Coal Tattoo

(Album: Facets - 1966)

Traveling down that coal town road
Listening to my steel wheels whine;
Goodbye to buckeye and white sycamore
I'm leaving you behind
I've been a coal man all my life
Laying down tracks 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 mark of the number nine coal
Little more and I'd be dead"
Still I love the rumble and I love the dark
I love the cool of the slate
But it's going down the road looking for a job
It's traveling and running I hate
It's traveling and running I hate

Someday when I die and to Heaven I go
To Heaven the land of my dreams
I won't have to worry about losing my job
To bad times and big machines
Still I've got no job and I've got no pay
Just got a worrying soul
And this blue tattoo on the side of my head
Left by the number nine coal
Left by the number nine coal
Left by the number nine coal