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Mining songs NOT about coal?
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Subject: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,Anonymous Traveler Date: 04 Sep 22 - 07:39 PM Hi all, I've gathered together quite the collection of coal mining songs - worker's laments, various accidents, stiff upper lips and such, a real great load of fun, rich songs about awful lifestyles. However, now I am looking for more songs specifically about non-coal mining - Gold, Silver, Copper, and the like. Hell I'll even take songs about gravel pits or marble quarries if you've got them. Gypsum? Asbestos? Lithium Brine? For purposes of this request I don't care so much about songs of traveling to the gold rush (Sweet Betsy From Pike) - I'm mostly looking for the day-to-day life of a man a mile deep in a hole. Though I won't turn down a nice biting song about a dejected placer miner. Just none of that optimistic crap. Also interested in general in songs about Butte if you've got them. To start off with what I've already gathered: Haywire Mac - Anecdote about Marcus Daly (story) Utah Phillips - She'll Never Be Mine. Interested to know what's out there and what your favorites are. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Tattie Bogle Date: 04 Sep 22 - 07:51 PM Farewell to the Gold: about gold mines in New Zealand. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Howard Kaplan Date: 04 Sep 22 - 09:48 PM Jim Causley has written some songs about tin mining in Devonshire. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GerryM Date: 04 Sep 22 - 11:55 PM Utah Phillips, Look For Me In Butte, https://youtu.be/p7-LrnGJgAU |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GerryM Date: 04 Sep 22 - 11:59 PM Cousin Jack, by Show of Hands: Where there's a mine or a hole in the ground That's what I'm heading for that's where I'm bound So look for me under the lode and inside the vein Where the copper, the clay, the arsenic, and tin Run in your blood and under your skin I'll leave the county behind I'm not coming back Oh, follow me down cousin Jack https://youtu.be/wgyRWKLkxvE |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GerryM Date: 05 Sep 22 - 12:23 AM Sully's Pail, recorded by Tom Paxton, https://youtu.be/0R6K4Q49Pk0, written by Dick Gibbons (some sources say, Giddons). When we headed for the timbering, Sully must've took a spill, For when we looked back in there, he was pinned beneath his drill. The ceiling; it was groaning now, all set to drop the lid, And Sully, pinned beneath his drill, was sobbing like a kid. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GerryM Date: 05 Sep 22 - 12:35 AM Alistair Hulett wrote two fine songs about asbestos miners, Blue Murder https://youtu.be/jNBbTGGn5CM and He Fades Away https://youtu.be/P9Ri77UBuO0 |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Joe Offer Date: 05 Sep 22 - 01:58 AM John A. Stone ("Old Put") wrote scads of songs for and about California gold miners. We transcribed his two songsters: |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,Mark Date: 05 Sep 22 - 02:12 AM "But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin mine"? |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST Date: 05 Sep 22 - 04:31 AM I have heard a few about copper and tin mining but can't immediately come up with titles, I am afraid. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 05 Sep 22 - 05:52 AM Coal Not Dole words by Kay Sutcliffe; sung by Coope Boyes and Simpson It stands so proud, the wheel so still, A ghostlike figure on the hill. It seems so strange, there is no sound, Now there are no men underground. What will become of this pit yard Where men once trampled faces hard? Tired and weary, their shift done, Never having seen the sun. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 05 Sep 22 - 06:04 AM High Sheriff Of Hazard by Tom Paxton Now the High Sheriff of Hazard is a hard-working man. To be a fine sheriff is his only plan. He digs in our pockets he takes what he can, For he's the High Sheriff of Hazard. And when union men strike and the troubles come on, The High Sheriff's word is the mine owner's bond, He's a mine owner, too; you know which side he's on, He's the wealthy High Sheriff of Hazard. The Coming of the Roads by Billy Edd Wheeler Look how they've cut all to pieces Our ancient poplar and oak And the hillsides are stained with the greases That burned up the heavens with smoke You used to curse the bold crewmen Who stripped our Earth of its ore Now, you've changed and you've gone over to them And you've learned to love what you hated before Once I thanked God for my treasure Now, like rust it corrodes And I can't help from blamin' your goin' On the coming, the coming of the roads 1913 Massacre by Woody Guthrie Take a trip with me in 1913, To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country. I will take you to a place called Italian Hall, Where the miners are having their big Christmas ball. I will take you in a door and up a high stairs, Singing and dancing is heard everywhere, I will let you shake hands with the people you see, And watch the kids dance around the big Christmas tree. Paradise by John Prine And Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paradise lay Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 05 Sep 22 - 07:32 AM BOULBY MINE Words, Brian and Ray Edwards; music, Bob Skingle A potash mine in the North Yorkshire Moors, England I served me time on Tyneside as a welder in the yards. I did me share and laid the metal down Till the day when Shuffling Billy sadly told me "Get your cards" And I blew me packet at the Rose and Crown. CHORUS: So pack me duffle, Mary, my old darling. I'm sick of standing waiting in a line. The yards are laying off from here to Tyneside, So I'm going to try me luck at Boulby Mine. They told me there's a fortune to me made down on the moors Where they're digging out the potash by the ton. They're tunnelling like rabbits with their power-driven claws. They'll have tunnelled clear to Poland 'fore they're done. Me father told me, "Laddie, you must go and learn a trade. I don't want you lying on your back like me, For the only tools I've mastered are a pick-axe and a spade, But now the mine has got the best of me." Potash Song written by Graham Walker, sung by Vin Garbutt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o-rHkdg6JM Potash Song You'll certainly need help with the words! When you're digging out the ash, you're raking in the cash You might think you're doing very well, well, well When you're underneath the sea, where no man ought to be Like knocking on the deepest door of hell Callao is a port town adjacent to Lima, Peru on the west coast of South America. In Spanish it is pronounced KAI-oh, but the British sailors called it KALLY-oh. It is one of the centres of the guano trade. Tyntesfield, the stately home outside Bristol, was rebuilt on the proceeds of the guano trade. Guano is the solidified droppings of seabirds. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to its exceptionally high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. Guano was also, to a lesser extent, sought for the production of gunpowder and other explosive materials. The guano mining process resulted in ecological degradation through the loss of millions of seabirds. Round the Corner, Sally - Halyard Shanty, Traditional We’re leaving sunny Mexico Round The Corner, Sally! All around Cape Horn we’ll go. Round The Corner, Sally! Chorus: Round The Corner is a long, long way, to Valipo and Callao Bay, Round The Corner we must roam, we don’t care if we never go home. Saltpetre Shanty Traditional (Collected by Stan Hugill). (Recorded by Tom Lewis on Poles Apart) To old Callao we are bound away - HO ROLL To old Callao we are bound away - HO ROLL We're bound away to Valipo Bay, Where those flash senoritas will grab all our pay. HO, ROLL, ROCK YOUR BARS, HEAVE HER HI-O, ROCK HER, OH ROLL. Old Pedro the crimp, boys, you know him of old He's priming his vino and doping his beer, To the Chinchas he'll ship us if we don't steer clear. Them flash girls of Chile they cannot be beat They'll greet us and love us and treat us to wine, But we know they are robbing us most of the time. Serafina, Halyard Shanty In Callao there lives a gal Whose name is Serafina Serafina! Serafina! She sleeps all day and 'works' all night On the old Cally Marina Serafina! Oh, Serafina! When I was young an' in me prime, I first met Serafina Serafina! Serafina! In Callao we saw the sights An' then went up to Lima. Serafina! Oh, Serafina! |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Steve Gardham Date: 05 Sep 22 - 02:55 PM Tony Morris of Whitby wrote several iron mining songs on our Yorkshire Garland Website. www.yorkshirefolksong.net |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Nigel Parsons Date: 05 Sep 22 - 08:50 PM Hi-Ho (Snow White) The seven dwarves are diamond miners. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 06 Sep 22 - 04:24 AM One I wrote about the trade in Limestone from the Gower being brought back to Somerset to burn in the Lime kilns. LIMSTONE Well I've spent all my life within sight of the sea. A-ferrying the limestone has been the life for me, A-ferrying the limestone from out across the sea, And bringing it back for burning. CH. And it's one last time off to the Gower coast, One last time to fetch the stone to roast, One last time off to the Gower coast, And home again in the morning. Time there was when it was a steady trade, Sail across to Gower and anchor in a slade, Digging at the cliff-face for a cargo ready made For the hold of a slim polacca. All along the coastline the kilns would burn away, All along the cliff-top, near one to every bay, Everywhere a boat could land and safely get away, Bringing the stone for burning. Beach her on the foreshore near the end of the slack, Unload the lumps of limestone to the waiting donkey's backs, Watch them climb the cliff-face by a narrow twisting track, Float off with the next high water. Well I've spent all my life within sight of the sea. A-ferrying the limestone has been the life for me, A-ferrying the limestone from out across the sea, And bringing it back for burning. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:14 AM Mining is the only industry from which the absentee figures are published regularly Being usually preoccupied with telling the public of the fabulous wages miners are supposed to earn not much interest is shown in the conditions under which they are actually earned , but occasionaly the press finds it can enhance it circulation by printing disaster news and making a furtune out of misfortune The Accident at Bradford Colliery Tuesday February 28th 1956 Song Written by Peter Ivan Fryman As I made my way down the street to the colliery As I to my work was making my way I heard the bad news and I heard the men talking Young Anthony Riley has worked his last day Ole Enlyne Williams lies dead in the fan house The roof has caved in and the sides did give way It's in the newspapers splashed over the headlines What a big coup the news houds will pocket this day Willing hands to the rescue of our poor stricken comrades To lift the big rocks and discover their fate When comes the next pay day ther'll be a big collection Not a newspaper owner will be there to donate It's in the newspapers splashed over the headlines A capital story upon the front page Blood on the girders in Old Parker Fan house While weeping dependants go with the cortege When the coal merchant calls and you pay your good money Count well the bags as he lays them aside You'll be counting the cuts and the knocks and the bruises - You'll be counting the lives of the men who have died |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:16 AM Epitaph to the Unknown miner written by Peter Ivan Fryman I'm in a crude macabre mood So a moment I will ponder To put my thoughts in poetry And let them stray and wander – but There is no poetry in the pit - but toil I've found no reason in the pit – but toil What makes a man go down A mile beneath his town When the sun is fine warm ? But Toil ? So an Epitaph I'll write and it will serve For the two minutes silence unobserved For those who gave their lives so live and whole Died on no fields but those of brittle coal On cenotaphs i've looked in many a square Strange - I find no memory of them there Rough men – their class they never shammed And cared not if the pious called them dammed They lived their lives as good as any And sweated blood to earn their penny But now they're gone but where you say To heaven or the damp earth clay Just stand awhile and contemplate man's sorrow Why wait for heaven as we await tomorrow Is God the messenger of help What are your views I ask my friends They say they have no news So posthumously if that be any use We'll make a promise – keep it to the letter That with exploiters there will be no truce And show them that the living can do better Roll on the bay of socialism's dawn When brave mankind will find it need not mourn Then apathy we'll cast in to the bin And roll our sleeves up for that world to win Now the Epitaph Then shall we be an honoured race Though tired in body and black in face Respect will come from quarters round Where formerly none e'er was found And the smug whe of our labours had their whack While find our boots can make their arses black |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:19 AM Have you heard Ernie Bailey was killed this morning Ernie Bailey (song) written by Peter Ivan Fryman Well its time to give oer and get on our way Through the nine foot tunnel at the break of the day To wait at the pit bottom in the wind and the draught And wait for the onsetter to bell us up the shaft The men from Horizon are just coming out Off the loco journey to join us in the queue And the news that the bring is sad without doubt And what heart is not sad for a man we all knew The cutters are stopped and we'll play off today No colliers will come and no coal come away In respect of a mate who this morning was slain Remember his Widow and pity her pain For she wrote us a letter in the midst of her grief To thank us what we could do to relieve And she told us if Ernie once more had his time He would never regret his years down the mine For he knew and we know that its no love of hell Makes us stand in the cage and wait for the bell But that miners are comrades rare to be found Who's strength and humanity yields up the ground Remember that letter from his Widow so brave The wife of a miner understood us so fine And remember Ernie Bailey through the passage of time He was killed on the cutters in the Roger mine chord sequence D.E.F.E.D.A.G.F.F.E.C.D F.G.A.A.A.D'.C.Bb.Bb.A.G.A F.G.A.A.A.D'.C.Bb.Bb.A.G.A F.G.A.A.A.A.G.F.F.E.E.D |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:25 AM In Loving Remembrance The following four verses were printed on a card thickly edged in black And measuring 4 ½” x 3” Very likely it was on a wreath of flowers sent to the funeral from money collected by the miners and townsfolk to aid the dependants to those killed in the disaster. In fact it is almost certain that this was so In the mining industry it is never passing or spur of the moment sympathy which prompts the men to take a collection It is an ingrained custom a bitter necessity which takes place at many collieries every pay day Remembrance cards of this kind were sold in pubs and other meeting places in order To raise funds , and were seen again during the depression years between the last two world wars ( Notes on some verses received from Gunter Schober Leeds Yorkshire) In Loving Remembrance Of the 139 unfortunate men and boys who lost their lives by the terrible explosion at the Combs pit Thornhill near Dewsbury on Tuesday July 4th 1893 In health and strength we left our home Not thinking death was near It pleased the Lord to bid us come And in his presence to appear When we arose at early morning Full of health so blyth and gay We little thought it was the dawning Of our last and dying day O what a loud and fearful crash And what a sudden cry And what an awful place was that Wherein to droop and die With hearts so light we left our homes Upon that fateful morn And little thought upon the road We never would return |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:27 AM No 1 Horizon Parker Shaft 1948 Written by Peter Ivan Fryman When Jimmie Doohan fell down the shaft And left his wife and kids They fixed a new device up It must have cost them quids So let us praise our management For safety so extensive They've fixed up foolproof signals now And it was So expensive Hell – It was bloody expensive Jim's wife got pensioned off The N.C.B. got coal --One day they'll look before they leap Down that bloody hole Workers die like matyrs Like Jesus on the cross Jesus died for the people Jim died for the boss |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:42 AM Shaft Bottom Nov 1951 written by Peter Ivan Fryman Born 1935 Died ----- What kind of energy is used When the heat flares from the coals ? --The energy of human arms And the fire of human souls But look how it burns so red And O it burns so green As red as human blood , Aye And lives of young sixteen When shall we see the time , brother When shall we see the day When a man will get his dues in life As well as friday's pay --When the pulley-wheels go round for peace For willing picks and spades And brotherhood and freedom Break down the barricades |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:44 AM Mining is the only industry from which the absentee figures are published regularly Being usually preoccupied with telling the public of the fabulous wages miners are supposed to earn not much interest is shown in the conditions under which they are actually earned , but occasionaly the press finds it can enhance it circulation by printing disaster news and making a furtune out of misfortune The Accident at Bradford Colliery Tuesday February 28th 1956 Song Written by Peter Ivan Fryman As I made my way down the street to the colliery As I to my work was making my way I heard the bad news and I heard the men talking Young Anthony Riley has worked his last day Ole Emlyne Williams lies dead in the fan house The roof has caved in and the sides did give way It's in the newspapers splashed over the headlines What a big coup the news houds will pocket this day Willing hands to the rescue of our poor stricken comrades To lift the big rocks and discover their fate When comes the next pay day ther'll be a big collection Not a newspaper owner will be there to donate It's in the newspapers splashed over the headlines A capital story upon the front page But there's blood on the girders in Old Parker Fan house While weeping dependants go with the cortege When the coal merchant calls and you pay your good money Count well the bags as he lays them aside You'll be counting the cuts and the knocks and the bruises - You'll be counting the lives of the men who have died |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:50 AM Dudley Canal Tunnel Song - Push, Boys, Push Dudley Canal Tunnel was opened in 1792 and as it had no towing path, boats had to be legged through. The tunnel contains old limestone workings, and is not a simple straight-through tunnel. In 1978, Mikron Theatre Company performed in a large cavern inside Dudley Tunnel. Mike Lucas played Isambard Kingdom Brunel in What A Way To Go. Both the cast and the audience arrived in the cavern by narrow boat! The closure of the canal was proposed in 1959 but a group of enthusiasts resisted the closure, forming what became the Dudley Canal Trust. The words to "Push Boys Push" were written, circa 1966, during a trip through Dudley Tunnel by Glyn Phillips and other members of the then Dudley Canal Tunnel Preservation Society, and later added to the tune composed by Glyn. The various features referred to in the song are: Castle Mill - a basin open to the surface; Cathedral Arch - the underground junction of two tunnels; the Well - an air shaft; the Jail - a kink in the tunnel. Jon Raven took the song and performed a slightly different version. (Information kindly provided by Tony Gregory). We're going though this tunnel, push boys push We're trying to save this tunnel, push boys push It's the pride of Dudley Town And they're trying to close it down So, push boys push Ho! push boys push We'll go through Castle Mill, push boys push Cathedral Arch as well, push boys push There's no more fresh-air smell When you pass by the Well So, push boys push Ho! push boys push The boat's been going through, push boys push Since seventeen-ninety-two, push boys push It's a crime and it's a shame That we cannot do the same So, push boys push Ho! push boys push Don't let your strength to fail, push boys push 'Cos we're coming to the Jail, push boys push We may get stuck inside If the boat it is too wide So, push boys push Ho! push boys push The tunnel's two miles long, push boys push That's why we sing this song, push boys push It keeps our spirits high While we cannot see the sky So, push boys push Ho! push boys push And now we're coming nigh, push boys push Oh don't you see the sky, push boys push We'll have a celebration Now we've sung it to the nation So, push boys push Ho! push boys push |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 05:53 AM The Snot Chewers Lament song written by Peter Ivan Fryman There's a man at the fair who eats records And stunt men in films cut it fine But there's nobody 'ere won an Oscar That chewed up the dust in a mine Chorus When I grow up I'll be a miner To my old man I did say So he slapped my head and he sent me to bed And I wished that I'd stayed there today Shot-lighters don't carry water Shot-lighters don't carry food Don't get to thick with a shottie 'Cause they never buy their own booze Chorus When I grow up I'll be a miner To my old man I did say So he slapped my head and he sent me to bed And I wished that I'd stayed there today Politicians will talk bright and breezy Parson will talk about Hell He ought to try coming down here I'd give him a ratch for hi'sel' Chorus When I grow up I'll be a miner To my old man I did say So he slapped my head and he sent me to bed And I wished that I'd stayed there today It's thirty four bob for a scufter And thirty nine plus for a pack And even the mogies have knee pads And they have to lay on their backs Chorus When I grow up I'll be a miner To my old man I did say So he slapped my head and he sent me to bed And I wished that I'd stayed there today So just carry on me old scufter And wipe nall the smoke from your eyes And get up the pit in the morning Or they'll pay you in tea and meat pies Chorus When I grow up I'll be a miner To my old man I did say So he slapped my head and he sent me to bed And I wished that I'd stayed there today |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 06 Sep 22 - 07:10 AM "Shosholoza" is a traditional miners' song, originally sung by groups of men from the Ndebele ethnic group that travelled by steam train from their homes in Zimbabwe (formerly known as Rhodesia) to work in South Africa's diamond and gold mines. The Ndebele live predominantly in Zimbabwe near its border with South Africa. The song uses Ndebele words and is Zimbabwean in origin even though the Zulu and Zimbabwean Ndebele ethnic groups are very similar. Shosholoza Go forward Shosholoza Go forward Kulezo ntaba from those mountains Stimela siphume South Africa on this train from South Africa Wen' uyabaleka You are running away Kulezo ntaba from those mountains Stimela siphume South Africa on this train from South Africa It was sung by all-male African workers that were performing rhythmical manual labour in the South African mines in a call and response style. The song is so popular in South African culture that it is often referred to as South Africa's second national anthem. Wikipedia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jYdtRTlvgQ Ndlovu Youth Choir |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Monologue John Date: 06 Sep 22 - 08:25 AM The Pit Head Gear Written by Peter Ivan Fryman The Pit Head stands against the sky The pit lads gaze the veterans Phlegm It's steely web is dark and grim The spider beckons to the fly The mariner his course mus stear And branded in the pitmans soul His captor is the pit head gear I had a pick and shovel once How we met I do not know My shovel took me by the hand And taught me how to heave and throw They wind by steam at an awful speed In nine and fifty seconds clear One thousand yards to the bottom you'll go While you'll leave your heart in the pit head gear My pick it bore my arms away It made me strop and work by force Oh such a toilsome marriage now I think its time for our divorce But the wheels go round with a whistling sound And another day will soon draw near When your pit boots grab you by the feet And drag you to that pit head gear |
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Subject: Cousin Jack Live Version Chord Sheet From: GUEST,Anonymous Traveler Date: 06 Sep 22 - 10:15 PM Hey, thanks for the Cousin Jack song, it's great. I've made a first-pass at a chord sheet for it. This is the same version of the song that's linked above on Youtube, it's track 12 on CD #1 of Roots - The Best of Show of Hands [2007]. On the recording they're in G, but I quite like it in C as well. Cousin Jack Show of Hands Live Version (Played in key of G) {3/4 Time - ~ 146 -152 BPM (mostly) Tempo varies throughout piece, doesn't seem to be to a click} [Intro] 16 Measures Guitar/Piano intro ("this is Cousin Jack") 16 Measures Guitar/Piano + Bass etc [Verse 1] Em C This land is barren and broken D G D/F# Scarred like the face of the moon Em Bm Our tongue is no longer spoken C D The towns all around face ruin Em C Will there be work in New Brunswick D G D/F# or will I find gold in the Cape Em Bm If I tunnel way down to Australia C D how will I ever escape [Chorus] G D Where there’s a mine or a hole in the ground Em C That’s where I’m heading for that’s where I’m bound D G D/F# Look for me under the lode or inside the C D vein _____________________ (ah hah) G D Where the copper the clay where the arsenic and tin Em C Run in your blood digging under your skin D G D I’m leaving the county behind and I’m not coming C D C back__ __ So, follow me down cousin Em Jack ____________________________ _________________________________ [Verse 2] E C The soil was too poor to make Eden D G D/F# Granite and sea left no choice Em Bm Though visions of heaven sustained us C D John Wesley gave us a voice {hold two extra measures} Em C Did Joseph once come to St Michael’s mount D G D/F# Two thousand years pass in a dream Em Bm When you’re working your way in the darkness C D Deep in the heart of the seam ("Where there's a mine, cmon") [Chorus] G D Where there’s a mine or a hole in the ground Em C That’s where I’m heading for that’s where I’m bound D G D/F# Look for me under the lode or inside the C D vein ________________________________ G D Where the copper the clay where the arsenic and tin Em C Run in your blood digging under your skin D G D I’m leaving the county behind and I’m not coming C D C back__ __ So, follow me down cousin Em Jack ____________________________ **** {*Middle Section... time it out yourself*} ("Follow me Down") ("To Canada, America, South Africa, Australia") Where there's a mine_ Or a hole in the ground I'm leaving the county Must I leave My Town? Canel? Broughdroove? Vloos? Bwainbridge? Patsy? Port Isaac (??????) Remember us, Remember our names Remember the white cross, and the black flag Yeahhhhhhhhh___ And the waves crash to the shoreline I dream_____ {echoes} I dream_______ **** [Verse 3] {Half-Time feel} Em I dream of a bridge C 'cross the Tamar D It opens us up G to the east Em In my dreams, I see the English living in our Bm Houses ________ C I see the Spanish fishing in our D seas!!! [Chorus] G D Where there’s a mine or a hole in the ground Em C That’s where I’m heading for that’s where I’m bound D G D/F# Look for me under the lode or inside the C D vein ________________________________ G D Where the copper the clay where the arsenic and tin Em C Run in your blood digging under your skin D G D I’m leaving the county behind and I’m not coming C D C back__ __ So, follow me down cousin Em Jack ____ Come on, Follow me down cousin Jack Yeah, Follow me down_______ |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,Anonymous Traveler Date: 06 Sep 22 - 10:46 PM Oh, whoops! I spent all this time timing out the chords but didn't realize posted comments aren't monospaced! Well, if you cut and paste it into notepad or gedit or the like all the spacing will be restored. Let me know if posting chord sheets is a faux pas here for some reason. If not, I'll probably have a few more for you all over the coming weeks as I work my way through my favorites in the thread. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,Jack Campin Date: 07 Sep 22 - 01:45 AM "Clementine" (gold mining). |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Richard Mellish Date: 07 Sep 22 - 04:03 PM There's Bert's Maryborough Miner though that was his re-write of Murrambidgee Shearer. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 12 Sep 22 - 11:25 PM From Mainly Norfolk; Fourpence a Day was collected by Joan Littlewood and Ewan MacColl from John Gowland, retired lead miner in Middleton-in-Teesdale, in 1948. It was printed in Peggy Seeger's and Ewan MacColl's 1960 book on English and Scottish Folksongs, The Singing Island. The second Topic album's notes said: Still current in North-East Yorkshire, this song is attributed to Thomas Raine, lead-miner and bard of Teesdale. From mysongbook.de; From Joan Littlewood, Joan's Book (1994); Well, at least Teesdale was new to me [as the subject of a BBC radio programme by J. L.]. I amused myself collecting fragments of an old song and got Jimmie [Ewan MacColl] a job completing it: Fourpence a day, my lads, and verra hard to wark With never a pleasant look from a scruffy-looking Turk His heart it may fail, his conscience may give way And he'll raise us our wages to fivepence a day |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST Date: 13 Sep 22 - 02:08 AM Wqages of Death, 1985 written about asbestos mining and recorde on Cheating The Tide, by Dick Miles |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,The Sandman Date: 13 Sep 22 - 02:29 AM excuse typo should be,, Wages of Death |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,The Sandman Date: 13 Sep 22 - 07:16 AM if anyone is intersted in that song it is available in a book or on cd |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: Dave the Gnome Date: 13 Sep 22 - 07:53 AM Not about lead mining but Bob Pegg's "Leaving the Dales" mentions it "It's up where the river winds high on the fell The mine where my Grandad went digging for lead But the tubs are now empty, the pit props are rotten The ore is all spent and the miners all dead" |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 13 Sep 22 - 08:06 AM [Joan Littlewood and] Ewan MacColl collected Fourpence a Day from John Gowland of Teesdale, Yorkshire, England. This version that Cliff Haslam performs comes from the singing of Stan Kelly and Eric Winter. Jos. Morneault Four Pounds a Day The rain is falling on the site the tea’s upon the brew We’re siting on our arseholes with bugger all to do Outside our picks and shovels lads they slowly rust away We’re rained on and contented on four pounds a day Four pounds a day, me lads and nothing much to do No trouble from the foreman, he’s in the union, too Some want the rain to go to Spain, we want the rain to stay We’re rained on and contented on four pounds a day It’s early in the morning, we start at ten o’clock We search the skies impatiently, bejays I felt a drop The can lads are on bonus and each brew means better pay We’re rained on and contented on four pounds a day So Freddie get the cards out, the racing page as well And as for the contractors, we hope they go to Hell It looks as if the rain’s set in, we shan’t do much today What matter if on Friday, we all draw our pay |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 13 Sep 22 - 09:43 AM Carrickfergus I wish I was in Carrickfergus Only for nights in Ballygrant I would swim over the deepest ocean The deepest ocean, my love to find But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over And neither have I wings to fly If I could find me a handsome boatman To ferry me over my love and I. Second verse: written by Dominic Behan My childhood days bring back sweet reflections The happy times I spent so long ago My boyhood friends and kind relations Have all passed on now like melting snow I'll spend my days an endless rover Soft is the grass and sure, my bed is free Oh but to be back, in Carrickfergus To strike that lonely road, down by the sea. Third verse And in Kilmeny it is reported On marble stone there as black as ink With gold and silver I would support her But I'll sing no more now till I get a drink For I'm drunk today and I'm seldom sober A handsome rover from town to town Ah but I'm sick now my days are numbered Come all ye young men and lay me down. Carrickfergus is in Antrim. Ballygrant is across the Irish Sea on Islay in Scotland. 'But the water is wide…' Almost 80 miles of the turbulent North Irish Sea separate Carrickfergus from Ballygrant. You would definitely want a handsome (i.e., skilful) boatman to make that crossing. Kilmeny (not Kilkenny) is the parish in which Ballygrant is located. If the singer’s beloved had died in Ballygrant, Kilmeny Churchyard is where she likely would be buried. It has a noteworthy burial ground in which there are numerous black marble headstones. - "…marble stones as black as ink." The black marble stones come from the nearby quarry, which was Ballygrant’s primary industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. "With gold and silver, I did support her" ... The other major employer in Ballygrant and Kilmeny Parish in the 18th and 19th centuries was lead and silver mining, which attracted miners from across the water. And Ballygrant lies over the Dalradian geologic complex, which is the source of gold being mined in Northern Ireland even today. From Irish Central |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GeoffLawes Date: 13 Sep 22 - 10:27 AM Tin and copper mining Shining down on Sennen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUdf3qCdC8A |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,The Sandman Date: 13 Sep 22 - 02:41 PM bill lowndes wrote a song which i used to sing called the sun and the moon about cornish mining presumably tin |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 15 Sep 22 - 05:58 AM The Sun and the Moon by Bill Lowndes https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=25239 The Sun and the Moon The Cornubian batholith, a large mass of granite rock formed about 280 million years ago, lies beneath much of Devon, Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. The intrusion is associated with significant quantities of minerals, particularly cassiterite, an ore of tin. Other minerals include china clay and ores of copper, lead, zinc and tungsten. Wikipedia. China clay was created while the molten granite was still cooling, when hydro-thermal activity attacked the sodium-rich feldspar. Arsenic was a by-product of tin and copper processing. The Danscombe Mine at Calstock worked on and off from 1822 to 1900, kept alive by the demand for arsenic which protected cotton against the boll weevil. In 2010, Western United Mines reported finding gold in the South Crofty tin mine. And with growing demand for lithium, Cornish Lithium is drilling exploratory boreholes around Camborne to confirm lithium concentrations within hot spring brines. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 15 Sep 22 - 11:20 AM The Maryborough Miner [ Roud - ; AFS 58 ; Ballad Index FaE078 ; trad.] From Mainly Norfolk A.L. Lloyd collected The Maryborough Miner from Bob Bell in Condolin in 1934. It is a mining version of Murrumbidgee Shearer which was printed in Paterson's Old Bush Songs. Lloyd sang it in 1956 on his Riverside album Australian Bush Songs and in 1958 for the Wattle LP Across the Western Plains and he commented in the latter album's sleeve notes: The great gold rushes which began in the 1850's developed a self-reliant class of men. Among the most admirable were the men who raised the flag of stars at Eureka Stockade in 1954 against oppressive authority. Among the least admirable were those who were prepared to get their gold at the point of a pistol, if they couldn't get it by the point of a pick. But often it was hard to tell the best from the worst among the diggers, as with the genial old rascal of this song. Of the Victorian township of Maryborough, Mark Twain said it was a “railway station with a town attached.” The people of Maryborough replied: “Even Mark Twain has to pay tribute to our impressive railway station.” (Some say that the railways people got their plans mixed, and that the station they built at Maryborough had been designed for the centre of Melbourne.) Come all you sons of liberty and listen to my song: I'll tell you my observations and it won't take very long. I've fossicked around this continent, five thousand miles or more, And many's the time I might have starved but for the cheek I bore. I've been on all the diggings, boys, from famous Ballarat, I've long-tommed on the Lachlan, and I've fossicked Lambing Flat. So you can understand, my boys, just from my little rhyme, I'm a Maryborough miner, and I'm one of the good old time. The Miner The miner he goes and changes his clothes, And then makes his way to the shaft For each man well knows he's going below,To put in his eight hours of graft Chorus With his calico cap and his old flannel shirt, His pants with the strap round the knee His boots watertight and his candle alight, His crib and his billy of tea The platman to the driver will knock four and one, The ropes to the windlass will strain As one shift comes up, another goes down, And working commences again He works hard for his pay at six bob a day, He toils for his missus and kids He gets what's left over and thinks he's in clover, To cut off his 'baccy in quids And thus he goes on, week in and week out, To toil for his life's daily bread He's off to the mine, hail, rain or shine, That his dear ones at home may be fed Digging holes in the ground where there's gold to be found, And most times where gold it is not A man's like a rabbit with this digging habit, And like one, he ought to be shot Notes; 'The Miner' comes from the later period of gold mining after the alluvial gold was exhausted. It's a song about deep shaft gold mining and this version was collected in 1959 by Norm O'Connor and Maryjean Officer from Mrs. R. Sayers, Bulumwaal, Gippsland. Ron Edwards collected two versions one in 1965 from Mrs T. Jenkins in Cairns and one in Fruitgrove, Qld in 1970 from Tony Davis. The Miner Words and MIDI |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GerryM Date: 15 Sep 22 - 06:31 PM The Eureka Stockade rebellion was, of course, in 1854, not 1954. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 16 Sep 22 - 02:50 AM Wicklow, Ireland. For over a hundred years there was no mining in the Glendasan valley until the St Kevin’s Lead and Zinc Mine was set up in 1948. Pit Ponies of Glendasan by Jane Clarke It only needs a tune to be a song. Hitched to an eight-hour shift in britchens, hames and traces, they follow the miners’ carbide lights, halt under hoppers, turn on a thruppence and lean into their collars to pull the five-wagon train. Low-set cobs from the Curragh, a piebald and two greys, their hooves fall heavy as hammers on granite. They haul lengths of larch for pit props, pneumatic drills, boxes of gelignite, and, from time to time, deliver injured men back to daylight. The miners pat their necks in passing and feed them windfall apples – comrades in toil and first to stall, legs locked at a sudden rumbling, a change in the air or the rush of running water. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,David Date: 17 Sep 22 - 12:45 PM Stan Rogers wrote a beautiful song called The Rowdon Hills (once were touched by gold). The song mentions other minerals that were mined.This is a finely crafted song. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,henryp Date: 25 Sep 22 - 04:14 PM Few Days - SARA GREY with Ed Trickett Notes by Bob Blackman I can't stay in these diggings Few days, few days Lord, I can't stay in these diggings And I am going home "Few Days" was originally a one-verse sacred song written by John G. McCurry and published in his collection of shape-note spirituals, The Social Harp (1855). McCurry may have simply adapted a traditional as indicated by George Pullen Jackson's discovery of a very similar piece in the Negro Singer's Own Book (1846). Sara's first verse and chorus match McCurry's creation. This single verse was expanded into a Gold Rush song printed in Put's Golden Songster (San Francisco, 1858). Ken Goldstein has explained, "To this rough and ready crew, no source was necessarily sacred, so that it is not surprising that many of their songs were parodies of, or set to the tunes of widely known religious songs of the day." Pat Foster and Dick Weissman recorded this as "Then Hurrah for Home" on Gold Rush Songs, Riverside 12-654, in 1957. Harry Tuft, manager of the Denver Folklore Center and a fine singer, learned it from Weissman and taught it to Sara, sings it on Five Days Singing, Vol. by the New Golden Ring, Folk-Legacy FSI-42. A different set of words to "Then Hurrah for Home" can be found in The Songs of the Gold Rush by Richard A. Dwyer and Richard E. Lingenfelter. Well, I pitched my tent on this campground, Few days, few days, And I give old Satan another round, And I am goin' home. I can't stay in these diggin's, Few days, few days, Lord, I can't stay in these diggin's, And I am goin' home. I'm goin' home to stay awhile. Before I go I'll plant a smile. For years I've labored in cold ground, And now at last I'm homeward bound. These bankin' thieves I will not trust, But with me take my little dust. I do not like these diggin's here, And I will not stay another year. My mother she has gone before, And I'll follow her to glory's door. |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GUEST,Graham_t Date: 25 Sep 22 - 06:05 PM He Fades Away - sung by June Tabor and written by Alistair Hulett was about a man dying who had worked in the Wittenoom asbestos mines |
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Subject: RE: Mining songs NOT about coal? From: GerryM Date: 26 Sep 22 - 03:44 AM Graham, I mentioned He Fades Away, and gave a link to a recording, way up near the top of this thread. |
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