Coal Mining Top Ten: Dark As a Dungeon (#1)

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Now is the time to leave the mines. I’ve been counting down my favorite songs having to deal with the thankless, dangerous occupation of coal mining, a subject I was inspired to undertake after visiting the Hurricane Creek Mining Disaster Memorial in Hyden, Kentucky. Here’s the song that, to me, encompasses everything about the job. #1: Dark As a Dungeon - Merle Travis Travis’ dad and many of his relatives were coal miners. His first album, the classic Folk Songs of the Hills, had a number of songs that dealt with the subject, including his original recording of the all-time classic “Sixteen Tons.” Here he told of the paradox of a horrible job (“where danger is double, and pleasures are few, where the rain never falls and the sun never shines”) that people gravitate to (“it will form as a habit and seep in your soul ‘til the stream of your blood is as black as the coal”). My favorite line from the song reiterates this strange obsession: “like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine, a man will have lust for the lure of the mines.” It’s a masterpiece of music, perfectly depicting what men endure so we can have cheap electricity. God bless the coal miners. Thanks for reading. Dark As a Dungeon Written by Merle Travis Recorded by Merle Travis From Folk Songs of the Hills, 1947 I’ll look from the door of my heavenly home: