Lyrics
Some people say a man is made out of mud
A poor man's made out of muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one morning 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 straw boss said, "Well bless my soul!"
You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one morning, it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebreak by an old mama lion
Can't no high-toned woman make me walk the line
You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you see me comin' better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't getcha then the left one will
You load sixteen tons, whattaya get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don'cha call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
If you haven't already heard it, I highly recommend Tay Zonday's cover of this song...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MhV-ak3H52s
He is a great singer, but he just doesn't have the right voice (though he tries). To sing this correctly you need to have smoked two packs a day for 40 years, or at least worked in a real coal mine for that long.
I feel similarly about Amazing grace - it should never be sung in church (except maybe as a solo) because most people in church have been going all their life and while not perfect don't have the awful background in sin to be believable.
What's a better version?
I've never heard one that is fully convincing. I know there are some real coal miners who sing songs like this, but I've never heard one.
I like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzlT80jQ3lo but I'm not sure that better is the correct way to describe it. (this is the Geoff Castellucci version that someone else already linked)
It is hard to have a "better or worse" conversation" about something subjective, like an element of art.
For what it's worth, I like that version a lot more than the Travis or Ford ones. Thanks for sharing it.
I would argue soon or suffering. A virtuous man who has been shit on his whole life would be appropriate, as well as a reformed sinner.
Or, honestly, anyone with a good, deep, rich voice. I'd love to have heard James Earl Jones try it.