We have sort of a feeling really about good folk music
That the songs with the simplest chords structures
And the plainest lyrics
Are the most beautiful ones, and this is really one of them
Written by a fellow named Merle Travis
It's called "Dark as a dungeon, down in the mines"
Come all you young fellows so brave and so fine
And seek not your fortune way down in the mine
It will form as a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal
Well, it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
Well, it's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine
Well, it's many a man I have seen in my day
Who lived just to labor his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope or a drunkard his wine
A man must have lust for the lure of the mine
Well, it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
Well, 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
That I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miners that dig in my bones
Well, it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
Well, it's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine
Well, it's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine