Hey, I want to give background on the song before you listen.
I was walking up a steep hill yesterday, feeling bad about my music.
Sighing to myself, “another day older..” Then boom, the lyric came to me.
“and deeper in debt.” The tune was one I heard a lot growing up. Just
as frequently as Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
It is about working in a coal mine. I feel justified in singing it.
My great grandfather, in probably around the 1860’s was sent to Eastern Pennsylvania
at the age of nine, to learn the coal mining trade. He spent his early life, on
a conveyor belt picking out shale, which cut his hands to ribbons. My grandfather
also did time in the mines in Southeastern Ohio. He lived on 20 cups of coffee a day,
working 20 hour shifts. He was responsible for keeping the fans running that kept
air going down in the mines. If he screwed up, men died. I do not know which would
be worse, dying down in the mine, or being the dude responsible for keeping air down
there. The whole operation was crooked, you worked to make money to buy goods from
the store that was owned my the Coal Company. You worked to pay rent on the parcel of land
that was owned by the Coal Company. There was a big deal about either being a “Company Man”
or a “Union Man.” I had relatives on both sides. So without further blabbing here it is:

16 Tons live.

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, and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine
I picked up my shovel and I went to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the boss-man said “Well, Bless my soul”

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin’, it was drizzlin’ rain
Fightin’ and trouble are my middle name
 I was raised in a break by an old mama hound
Ain’t no  woman gonna  push me around

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you hear me comin’, better step aside
A lot of men didn’t, and a lot of men died
With one fist of iron, and the other of steel
If the right one don’t get you then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store