Chorus:
Coal mine, coal mine, coal mine I cry
I’ve seen the darkest days by the miner’s light
Say a prayer for me when I’m down in the seam
Down in a cold coal mine
At Westray and Hillcrest you see the crosses stand
Each one to mark a grave there beneath the sand
And the heartache and sorrow ain’t no one can tell
For a sweetheart who’s left there without a farewell
Chorus
Shanty shacks in a shanty town all in a line
They boarded ‘em up when they closed down the mine
They laid off the miners’ who laid their lives down
Left a scar on the land and a hole in the ground
Chorus
Instrumental
Bridge:
Black damp and fire damp down in the coal
And the danger that waits there every miner knows
For a spark or a flame might come just as fast
As the last breath of death in the methane gas
Chorus
There’s a faded photograph still hangin’ on the wall
In a dark corridor down at the union hall
And the look in his eyes there is always the same
Fifty years a coal miner there by his name
Chorus