Sixteen Tons-crd   Merle Travis

Keywords: Digital Tradition

References: 





The version below is from the Digital Tradition folk song database
(July 1992 version).

The "Rise Up Singing" song book gives the following chords:

	verse: Am - F E / Am - F E / Am - Dm - / Am - - E7
	chorus as in verse ending: Am - E7 Am

It also indicates the song is in the book "Songs of Work and Protest".

For more information about the Digital Tradition, contact:
  Dick Greenhaus, 28 Powell Street, Greenwich, CT 06831, 203/531-7314

I'm thinking of making a copy of the Digital Tradition available on an
FTP server.
Let me know if that would be useful.

Steve Putz 
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Palo Alto, California

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SIXTEEN TONS
(Merle Travis)

Some people say a man is made outa mud
A poor man's made outa muscle 'n blood...
Muscle an' blood an' skin an' bone
A mind that's weak and a back that's strong

cho: You load sixteen tons an' whaddya get?
     Another day older an' deeper in debt
     Saint Peter doncha call me 'cause I can't go
     I owe my soul to the company sto'

If ya hear me a-comin' ya better step aside
A lotta men din't an' a lotta men died
With one fist of iron an' the other of steel
If the right one don' getcha then the left one will.

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
Picked up my shovel and I went to the mine
Loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the strawboss said, "Well, Bless my soul!"

I was born one morning in the drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebreak by an' ol' mama hound
Ain't no high-tone woman gonna push me around.

@mine
Copyright American Music, Inc.
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