Suggestions for songs about coal mining?
sionnach
I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
What I already have:
Dark as a Dungeon
Coal Miner's Prayer
Coal Miner's Daughter
Coorie Doon
The Collier Laddie
Miner's Life
16 Tons
Any other suggestions?
sionnach
"sionnach wrote:
my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> discussing family history...
Whoops! There should be a "0" after that "2".
David Rintoul
Scotsman) wrote it:
School day's over,
Come on then, John.
It's time you were getting your pit boots on.
It's time you were handling a pick and shovel.
You start at the pit today.
It's time you were learning a pitman's job.
And earning a pitman's pay.
sionnach wrote:
--
David Rintoul
david....@sympatico.ca
http://www3.sympatico.ca/david.rintoul
"In prosperity, our friends know us. In adversity, we know our friends."
J. Churton Collins
aussiebloke
news:3ABD4412...@sympatico.ca...
> Help me out, folks, I'm sure someone will know this one and who ( I
believe a
> Scotsman)
Here you go...
Found it via a quick and easy search at Mudcat/Digital Tradition
www.mudcat.org
SCHOOLDAYS END
(Ewan MacColl)
A7 D
Schooldays over, come on then John,
G D
Time you was puttin you pit boots on
D G A Bm F#m Bm
On with your sark and moleskin trousers, time you was on your way
D G A
Time you was learnin the pitman's job, and earning a pitman's pay
Come on then Jim, it's time to go, time you was working down below
Time to be handling a pick and shovel, you start at the pit today
Time you was learning the collier's job, and earning a collier's pay
Come on then Dai, it's almost light, time you was off to the anthracite
The morning mist in on the valley, it's time you was on your way
Time you was learning the miner's job, and earning a miner's pay
Repeat verse one
Recorded by Ewan MacColl
Copyright Storm King Music
@work @child @mining
filename[ SCHOLDAY
Tune file : SCHOLDAY
Enjoy
aussiebloke<NOSPAM>@hotmail.com
shameless-player-of-the-bodhrán in public...
"David Rintoul" <david....@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:3ABD4412...@sympatico.ca...
G. M. Watson
you do anything else. First published in 1952 and reprinted innmumerable
times since, it contains words and music to hundreds of coal-mining songs
and remains the definitive work on the subject.
----------
In article <99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de>, "sionnach"
G. M. Watson
book was published in 1978-- this is the one to get.
----------
In article <3abd...@newsserver1.intergate.ca>, "G. M. Watson "
Jan
'Close it down' by Wolfstone. It's also about steel works, so not coal
mining alone.
sionnach <rhyf...@email.msn.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
Stefan Ehlen
Dirty blackleg miner
It's in the evening after dark,
When the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner!
Well he grabs his duds and down he goes
To hew the coal that lies below,
There's not a woman in this town-row
Will look at the blackleg miner.
Oh, Delaval is a terrible place.
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face,
And around the heaps they run a foot race,
To catch the backleg miner!
So, dinna gang near the Seghill mine.
Across the way they stretch a line,
To catch the throat and break the spine
Of the dirty backleg miner.
They grab his duds and his pick as well,
And they hoy them down the pit of hell.
Down you go, and fare you well,
You dirty blackleg miner!
Oh, it's in the evening after dark,
When the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner!
So join the union while you may.
Don't wait till your dying day,
For that may not be far away,
You dirty blackleg miner!
CU
Stefan
Zeke Fiddle
Gillian Welch - Miner's Refrain
Mountain Soul - Bethlehem Coal
Stefan Ehlen <de...@unseen.saw.rwth-aachen.de> wrote in message
news:87g0g27...@unseen.saw.rwth-aachen.de...
Sam Hinton
****************************
Down, Down, Down & Union Man (Library of Congress recordings)
Black Waters a& The L & N Don't Stop Here Any More (both by Jean Ritchie)
Sparkles and Shines ( recorded by Guy Carawan)
BOOKS by George Korson: Coal Dust on the Fiddle (1943): Minstrels of the Mine
Patch (1938): Songs and Ballads of Anthracite Miners (1927).
And see "History In Song: Songs From the Mines" at
<http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/mines.html>.
Sam
La Jolla, Ca USA
David Rintoul
TJSTRAT
>and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for.
"Miner's Strawberries", an old union song ("they're nothin' but beans.").
TJS
"A hook adds a definite edge to a dull look." - John Waters
CSJ
"Bob Norton" <bbbob...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Xns906ECD0022...@209.0.215.132...
> "sionnach" <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining &
> > miners,
I'm not reading all these so forgive the duplication:
An Australian song, Man of the Earth (..burrow in it like a mole/ with
diggin' and drillin' and blastin' and fillin'/ For that great commodity
Coal...)
My favorite from Hazel and Alice, 30 Inch Coal.
Howard L. Kaplan
I suspect that Byker Hill is in one or another of the anthologies that
have been mentioned. The lyrics are posted at
http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/scottish/bykerhil.htm, and the chorus
is
"Byker Hill and Walker Shore
Collier lads for evermore."
The other one I only vaguely remember. It was written in the early
1980s by someone who was very young at the time (9? 11?), and it may
have been called "The Spider Song". I think that it was about the
closing down of a coal mine, with one of the lines being "Go tell the
spider not to build her nest". A search for the usual suspects on
Google and Northern Light did not turn up any promising leads, but
perhaps someone here remembers the song and even knows whatever happened
to its very precocious writer.
--
Howard L. Kaplan
Songwriter and occasional performer
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
http://www.thrinberry-frog.com
Abby Sale
wrote:
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
>and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
G.M. - Yes, Lloyd is excellent. I'd add George Korson's, _Coal Dust on the
Fiddle_. Again, it gives the setting & sometimes terrifying stories behind
the songs. And whatever the Tommy Armstrong "Songs of" book is called.
Can't leave out Newcastle.
More modern like "Blue Diamond Mines," etc., by 'Than Hall (Jean Ritchie in
drag)
And while you're at Digital Tradition, do a search on <coal mine> (no
brackets, or connectors or anything) will show 35 songs with the two words
anywhere in them.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
I am Abby Sale - in Orlando, Florida
Boycott South Carolina!
http://www.naacp.org/communications/press_releases/SCEconomic2.asp
MAIB
his songs have come up. Try to get hold of the Travis album, "Songs of the
Coal Mines." That ought to provide a few.
Mark
Rbcsoup
The Journeymen, 1963
CSJ
Green.
It is, in effect, a history of mining songs.
"Abby Sale" <NO-SPA...@ft.newyorklife.com> wrote in message
news:fbrrbtcca8bcb9mlc...@4ax.com...
Roy A. Fletcher
with editing...
: I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
: and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
: sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
: discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
: work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
Workin' Man by Rita MacNeil
Lunenburg County by the Osborne Bros.
A half-dozen albums by Men of the Deeps.
Regards. RAF
Joe Fineman
The Blantyre Explosion
Fourpence a Day
The Collier Laddie
The Coal Owner & the Pitman's Wife
The Durham Strike
Some years ago I heard, once, a song in praise of workers generally.
It had one stanza about the miners, with the beautiful line
Who from danger and darkness bring power and light.
--- Joe Fineman j...@world.std.com
||: Love: two vowels, two consonants, two fools. :||
sionnach
"Joe Fineman" wrote:
> Some years ago I heard, once, a song in praise of workers generally.
> It had one stanza about the miners, with the beautiful line
>
> Who from danger and darkness bring power and light.
>
Ooh. I *like* that. Here's hoping somebody can identify the song it's
from!
Birdman566
again what is?
Gerry Myerson
<jnst...@csj.net> wrote:
> "Bob Norton" <bbbob...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:Xns906ECD0022...@209.0.215.132...
> An Australian song, Man of the Earth (..burrow in it like a mole/ with
> diggin' and drillin' and blastin' and fillin'/ For that great commodity
> Coal...)
That's the title track of a (vinyl) album of coal songs released on
Larrikin circa 1973 - a fine album, if you can find it anywhere.
Ewan MacColl's Schooldays Over has been mentioned in this thread.
There's a good-but-hard-to-find Australian recording of this, too,
but at least it's only a few years old & it's on CD; the group
is Creel, and the CD is Appellation.
I see Billy Edd Wheeler's Coal Tattoo has been mentioned - there's
also his Redwinged Blackbird. Recorded by Judy Collins, more recently
by Herdman, Hills and Mangsen on their Voices CD, where it is coupled
with another coal song whose name escapes me at the moment.
I did a show of coal songs on radio once; here's my playlist.
The Radio Broadside Playlist for Sunday 1 Feb 98 at 9.00am on 107.3,
2 SER-FM, presented by Gerry Myerson and featuring COAL
Artist Walters & Warner
Song Title Gippsland Mining Man (Margaret Walters & John Warner)
Album Title Pithead in the Fern
Label & Code FWCD 042
Distributed by Feathers and Wedge, P.O.Box 615, Glebe, NSW 2037
Artist Merle Travis
Song Title Dark as a Dungeon (Merle Travis)
Album Title The Merle Travis Story
Label & Code CMH 9018 (vinyl)
Distributed by CMH Records
Artist Lee Conway
Song Title Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis)
Album Title Australian Country Classics, Vol. 2
Label & Code
Distributed by
Artist Ian Campbell Folk Group
Song Title Down in the Coal Mine (Trad.)
Album Title This is the Ian Campbell Folk Group
Label & Code ESM CD 357
Distributed by FoFMbM
Artist The Roaring Forties
Song Title Hillcrest Mine (James Keelaghan)
Album Title Shore Leave
Label & Code RF040 CD
Distributed by 22 Alicia Road, Mt Kuring-gai, NSW 2080
Artist The Critics Group (Frankie Armstrong, Sandra Kerr,
Peggy Seeger)
Song Title Miner's Wife (Ewan MacColl)
Album Title The Female Frolic
Label & Code Argo ZDA 82 (vinyl)
Distributed by
Artist The Fagans
Song Title Close the Coalhouse Door (Alex Glasgow)
Album Title Kitchen Dance
Label & Code FMCD 004
Distributed by Mossbawn Music, P.O.Box 154, Epping, NSW 2121
Artist Stephanie Osfield
Song Title Coal Tattoo (Stephanie Osfield and Kim Poole)
Album Title Union is Strength (various performers)
Label & Code 612-790 1
Distributed by ????
Artist Judy Collins
Song Title Coal Tattoo (Billy Edd Wheeler)
Album Title Judy Collins in Concert
Label & Code EKS 7280 (vinyl)
Distributed by Elektra Records
Artist The Larrikins
Song Title Man of the Earth (Jock Graham, Phyl Lobl)
Album Title Men of the Earth
Label & Code LRF 001 (vinyl)
Distributed by Larrikin
Artist Alistair Hulett & Dave Swarbrick
Song Title In the Days of `49 (Alistair Hulett)
Album Title Saturday Johnnie and Jimmie the Rat
Label & Code RATCD 003
Distributed by FoFMbM
Artist Jez Lowe
Song Title These Coal Town Days (Jez Lowe)
Album Title Bede Weeps
Label & Code FEO94/C (cassette)
Distributed by Fellside
Gerry Myerson (ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au)
CSJ
"Gerry Myerson" <ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au> wrote in message
news:gerry-63FEE0.13054026032001@[137.111.1.11]...
> In article <tbs9nh9...@corp.supernews.com>, "CSJ"
> <jnst...@csj.net> wrote:
>
> > "Bob Norton" <bbbob...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> > news:Xns906ECD0022...@209.0.215.132...
>
> > An Australian song, Man of the Earth (..burrow in it like a mole/ with
> > diggin' and drillin' and blastin' and fillin'/ For that great commodity
> > Coal...)
>
> That's the title track of a (vinyl) album of coal songs released on
> Larrikin circa 1973 - a fine album, if you can find it anywhere.
If it's that hard to find I can send a send or post an mp3 of my copy. I
have no idea if Warren Fayhe is still in business.
Kevin Krell
performed by Dick Gaughan (
http://www.dickalba.demon.co.uk/discog/dsc_gaug.htm ) and the
Paperboys (lyrics at http://www.paperboys.com/lyrics.html )
Kevin Krell
kevinj.fitzgerald
end with "the ballad of Patience Kershaw"
Kevin
"sionnach" <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote in message
news:99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
Gerry Myerson
<ge...@mpce.mq.edu.au> wrote:
<snip!>
Kenneth Brock, who is temporarily unable to post news, has asked me
to post this for him.
You mention the Ian Campbell Folk Group, one of my favorites. They
recorded an entire lp of coal mining songs, "Coaldust Ballads". There
is Down in the Coal Mine, which you mention. Also "Testimony of
Patience (something - Kershaw?) on Something To Sing About.
I remember that one of the songs was something like "Rap
Her t' Bank" , which was the signal for the last group of men to be
lifted out of the mine at the end of the day. This song and maybe 1 or
2 more also appeared on The Ian Campbell Folk Group Sampler (vol 1, I
think). I have a copy of Coaldust Ballads around somewhere and will
look for it.
Another mining song I thought of is "Big Mole", from the musical "Lost
in the Stars" by Kurt Weill and I think Mazwell Anderson. It is based
on Paton's "Cry, the Beloved Country". There is also a version (titled
"Big Black Mole") on a Disney Broadway lp from around 1960 called
"Lettle Gems From Big Shows". Here it is sung by Henry Calvin, who was
Sgt. Garcia in Disney's Zorro at the time and who originated the role
of the wazir in "Kismet".
Of related interest is the Earl Robinson (Joe Hill, Hurry Sundown, The
House I Live In) musical "Sandhog", from 1954. It's about the digging
of either the Holland Tunnel or the first tunnel in Boston harbor, I'm
not sure which.
I'm not sure whether anyone mentione Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill, or
wheher a tarrier has to do with coal or not.
BTW there are at least 2 recordings of Testimony of Patience (?) other
than the ICFG. Sally Rogers had one of them.
Jodee James
How about Can Y Cardi- "Cardiganshire Lad's Song"?? Ar Log recorded it as has Siwsann George. The Welsh words are full of Glamorgan dialect & terminology but i can gladly give you the words/music in English as well if you'd like. The guy in this song seems to be feeling pretty good about things- seems he's making more money than his dad- who i think was a farmer.
All the best with your search-
Jodee James
jodee...@att.net
http://www.mp3.com/jodeejames
_______________________________________________
Submitted via WebNewsReader of http://www.interbulletin.com
Paul Burke
> news:99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
> >
> > I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> > and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> > sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> > discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> > work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
Close the Coalhouse Door (Alex Glasgow)
Banks o' the Dee (I am an old collier of fifty and six...)
Gresford Disaster:
You've heard of the Gresford Disaster
The one with the waggly tail
Two hundred and forty two colliers were lost
And I do hope that doggie's for sale
or something .
One my Grandad used to sing (he was electrician in pits near Pendlebury,
now part of Manchester):
I'm a collier by my trade
I can use a pick and spade
I can push a little wagon up a brow.
When I get to the top
I can sup a bottle of pop,
And that's what a navvy couldn't do!
Paul Burke
Mick Tems
We've got a shedfull of them here in Wales, and they will be loaded on to
the archive at www.folkwales.org.uk as soon as I have a spare month!
A few classics:
When The Coal Comes From The Rhondda
Farewell To The Rhondda
The Miner's Life (the original version... it was written for the Welsh
Sliding Scale dispute in 1898, hence the line: "Keep your hands upon your
wages and your eyes upon the scale...")
The Pontypridd Collier In Search Of His Wife
The Collier's Wedding
and many more.
Mick
--
Mick Tems & Pat Smith: Calennig/Celfyddydau Mari Arts/
Clwb Gwerin Llantrisant FC Phone/fax: 01443 226892 Mobile 07773 075962
e-mail mick...@folkwales.org.uk website: www.folkwales.org.uk
1 Ty Clwyta Cottages, Cross Inn, Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf CF72 8AZ
Chris Atkinson
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
>and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for.
by the Houghton Weavers.
The Ludlow Massacre by Woody Guthrie
Pit Boots
Chris A.
--
Chris Atkinson
ch...@cgautc.demon.co.uk UTC Computer Services
Honesty may be the best policy - but insanity's the better defence.
Rik Shepherd
Dickens, Phyllis Bowens, Sarah Gunning, Florence Reece and the Reel World
Stringband with the following tracks -
Coal Mining Woman / Blue Diamond Mines / Dreadful Memoroies / The Yablonski
Murder / Lawrence Jones / Draglines / Coal Miner's Grave / Come All You Coal
Miners / Black Lung / Dream of a Miner's Child / Mannington Mine Disaster /
That 25 Cents That You Paid / Clay County Miner / Clara Sullivan's Letter /
What She Aims to Be / Coal Tatto / Hello Coal Miner / The Battle of Jericol
/ Which Side Are You On ? / They'll Never Keep Us Down
and Topic TSCD 486, The Bonnie Bit Laddie has the High Level Ranters, Harry
Boardman and Dick Gaughan with
The Hewer / Doon The Wagon Way / A Miner's Life / I Wish Pay Friday Would
Come / The Auchengeich Disaster / The Collier's Rant / Farewell to the Monty
/ The Putter / Little Chance / My Gaffer's Bait / The Coal Owner and the
Pitman's Wife / The Blacking Miners / The Miner's Lockout / The South
Medomsley Strike / The Durham Lockout / Aa'm Glad the Strike's Done / The
Collier's Pay Week* / My Lad Is O'er Bonny For the Coal Trade / I'll Have A
Collier / The Stoneman's Song /The Hartley Calamity / Bonnie Woodha' / The
Banks of the Dee / The Bonny Pit Laddie
* This is a long poem with background music...
sionnach <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote in message
news:99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
>
Don Wallace
"sionnach" <rhyf...@email.msn.com> wrote in message
news:99jeil$1fjfi$1...@ID-45033.news.dfncis.de...
>
> I've recently started collecting folk songs about coal mining & miners,
> and wonder if anyone here can suggest some to look for. The interest was
> sparked by a recent conversation with my 2-yr-old niece, in which we were
> discussing family history... namely the bit about my Mam's father going to
> work down the Big Pit in Blaenavon when he was 11 years old.
>
> What I already have:
>
> Dark as a Dungeon
> Coal Miner's Prayer
> Coal Miner's Daughter
> Coorie Doon
> The Collier Laddie
> Miner's Life
> 16 Tons
>
> Any other suggestions?
>
I seem to recall two records of coalmining songs put out by the Library
of Congress a long time ago (and probably still available) One
was songs of anthracite miners and the other was bituminous miners.
Was I on crack or is my memory correct?
Don
>
MAIB
"Don Wallace" <don.w...@nlc-bnc.nospam.ca> wrote in message
news:3ac36...@webserv.nlc-bnc.ca...
Abby Sale
<don.w...@nlc-bnc.nospam.ca> wrote:
>
>I seem to recall two records of coalmining songs put out by the Library
>of Congress a long time ago (and probably still available) One
>was songs of anthracite miners and the other was bituminous miners.
>Was I on crack or is my memory correct?
>
Whether or not you are cracked I wouldn't presume to opine. On the other
hand:
AFS L 16 - SONGS AND BALLADS OF THE ANTHRACITE MINERS
AFS L 60 - SONGS AND BALLADS OF THE BITUMINOUS MINERS
are still available. See http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/folkcat.html
sionnach
"Mick Tems" wrote:
> S'mae Sionnach,
>
> We've got a shedfull of them here in Wales, and they will be loaded on to
> the archive at www.folkwales.org.uk as soon as I have a spare month!
Thanks for the link & titles!
>
> Farewell To The Rhondda
Ah. Now *that* I know I've heard... probly on one of my Mam's old LPs. I'm
finding that I have heard about half the songs people mention, just couldn't
pull them out of memory banks when I wanted them. <G>
> The Miner's Life (the original version... it was written for the Welsh
> Sliding Scale dispute in 1898, hence the line: "Keep your hands upon your
> wages and your eyes upon the scale...")
I think I may have an MP3 of that. Unfortunately it's hard to make out the
lyrics...
J. Katherine Rossner
Days" (it's on the CD "Bede Weeps"). Some others from Jez Lowe: "Black
Diamonds" (on "The Old Durham Road") and, for the miner's wife's
perspective, "Last of the Widows" ("Bede Weeps") and "Weave and Worry"
("Live at the Davy Lamp"). And most of his CDs have related songs:
"Galloways" about the pit ponies, "Sweep Horizons Clean" about what coal
mining does to the land, etc.
"Black Burning Air" (listed as by Hal Michael Ketchum; the version I know is
sung by Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, and Cindy Mangsen on the disc
"Voices") is another good one about mining. And on "Voices" it's paired
with "Red-Winged Blackbird, by Billy Edd Wheeler--another "miner's wife"
song.
jkr