Dark As A Dungeon

© Merle Travis

Being from the North East of England, we always associated mining with this part of the country. So it's sometimes easy to forget the hardships of miners in other parts of the world.

This song tells of mining in North America.

No MP3 extract yet!

Jimmy and Val

Come all you young fellows so brave and so fine
And seek not your fortune way down in the mine
It will form as a habit and seep in your soul
Till the streams of your blood run as black as the coal

For it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines

Now it's many a man I have seen in my day
Who has lived just to labour his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine

For it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines

I hope when I die and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miners a-diggin' my bones

For it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines

For it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines

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