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