this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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The Sound of Resistance

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Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons, Released July 1947 (50501.chat)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
12 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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Lyrics

Some people say a man is made out of mud
A poor man's made out of muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one morning when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number-nine coal
And the straw boss said, "Well bless my soul!"

You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one morning, it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebreak by an old mama lion
Can't no high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin' better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't getcha then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Can't remove the image. Can someone also suggest a description?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Not mining but a related song is Telegraph Road by Dire Straits.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

Lyrics don't get much more iconic than this.

Another mining song I love is "The L&N Don't Stop Here Any More" by Jean Richie, about the experience of growing up in a coal town after the mine has shut down (and the Louisiana-Nashville train - the L&N - no longer bothers to stop there).

Ritchie, who grew up in Viper Kentucky, initially didn't dear to release it under her own name as the subject of empoverished coal miners was too controversial.

I used to think my daddy was a black man With script enough to buy the company store
Now he goes to town with empty pockets
And his face as white as February snow

Here it is by Billy Bragg and Joe Henry.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (4 children)

If you haven't already heard it, I highly recommend Tay Zonday's cover of this song...

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MhV-ak3H52s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

That's pretty good, but I really love the Geoff Castellucci version.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

This is the best version I've heard. Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

That was cool, thanks

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

He is a great singer, but he just doesn't have the right voice (though he tries). To sing this correctly you need to have smoked two packs a day for 40 years, or at least worked in a real coal mine for that long.

I feel similarly about Amazing grace - it should never be sung in church (except maybe as a solo) because most people in church have been going all their life and while not perfect don't have the awful background in sin to be believable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What's a better version?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've never heard one that is fully convincing. I know there are some real coal miners who sing songs like this, but I've never heard one.

I like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzlT80jQ3lo but I'm not sure that better is the correct way to describe it. (this is the Geoff Castellucci version that someone else already linked)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

It is hard to have a "better or worse" conversation" about something subjective, like an element of art.

For what it's worth, I like that version a lot more than the Travis or Ford ones. Thanks for sharing it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I would argue soon or suffering. A virtuous man who has been shit on his whole life would be appropriate, as well as a reformed sinner.

Or, honestly, anyone with a good, deep, rich voice. I'd love to have heard James Earl Jones try it.