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...

[ 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...

[ 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...