List of Mining Disaster Songs

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 07:26 PM

Stompin' Tom's "Fire In The Mine" about the Hollinger mine fire of 1928.

Subject: ADD: Hillcrest Mine (Keelaghan)
From: GUEST,Henryp
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 07:17 PM

From Bill Doskoch: Media, BPS*, Film, Minutiae;
One of the worst mine disasters in the Crowsnest -- actually, in Canadian history -- was the Hillcrest mine explosion on Friday, June 19, 1914, which killed 189 miners. The blast was so powerful that some standing at the mine's entrance died. Calgary-based folk singer James Keelaghan wrote a song called Hillcrest Mine.

Hillcrest Mine
(James Keelaghan)

Down in the mines of the Crowsnest Pass
It's the men that die in labour
Sweating coal from the womb of the pit
It's the smell of life they savour
And in that mine, young man, you'll find
A wealth of broken dreams --
As long and as dark and as black and as wide
As the coal in the Hillcrest seam.

And they say you don't go,
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine,
And they say you don't go,
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine;
'Cause it's one short step,
You might leave this world behind,
And they say you don't go,
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine.

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 11:53 AM

I'm not at all sure that "sat" and "trapped" are such a bad rhyme. I pronounce trapped like "trapt", which makes it no worse, for example, than Bob Dylan's man/sand rhyme in "Blowin' in the Wind"

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: weerover
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 10:37 AM

The Blantyre Explosion
The Auchengeich Disaster
(both of these a few miles from where I am)
The West Virginia Mine Disaster
Ballad of Springhill

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: GUEST,Closet BGees Fan
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 08:58 AM

Sorry 'bout this......

In the event of something happening to me
There is something I would like you all to see
It's just a photograph of someone that I knew
Have you seen my wife Mr Jones?
Do you know what it's like on the other side?
Don't go talking too loud you'll cause a landslide
Mr Jones....

Couldn't help it

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: Cats
Date: 17 Aug 07 - 04:34 AM

Jon Heslop's 1913 about the Senhennydd mine disaster.

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 07:23 PM

Maurice Ruddick was one of the miners trapped underground for over a week during the Springhill disaster of 1958. The lyrics and midi-text of a song by this Canadian hero can be found in this thread.

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 01:38 PM

The parody of PMB's contribution is here:

Gresford Distaster

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 01:18 PM

Jez Lowe's "Last of the Widows" - Easington colliery, May 1951. Keith Marsden's "Morley Main" - lyrics added to Mudcat on thread.cfm?threadid=66658

Kitty

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: 3refs
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 10:56 AM

http://www.menofthedeeps.com/home.html

Subject: Lyr Add: ABERFAN COAL TIP TRAGEDY (Thom Parrott)
From: bfdk
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 05:07 AM

This one, although the tragedy didn't happen *in* the mine..:

The Aberfan Coal Tip Tragedy
(Thom Parrott)

The mining men of Wales are hardy, strong and bold
And they tunnel in the earth and make it yield its coal
But in the town of Aberfan, it's dearer now than gold
For one generation for profit has been sold

Chorus:
How many died in Aberfan
When the slag heap came tumbling down
How many children will never grow old
And how many lives purchased how many tons of coal

The little school of Pantglas lay where the mountain loomed
And some two hundred children took their classes in its rooms
The day fall recess to begin, they went to meet their doom
Not knowing the green hollow would soon become their tomb

Chorus

It was just 9:00 A.M. when they opened up the door
And in came the students, two hundred, maybe more
But nobody knew then what the mountain had in store
The lucky ones were tardy, the others are no more

Chorus

"I played with my big dog and I played with my cat,"
Signed "Paul, October 21," there's nothing after that
For the coal tip came down, and everyone was trapped
And now there's only coal slag where little Paul once sat

Chorus

In eighteen hundred and seventy-four, the first pit shaft went down
And they started piling mining waste on the slopes above the town
And everybody knew that the practice was unsound
But for ninety-two years no better place was found

Chorus

The National Coal Board said they'd known from the first
That the coal tips they'd permitted were a worry and a curse
But I've heard that speech so many times, and it always sounds rehearsed
If the coal tip was a murderer, the Coal Board's crime was worse

Chorus

The children were pretty, the children were fine
The children went to school in the shadow of the mine
But with the coal tip up above, they were running out of time
And they were buried alive by the Ministry of Mines.

Chorus

Best wishes,

Bente

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 04:48 AM

Aaaaagh no... I remember one evening in a folk club years ago when the regulars had decided on the theme of mining disasters... four suicides before the interval, I survived only because a small group of us climbed under a table and sang Dream Dream Dream until the rescuers came...

You've heard of the Gresford disaster,
The one with the waggly tail,
262 colliers were lost
And I do hope that dog is for sale!

                   bow wow.

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 12:06 AM

A scan of the list resulting from a DT search on @miners shows quite a few...

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: fumblefingers
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 11:14 PM

The Browder Explosion - Merle Travis - Songs of the Coal Mines

Subject: RE: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 09:47 PM

Fairmont Mine Explosion by Blind Alfred Reed.

Subject: List of Mining Disaster Songs
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 09:31 PM

Recently there was the Anniversary of The Box Flat Mining Disaster (Ipswich, Queensland Australia). The News showed a guy strumming an autoharp singing part of a mournful song. I didn't recognise the song from the short fragment.

Which got me thinking - was that a specific song about Box Flat, and even more so, just how many Mining Disater songs are there?

I've found a few from the title filter, if you find any more, please link them here.


Tune Req: Tadley Treacle Mining Disaster

Lyr Req: Springfield Mining Disaster
Springhill Mining Disaster - TV Documentary

Trimdon Grange Mining Disaster

Robin