“Coal Not Dole” Sheet Music (pdf).
“Coal Not Dole” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Performer: Chumbawamba.
Lyrics: Kay Sutcliffe.
Tune: Paul Abrahams.
It stands so proud, the wheels so still,
A ghost-like figure on the hill.
It seems so strange there is no sound
Now there are no men underground.
What will become of this pit yard
Where men once trampled, faces hard,
So tired and weary, their shift done,
Never having seen the sun?
There’ll always be a happy hour
For those with money, jobs, and power.
They’ll never realize the hurt they cause
To the men they treat like dirt.
Will it become a sacred ground,
Foreign tourists gazing ’round,
Asking if men once worked here
Way beneath the pithead gear?
Empty trucks once filled with coal
Lined up like men on the dole,
Will they ever be used again
Or left for scrap just like the men?
There’ll always be a happy hour
For those with money, jobs, and power.
They’ll never realize the hurt they cause
To the men they treat like dirt.