[Verso]
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 living loading coal
Loading coal loading coal I'm a double first cousin to a dad blamed moleNever get rich for to save my soul and forty eleven years a loading coal loading coal
Hasn't never got acquainted with a dollar bill and I don't ever reckon that I ever will A dollar isn't made for a fellar I'm told that scoops up a living loading coal Loading coal loading coal I cussed everything in the mining camp from a shovel and my pick to my carbide lamp But I know mighty well till I grow old I'll still be a cussing but loading coal Loading coal loading coal
[Conclusi�n]
I know just as well as coal is black one of these days the mines were strike
And I'll sit around starving till I'm finally told
There's a nickel more a ton for loading coal
Loading coal loading coal
