was down by the furnace I chanced for to stroll. I spied an old lady, I'll swear she was eighty, At the foot of the dirt bank, a-looking for coal. ETC. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: MY FATHER WAS A MINER (Seamus Kennedy) From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 27 Oct 09 - 02:36 AM Here's one I wrote and recorded on my 'On The Rocks' CD a few years ago. MY FATHER WAS A MINER (Seamus Kennedy, Gransha Music) I wrote this song for my friend Bruce Cunningham of Scranton, PA, whose father Jim was a coal-miner in the Lackawanna Valley mines. Bruce related several stories about his dad to me one night in the Banshee Pub in Scranton, and I mentioned that they'd make a good song. He immediately challenged me to write one. This is it. Thanks to Bruce and to his dad for the inspiration. My father was a miner As his father was before him, Hacking out the anthracite From the Pennsylvania clay, He left school at fifteen, Was down the mines at sixteen, At nineteen he was married And soon I was on the way. At seven every morning, My mother made him breakfast, Then he'd walk down to the pithead With all the other men. He'd swing his old lunch bucket, As she watched him from the window, Wond'ring if this was the day That she would not see him again. His name is Jim Cunningham, from Lackawanna County, Like all his childhood buddies He toiled at digging coal. Risking black-lung and cave-ins, And flying red-hot splinters, And bleeding ruptured eardrums After "Fire in the hole!" While crawling in a shaft one day To hew a brand-new coalface, He didn't hear the timbers creak Or the rumble overhead, But a hand reached in and grabbed him, And pulled him from the tunnel, Just another second later And my dad would have been dead. Well, he finished out his shift, There was no time off for dyin', That night he told my mother, And she began to keen and moan, She threw his supper on the table, Her eyes were red with cryin'. Saying, "If you go down tomorrow, I won't be here when you come home." So now he drives a truck For a bakery here in Scranton, And once a week I help him With deliveries round the town. He lived to see us growin', And it keeps my mother happy, But sometimes I think for one more day, He'd love to go back down. One morning having coffee In a nearby Dunkin' Donuts, An older man came in And sat down not too far away. My father brought me over, And said, "Shake hands with Ray Hinkley, If it hadn't been for him, son, I would not be here today." I whispered, "Thank you, Mr. Hinkley." As I took his hand and shook it. My tears fell hot and heavy, So I could scarcely see. He put a big hand on my shoulder, And pulled me close beside him, Saying, "Your dad and I are miners, He'd have done the same for me." My father was a miner, As his father was before him, Hacking out the anthracite From the Pennsylvania clay. |
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Subject: RE: Coal Mine Songs From: Young Buchan Date: 27 Oct 09 - 05:28 AM Tony from Kentucky: I am confident that Easington is on Jock's vinyl LP Pitwork Politics and Poetry. The wonders of the Internet inform me that No 2 Top Seam is on Muckram Wakes' Pick and Malt Shovel and June Tabor's Cut Above. I guess they are also vinyl.If you just want a tune it too goesto Winding Banks/Lockout I don't know of a recording of Invalid Miner. I got it from a version published in a tiny British folk magazine in the 60s called either Spin or Sing Out but NOT the American magazines of the same name! :-< |
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