Coal Mining Songs

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: GUEST,Ron B
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 07:05 PM

The "Donegal Weavers" recently released a mining CD called "Last Day of the Northern Field." It includes a selection of 21 songs and tunes from the NE Pennsylvania anthracite coal fields.

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: BLACK FLOWERS (Lynn Miles)
From: Janie
Date: 05 Jan 13 - 01:34 PM

I've gone through the several coal mining song threads and also searched under the song title and the author, and as best I can tell, no one has mentioned "Black Flowers" by Lynn Miles. (I just heard it for the 1st time this morning.)

BLACK FLOWERS

Capo IV

E7: 022130

Intro: (Am)(G)(Am)

I live beside this (G)dark coal mine
The (Am)whistle blows every (E)day on time(E7)
When the (Am)rain pours down and the (G)wind blows hard
Black (Am)flowers (G)grow in my (Am)yard (G)(Am)

And when I (Am)lost my man down that (G)old coal shaft
I (Am)swear I heard the (E)devil laugh(E7)
The (Am)angels laughed and they (G)took my heart
Now black (Am)flowers (G)grow in my (Am)yard

And the (Fmaj7)undertaker is a (C)busy man
He got a (Am)clean blue shirt, got (E)soft pink hands(E7)
Got a (Am)big driveway and a (G)brand new car
Black (Am)flowers (G)grow in my (Am)yard

And when the (Fmaj7)baby cries, I sing (C)hush little one
But I (Am)swear that I'm gonna (E)come undone(E7)
Cause when the (Am)rain pours down and the (G)wind blows hard
Black (Am)flowers (G)grow in my (Am)yard
Black flowers (G)grow in my (Am)yard
Black flowers (G)grow in my (Am)yard (G)(Am)(G)(Am)

Lynn Miles performing "Black Flowers"

It spoke to me because it reminds of my grandmother who was still in bed with a new baby when my grandfather was killed down a coal shaft.

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Jan 13 - 04:06 PM

Anyone mention Marty Stuart's "Coal Mine Blues"??? I saw another post with a song with the same name but not sure if they are the same...

Also, seems to me that Journey did a nice song about an accident in a coal mine??? I know I have it somewhere but not sure where...

B~

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: bradfordian
Date: 05 Jan 13 - 07:10 PM

Pony Driving Song by Yorkshire's Bill Price. Also performed by his daughters Ruth and Sadie.


Bill Price website (updated)

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: gnu
Date: 05 Jan 13 - 07:27 PM

Lynn Miles... Black Flowers

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: gnu
Date: 05 Jan 13 - 07:34 PM

BTW... thank you for intrducing Lynn's music to me Little Hawk. And, congrats to you for owning that guitar she is playing in that video. You must be a fair (hehehehe... yeah, I know) musician in yer own right for her to gift you with it.

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: GUEST,Will
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 07:32 PM

Southern Sun bluegrass band from Corbin Ky sing one called the Battle of Blair Mountain

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 05 Apr 13 - 08:04 PM

Rhe Coal in the Stone is a wonderful one
As is Fountain Filled With Blood

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 04:35 AM

"Morley Main" by Keith Marsden on Cockersdales albums "Picking Sooty Blackberies" (also on "Doin' the Manch") is certainly my favourite mining disaster song. Keith certainly was good with words and in many of his songs there was a very poignant message.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DAY WE STOPPED THE TRAIN (Mick Tems)
From: GUEST,Guest: Bill Jones
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 10:54 AM

In 1985, just after the year-long Miners' Strike and the subsequent closure of Penrhiwceibr Colliery in the Cynon Valley, the Welsh daily The Western Mail reported that coal trains were being halted and being "robbed" of their black gold, not just in the Cynon Valley but everywhere in the South Wales coalfield. To commemorate this mementous occasion, Mick Tems of Calennig wrote this rumbustious song, which goes to the tune of St David's Day:

THE DAY WE STOPPED THE TRAIN

1. Our fathers built this Valley on the wealth from underground,
We fought to win the riches, we stood upright, straight and sound;
Now they've thrown us on the heap, boys, like the spoil we're cast away,
But we struck a blow for Cynon just before St David's Day.

Chorus:
For our hearts were full of sorrow, full of hardship, full of pain;
But we struck a blow for Cynon on the day we stopped the train.

2. We fought to win the strike, Boys, drove the traitors from our midst,
It took a year to beat us, then we topped the closure list;
Have you tried to raise a family on the pittance from the dole
Or faced a bitter winter to poor to pay for coal?

Chorus

3. There's no need to tell the details of the raid upon the train,
No need to say who planned it - they could do the same again;
But we blocked the line with sleepers, stopped the engine in its tracks,
Poured tons and tons of big, black gold and we went and filled the sacks.

Chorus

4. Like the bad old nineteen-thirties families scrabble in the heaps,
And your wife counts out the coppers from her empty purse then weeps,
But the poor and the sick and aged no longer freeze like ice,
For we've got our coal at a quarter of Margaret Thatcher's price.

Chorus

5. Now they tell it through Cwm Cynon, Mountain Ash and Aberdare,
The day McGregor paid his dues - were you there, boys, were you there?
And the fire will still be blazing, blazing late into the night,
For the memories of Saint David's Eve will keep our hopes alight.

Chorus

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: GUEST,ifor
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 03:50 PM

Chris Hastings and Huw Pudner have written a song called 'Black Diamonds and Iron' about the enormous changes in the South Wales valley

chorus

'The valley's been looted
They stripped it all bare
From the Tawe and Taff
To the banks of the Dare
Black diamonds and iron
In millions of tonnes
Came from the valley
Where the river still runs'

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 06 Apr 13 - 06:12 PM

In March 2012 we staged a couple of concerts of Mining Songs in Edinburgh and Glasgow: on the whole these featured songs from the the Scottish coalfields and NE of England but with a couple from further afield. Artists included Gifford Lind, Scott Murray, Mick West, Jim Bainbridge and 4-piece band Ragged Glory from Newtongrange, one of the Midlothian mining areas.
Here's the list of songs sung, some of which have already been mentioned above:

Schooldays Over        
I Wish I was a Miner        
Aff Tae the Pit in the Mornin                        
The Miner's Rescue                         
The Multicoloured PIt Pony                        
Doon in the Darkly Pit                        
Hard Days But Happy Days                        
Miners' Medley                                                
The Pound a Week Rise                        
The Night-Visiting Song                        
The Durham Miner's Gala                        
Me Hair Has Turned Grey                         
Ower the Walls Oot                         
The Durham Miners' Strike                         
The Big Hewer                
The Old Miner                         
The Coaltown Road                
The Midlothian Miners' Song                 
The Recruited Collier                        
Collier Laddie                        
Prince of Darkness                        
Coorie Doon                        
Six Jolly Miners                
The Blantyre Explosion                
Dark as a Dungeon                
Farewell to the Gold (N Zealand)                         
Harold's Best Men/Farewell Johnny Miner                        
Roll On the Day
Miner's Lifeguard                         
19 Streets                 
The Miners' Raws                                 
The Bowhill Colliery Pug                 
Poem - I am the Common Man                         1
Remembrance Day Song                 
The Miner's Lass
Fordell Ball                                                        
Me Hair Has Turned Grey                
Rap at a Bank/Jowl Jowl and Listen                
The Durham Lockout                
The Durham Emigrant                         
The Night-Visiting Song                        
Winter Sun

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: GUEST,Brian Gill
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 02:30 PM

Shouldn't the title be "Rap Her Tae Bank, Me Canny Lads"?

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: BrendanB
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 02:51 PM

Have you come across 'Schooldays over' by Ewan McColl. Also 'The Collier Lad' by Johnny Handle. My choir have linked them together in a trilogy which starts with 'Coal Hole Cavalry'. Just a thought.

Subject: Lyr Add: WORKING MAN (Rita MacNeil)
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 12:14 PM

Definitely the late Rita MacNeil's "Working Man".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-EiwiiAh68

Chorus

It's a working man l am
And I've been down under ground
And I swear to God if ever see the sun
Or for any length of time
I can hold it in my mind
I never again will go down under ground

At the age of sixteen years
Oh he quarrels with his peers
Who vowed they'd never see another one
In the dark recess of the mines
Where you age before your time
And the coal dust lies heavy on your lungs

Chorus

At the age of sixty-four
Oh he'll greet you at the door
And he'll gently lead you by the arm
Through the dark recess of the mines
Oh he'll take you back in time
And he'll tell you of the hardships that were had

Chorus

(Repeat Chorus)

(Repeat Chorus)

God I never again will go down under ground

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: selby
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 01:34 PM

How about Lofthouse Colliery Disaster I sung it in the past but cannot remember the words,
Keith

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 01:56 PM

Have a look on youtube Keith.
Three Sheets T'Wind Lofthouse Colliery Disaster.
Sounds good, thanks for pointing it out.
Did you manage to find the words Ray?
Dennis

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: selby
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 03:26 PM

Dennis
I dont think its the song I sang, I believe the song I sang was written by a miner shortly after the disaster.
Memory overheating to try and remember.
Keith

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 05:46 PM

RIP Rita MacNeil
Your "Working Man" was one of the greatest coal mining songs!

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: selby
Date: 20 Apr 13 - 03:13 AM

On the search for the song I sang came across this interesting web page.
http://www.dmm-pitwork.org.uk/html/menu6.htm
Keith

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: r.padgett
Date: 20 Apr 13 - 03:42 AM

Pit work is I believe a website created by my old school mate Daz Beattie who lives in Grimethorpe a community totally decimated by MT in 1885

Ray

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: selby
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 07:35 AM

I believe the song I used to sing about Lofthoyse Colliery Disaster was written by Sam/Stan Richards from Totnes Devon and written in 1973.
Keith

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 09:54 AM

The Pitwork site is certainly worth a visit or two, thanks Keith and Ray.

I did not realise "she" was that old Ray!!

Dennis

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 10:26 AM

here is one I wrote
Owens Appalachia

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: Stringsinger
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 11:08 AM

Archie Green has written a must read on miner's songs and folklore.

"Only a Miner", a great folklore dissertation and entertaining read.

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: Tradsinger
Date: 21 Apr 13 - 01:04 PM

In Gloucestershire, we have the song "The Jovial Foresters" all about coal-mining in the Forest of Dean.

Subject: Lyr Add: WHEN THE MINERS FOUGHT FOR SPAIN
From: GUEST,Lavengro
Date: 22 Apr 13 - 06:20 AM

Hi Guest,

Not sure if you will be interested in this. It is not in the usual hardship and disaster theme of many mining songs, but it is still a mining song.

In 1936 Oswald Mosley's blackshirts arrived uninvited in Tonypandy and started setting up hustings to promote their politics. The miners and women of Tonypandy ensured that they didn't get to speak a word. Only the locals were arrested by the police, and a half dozen or so got gaoled. It was the final straw for some in terms of signing up to the International Brigade, indeed one of those arrested, Harry Dodson, is said to have been so incensed that when he left gaol his first question was "Which way is Spain". Anyways this is my take on it:


   WHEN THE MINERS FOUGHT FOR SPAIN

   Em      C               G                  D
No Paseran the cry went up from Rhondda through to Spain
Em       C             D                   Em
And the men who said they shall not pass won't pass this way again

    G               C                D             G         
They poured out from the mine and marched to Tonypandy square
Word had reached the pithead Moseley's blackshirts gathered there
Lies are better silenced if they're stopped before they start
The men of Pandy town engraved this maxim on their hearts

CHORUS- Break G C Em D Em

The Peelers came in four abreast, there to end the affray
Shook hands with the fascist thugs and sent them on their way
Thirty six arrests were made but no blackshirts God forbid
When Harry Dobsen left his cell he asked "Which way to Madrid"?

Five hundred men from British soil died in a foreign land
On beaches filled with tourists now they drew their line in the sand
Let us not forget these men their rifles at their sides
Who stood in mountain trenches, and turned the fascist tide

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Coal Mining Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jul 13 - 06:07 AM

Does somebody when the song Coorie Doon was recorded by McGinn for the first time?