My pappy said when I was seventeen
You're six feet tall and you face is clean
And it don't look right for a boy that old
To not make a livin' loading coal
Loading coal loading coal
I'm a double-first cousin to a dad-blamed mole
Never get rich for to save my soul
And forty-eleven years of loading coal loading coal
Ain't never got aquainted with a dollor bill
And I don't ever reckon that I ever will
A dollar ain't made for a fellow I'm told
That scoops up a livin' loading coal
REPEAT Chorus
I cussed everything in the mining camp
From my shovel and my pick to my carbide lamp
But I know just as well when I grow old
I'll still be a cussin' but loading coal
REPEAT Chorus
I know just as well as coal is Black
One of these days the mines will strike
And I'll sit around starving til I'm finally told
There's a nickel more a ton for loading coal
REPEAT Chorus
Loading coal, Loading coal, (fade )