The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2913 Message #1095891
Posted By: Leadfingers
18-Jan-04 - 08:28 PM
Thread Name: Songs about Aberfan (1966 mining disaster)
Subject: Lyr Add: ABERFAN (Bernie Fairlamb)
I have a song I collected in 1969 from a group in Singapore. They gave me the name of the writer as Bernie Fairlamb, who I think was in the R A F. Whatever, Johnny Collins knew him. Try This one:-
ABERFAN -- Bernie Fairlamb
Am G
Black is the life of a mining man,
Am Em
In the bowels of the earth with a pick and a lamp
Am C
Black is the life of a mining man
G Am
And Black is the memory of Aberfan
That Friday morning in a little Welsh town
A man made mountain came tumbling down
It came down the hillside like a giant black hand
And plucked all the children from Aberfan
In the little brick schoolhouse children laughed sang and played
When down came that mountain that mining men made
More than a hundred lives lost before they began
A lost generation in Aberfan
A heartbroken Mother stood watching in dread
As men brought out children all broken and dead
She'd stood at the PitHead to weep for her man
Now gone two of her children in Aberfan
The graves on the hillside stretch over the town
That a man made mountain brought to world renown
They stretch out as far as the eye can scan
There lie the children of Aberfan
So come all you miners who cut the rough coal
Dont take the life of another young soul
Bury your waste as deep as you can
Lest you bury your children like Aberfan