LOADING COAL Words and music by Merle Travis As recorded by Johnny Cash on "Ride this Train" (1960) My pappy said when I was seventeen: "You're six feet tall and your face is clean, And it don't look right for a boy that old To not make a livin' loadin' coal." CHORUS: Loadin' coal, loadin' coal, I'm a double first cousin to a dad-blame mole. Never get rich for to save my soul, And forty-'leven years a-loadin' coal, loadin' coal. Ain't never got acquainted with a dollar bill, And I don't ever reckon that I ever will. A dollar ain't made for a feller I'm told, That scoops up a livin' loadin' coal. CHORUS I cussed everything in the mining camp From my shovel and my pick to my carbide lamp, But I know mighty well till I grow old I'll still be a-cussin' but loadin' coal. CHORUS I know just as well as coal is black, One of these days the mines will strike, And I'll sit around starvin' till I'm finally told There's a nickel more a ton for loadin' coal. CHORUS
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