Traveling down that coal town road Listen to my rubber tires whine! Goodbye to buckeye and white sycamore, I'm leaving you behind. I been a coal man all my life, Layin' down track in the hole Got a back like an ironwood Bent by the wind, Blood veins blue as the coal. Blood veins blue as the coal. Somebody said, "That's a strange tattoo You have on the side of your head." I said, "That's the blueprint left by the coal, Just a little more and I'd be dead." But I love the rumble and I love the dark, I love the cool of the slate, But it's on down the new road Looking for a job. This traveling and looking I hate. I've stood for the Union, I've walked in the line I've fought against the company. Stood for the U. M. W. A. Now who's gonna stand for me? I got no house and I got no pay, Just got a worried soul And this blue tattoo on the side of my head Left by the number nine coal. Some day when I die and go To heaven the land of my dreams, I won't have to worry on losing my job To bad times and big machines. I ain't gonna pay my money away And lost my hospital plans. I'm gonna pick coal while the blue heavens roll And sing with the angel bands. And sing with the angel bands!
Source: Billy Edd Wheeler, Song of a Woods Colt (1969).