Travelin' down that coaltown road,

Listen to my rubber tires whine;

Goodbye to Buckeye and White Sycamore,

I'm leavin' you behind.

I've been a coal miner all my life

Layin' down track in the hole,

Got a back like an ironwood bent by the wind

Blood veins as black as the coal.



Somebody said "That's a strange tattoo

You have on the side of your head."

I said "That's a mark of number nine coal

A little more and I'd be dead"

But I love the rumble and I love the dark

I love the cool of the slate.

But it's travelin' down this new road lookin' for a job

It's the travelin' and lookin' I hate.



I've stood for the union, I walked in the line,

I fought against the company;

I stood for the U. M. W. of A.

Now who's gonna stand for me?

Cause I got no job, I got no pay,

I just got a worried soul;

And this blue tattoo on the side of my head

Left by the number nine coal.



Someday when I'm dead and gone

To Heaven, the land of my dreams,

I won't have to worry on losin' my job

To bad times 'n big machines.

But I got no job and I got no pay,

I just got a worried soul;

And this blue tattoo on the side of my head

Left by that number nine coal,

Left by that number nine coal.