Come out on strike, boys, it's all you can do;
Old Colman gets rich making slaves out of you.
(Ch.)
lt's a hard time in Colman‘s mines,
A hard time we know.
Take my advice, boys, I'll tell you what to do,
If you will stand by me, l'll see you through.
You get up in the morning, all you get to eat
Corn bread and water gravy without any meat.
We're cold and hungry, no shoes on our feet,
Corn bread and wild greens is all we got to eat.
The best we got to live in is small one-room shacks,
You can throw your dogs and cats through the cracks.
When you‘re asked about moving, all you can say,
"We're so poor and hungry, we can't get away."
Unite and stick together, boys, it's all that can be done;
Throw down your tools, walk out in the sun.
If we all get together, one for all and all for one,
We can put these hard times on the run.
So come out on strike, boys, it all you can do,
Old Colman gets rich making fools out of you.
Old Colman gets rich making slaves out of you.
(Ch.)
lt's a hard time in Colman‘s mines,
A hard time we know.
Take my advice, boys, I'll tell you what to do,
If you will stand by me, l'll see you through.
You get up in the morning, all you get to eat
Corn bread and water gravy without any meat.
We're cold and hungry, no shoes on our feet,
Corn bread and wild greens is all we got to eat.
The best we got to live in is small one-room shacks,
You can throw your dogs and cats through the cracks.
When you‘re asked about moving, all you can say,
"We're so poor and hungry, we can't get away."
Unite and stick together, boys, it's all that can be done;
Throw down your tools, walk out in the sun.
If we all get together, one for all and all for one,
We can put these hard times on the run.
So come out on strike, boys, it all you can do,
Old Colman gets rich making fools out of you.
Contributed by Alessandro - 2010/3/15 - 13:12
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Songs sung by John Greenway
Album “The Songs and Stories of Aunt Molly Jackson”, Folkways Records, 1961.
“This is a song I composed in 19 and l0 at a mining company in Bell County, Kentucky, when I was trying to get the miners to come out in strike for eight hours and better pay, and for decent homes to live in. I would sing this song and then I would make a long speech, and this way I organized that group of miners while they was in my reach. Colman was the name of the coal operator. He was working over 400 men in this way in 19 and l0. This song will tell you the awful condition the miners was in”
(dal libretto che accompagna il disco)