Down in the Coal Mine

DESCRIPTION: The miner sings, "I am a jovial collier lad, as blythe as blythe can be / And let the times be good or bad, it's all the same to me...." He describes his dark and dirty life and his lack of culture, but points out how all are dependent on him.
AUTHOR: J. B. Geoghegan (or "Geehagen")
EARLIEST DATE: 1872 (date of composition, according to Sullivan; also Dime-Song-Book #X, p. 31)
KEYWORDS: mining nonballad work
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,Ro) Britain
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 26, "Down in the Coal Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-MinstrelsOfTheMinePatch, pp. 277-278, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, pp. 373-374, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, pp. 176-177, Down In a Coal Mine" (1 text) (pp. 154-155 in the 1919 edition)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 74, p. 97, "Down in the Coal Mines" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #187, "Down in the Coal Mine" (1 text)
Foner-AmericanLaborSongsOfTheNineteenthCentury, p. 199, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text)
Arnett-IHearAmericaSinging, pp. 128-129, "Down in the Coalmine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 171-172, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #31, pp. 22-23, "Down in a Coal Mine" (1 text)
DT, DOWNCOAL
Roud #3502
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Yellow Meal (Heave Away; Yellow Gals; Tapscott; Bound to Go)" (part of tune)
NOTES [59 words]: According to James Sullivan, Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century History in 100 Protest Songs, with a foreword by The Reverend Lennox Yearwood and Bill McKibben, Oxford University Press, 2019, p. 35, author J. B. Geoghehan was "a music hall manager and promoter" who intended this "as a celebration of the men toiling in an unheralded occuption." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: Wa026

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