Sixteen Tons - Merle Travis

Sixteen Tons
(Merle Travis)

Sixteen Tons Lyric

You load sixteen tons and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

(spoken)
Yes, sir, there's many a Kentucky coal miner that pretty nearly owes his soul to the company store.
He gets so far in debt to the coal company he's a-workin' for that he goes on sometimes for years without bein' paid one red cent in real, honest-to-goodness money.
But he can always go to the company store and draw flickers or scrip.
You know, that's little brass coins that you can't spend nowhere, only at the company store.
So they add that against his account.
And every day, he gets a little farther in debt. Sounds pretty bad, but even that's got a brighter side to it.

Now some people say man is made out of mud
A poor man's made out of muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bone
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

While I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the store-boss said the "Well-a bless my soul"

While I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the cane-brake by an old mama lion
Cain't no a high-tone woman make me walk the line

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lot of men didn't and a lot of men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't git ya, then the left one will

Sixteen Tons Singers

Merle Travis 1953.


1. Tennessee Ernie Ford (billboard hit) 1955 2. Johnny Desmond - 1955 3. Frankie Laine - 1955 4. Edmund Hockridge - 1956 5. The Weavers - 1956 6. Eddy Arnold - 1956 7. Kate Smith - 1958 8. Homer & Jethro - 1960 9. Jimmy Dean - 1961 10. Bo Diddley - 1961 11. Oscar Brown Jr. - 1962 12. The Hi-Lo's - 1963 13. Vance Arnold & The Avengers - 1963 14. Dave Dudley - 1964 15. Johnny Sandon - 1964 16. Lorne Greene - 1965 17. Billy Strange - 1965 18. Red Sovine - 1966 19. Harry Nilsson - 1966 20. Stevie Wonder - 1966 21. Tom Jones - 1967 22. Johnnie Taylor - 1967 23. James & Bobby Purify - 1968 24. CCS - 1972 25. Jerry Reed - 1973 26. Lester "Roadhog" Moran & the Cadillac Cowboys** - 1974 27. Don Harrison Band - 1976 28. Johnny Carroll - 1977 29. Deja Voodoo - 1984 30. Restless - 1994 31. Jim Post - 1987 32. Frank Tovey - 1989 33. Eric Burdon - 1990 34. Paul Mark & The Van Dorens - 1991 35. The Cactus Brothers - 1993 36. Perla Batalla - 1994 37. Mustard's Retreat - 1994 38. Jeffrey Evans & '68 Comeback - 1994 39. Tuff - 1995 40. Western Flyer - 1996 41. Michael Ballew - 1997 42. Hello Dave - 1998 43. C. D. Morris - 1998 44. Jason And The G-men - 1999 45. Jed Clampit - 2000 46. Dizzy Elmer - 2000 47. Red Stick Ramblers - 2003.

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