Out of the dirt and darkness I was born,
go down.
Out of the hard black coal face I was torn,
go down.
Kicked on the world
and the earth split open.
Crawled through a crack
where the rock was broken.
Burrowed a hole away in the coal,
go down.
In a cradle of coal
in the darkness I was laid
Go down, down in the dirt
and darkness I was raised
Go down, cut me teeth
on a five -foot timber
Held at the roof with me
little finger
Started me time away in the mine
go down.
On the day that I was born,
I was six foot tall, go down.
And the very nex t day
I learned the way to hoe,
go down.
On the third day worked at
board and pillar,
worked on the fourth as
a longwall filler,
getting me steam up ewing the seam,
go down.
I'm the son of the son
of the son of a collier's son,
go down.
Coal dust flows in the veins
where the blood should run,
go down.
Five steel ribs and an iron backbone,
teeth that can bite through
rock and black,
stonework in me time,
away in the mine,
go down.
Three hundred years I
hewed at the coal by hand
Go down, in the pits of Durham
and East Northumberland
Go down, been gassed and
burned and flown
Asunder, buried more times
than I can number
Getting the coal away in the hole
Go down, I've scrabbled
and picked at the face
where the roof was low
Go down! Crawl
in the seams
where only a mole could go
Go down!
In the thin -cut seams of
ripped and redded
Where even the rats are born
Bowlegged, winning the coal
Away in the hole
Go down!
Have worked in the Hutton, the Plessy,
the Brockwell Seam
Go down! The Bencham, the Busty,
the Beaumont, the Marshall Green
Go down! I've lain on me back
in the old three -quarter,
Up to the chin in stinkin' water,
Hewin' the coal away in the hole,
go down.
In the northern pits I've
sweated and earned me pay,
go down.
Toiled in the worn -out drift mines
night and day, go down.
Where the anthracite is
hard and shining,
I've tried me hand at the hard rock mining,
I dug me a hole away in the cold,
go down
Out of the dirt and darkness
I was born, go down
Out of the hard black coal face
I was torn, go down
Left in the shade of the high pit heap,
I'm still down there
Where the seams are deep,
I'm digging a hole away in the cold,
go down
You