(Merle Travis)

Come and listen you fellows so young and do fine
And seek not your fortune in the dark, dreary mine
It will form as a habit seep in your soul
'Til the blood in your veins runs as black as the coal.

There's many a man that I've known 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.

It's dark as a dungeon damp as the dew
The danger is double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls, where the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

I hope when I'm gone and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look out the door of my heavenly home
And I'll pity the miners a-diggin' my bones.

It's dark as a dungeon damp as the dew
The danger is double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls, where the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine.

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