COAL TATTOO

(Billy Ed Wheeler)



Travelin' down that coaltown road,

Listen to those rubber tires whine;

Goodbye to Buckeye and White Sycamore,

I'm leavin' you behind.

I've been a coal man all my life

Layin' down track in the hole,

Got a back like an ironwood bent by the wind

Blood veins blue as the coal.



Somebody said "That's a strange tattoo

You have on the side of your head."

I said "That's a blue print, left by the coal

Just a little more and I'd be dead"

And I love the rumble and I love the dark

I love the cool of the slate.

But it's on down the new road lookin' for a job

It's the travelin' and lookin' I hate.



I've stood for the union, walkin' the line,

Fought against the company;

Stood for the U. M. W. of A.

Now who's gonna stand for me?

I got no house and I got no pay,

Just got a worried soul;

And this blue tattoo on the side of my head

Left by the number nine coal.



Someday when I'm dead and gone

To Heaven, the land of my dreams,

I won't have to worry on losin' my job

To bad times 'n big machines.

I ain't gonna pay my money away

For pensions and hospital plans.

I'm gonna pick coal where the blue heavens roll

And sing with the angel bands.



Copyright Quartet Music, Inc. & Bexhill Music

Recorded by Kingston Trio, Jim Croce, Collins

@mine @work @union

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