Blue Tattoo

Traveling down that coaltown road
Listen to my rubber tyres whine
Goodbye to buckeye and white sycamore
I'm leaving you behind
I've been a coal miner all my life
Laying down track in the hole
Got a back like an ironwood bent by the wind
Blue veins as black as the coal

Somebody said that's a strange tattoo
You have on the side of your head
I said that's a mark of number nine coal
A little more and I'll be dead
But I love the rumble and I love the dark
I love the cool of the slate
But it's traveling down this new road looking for a job
It's the traveling and looking I hate

I've stood for the union, I walked in the line
I fought against the company
I've stood for the U, M, W of A
Now who's gonna stand for me?
'Cause I got no job, I got no pay
I just got a worried soul
And this blue tattoo on the side of my head
Left by the number nine coal

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