THE BIG HEWER (Ewan MacColl, 1960) Out of the dirt and darkness I was born, go down Out of the hard black coalface I was torn, go down Kicked on the world and the earth split open Crawled through a crack where the rock was broken Burrowed a hole, away in the coal, go down In a cradle of coal in the darkness I was laid, go down Down in the dirt and darkness I was raised, go down Cut me teeth on a five-foot timber Held up the roof with my little finger Started me time away in the mine, go down On the day that I was born I was six feet tall, go down And the very next day I learned the way to haul, go down On the third day worked at board and pillar Worked on the fourth as a long-wall filler Getting me steam up, hewing the seam, go down I'm the son of the son of the son of a collier's son, go down Coal dust runs in the veins where the blood should run, go down Five steel ribs and an iron backbone Teeth that can bite through rock and blackstone Working me time, away in the mine, go down Three hundred years I hewed at the coal by hand, go down In the pits of Durham and East Northumberland, go down Been gassed and burned and blown asunder Buried more times than I can number Getting the coal, away in the hole, go down I've scrabbled and picked at the face where the roof was low, go down Crawled in the seams where only a mole could go, go down In the thin-cut seams I've ripped and redded Where even the rats are born bow-legged Winning the coal, away in the hole, go down I've worked in the Hutton, the Plessey, the Brockwell Seam, go down The Bensham, the Busty, the Beaumont, the Marshall Green, go down I've lain on me back in the old three-quarter Up to the chin in stinking water Hewing the coal, away in the hole, go down In the northern pits I've sweated and earned me pay, go down Toiled in the worn-out drift mines night and day, go down Where the anthracite is hard and shining I've tried me hand at the hard-rock mining I dug a hole away in the coal, go down Out of the dirt and darkness I was born, go down Out of the hard black coal-face I was torn, go down Lived in the shade of the high pit heap I'm still down there where the seams are deep Digging a hole, away in the coal, go down Grand song, have fun Jack
Note from Joe Offer. The lyrics in this past are almost exactly the same as the lyrics on PP154-55 of The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook (Oak Publications, 2001). The Songbook does not contain the verse in italics, but that verse is on MacColl's recording on the New Briton Gazette album, volume 2 (Folkways FW 8734) MacColl Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8t4VdqpQZ4
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