lyrics of the coal mines

Dark As A Dungeon

Lyrics: Merle Travis
Music: Merle Travis
Played by Jerry Garcia with David Grisman.

Come all you young fellows so young and so fine
And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mine
It will form like a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal

Chorus
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is doubled and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine

There's many a man I've seen in my day
Who lived just to labor his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine

[chorus]

Oh when I am dead and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a-digging my bones

[Chorus]

Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine