My pappy said when I was seventeen you're six feet tall and your face is clean

And it don't look right for a boy that old to not make a livin' loadin' coal

Loadin' coal loadin' coal I'm a double first cousin to a dad blamed mole

Never get rich for to save my soul and forty 'leven years a loadin' coal loadin' coal

Ain't never got acquainted with a dollar bill and I don't ever reckon that I ever will

A dollar ain't made for a fellar I'm told that scoops up a livin' loadin' coal

Loadin' coal loadin' coal...

[ ac. Guitar ]

I cussed everything in the mining camp from a shovel and my pick to my carbide lamp

But I know mighty well till I grow old I'll still be a cussin' but loadin' coal

Loadin' coal loadin' coal...

[ ac, guitar ]

I know just as well as coal is black one of these days the mines were strike

And I'll sit around starvin' till I'm finally told

There's a nickel more a ton for loadin' coal

Loadin' coal loadin' coal...