I left my
home in Harlan County
Headed for the lights of town
I said I'd be back in a Cadillac
But all I ever found was
Lots of hard luck and misery
Trouble keeps on a -talking me
There ain't no future I can see
Just hard luck and misery
I heard it was a rainin' dollar bills
Right out of the sky they drifted
So I climbed way up on the highest hill
But the doggone wind had shifted
That's my hard luck and misery
Trouble keeps on a -doublin' me
There ain't no future I can see
Just hard luck and misery
One day I got in a poker game
Played just like my daddy taught me
Now it's hard to be a man that'll cheat
But as you can see, they caught me
That's my hard luck and misery
Trouble keeps on a -doggin' me
There ain't no future I can see
Just hard luck and misery
I sailed away on a big steamship
But I fell overboard one Sunday
So I swam forty miles to a tropical isle
They're blowin' it up on Monday
That's my hard luck and misery
Trouble keeps on a -doggin' me
There ain't no future I can see
Just hard luck and misery,
hard luck and misery