Sixteen Tons Chords

Standard (EADGBE)

Verse

Am F E choAmrus aFs Ein vAmerse Dmending:Am Am - EE77 Am

It also indicates the song is in the book "Songs of Work and Protest".

For more information about the Digital Tradition, contact:

Dick Greenhaus, 28 Powell Street, Greenwich, CT 06831, 203/531-7314

I'm thinking of making a copy of the Digital Tradition available on an

FTP server.

Let me know if that would be useful.

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center

Palo Alto, California

SIXTEEN TONS

(Merle Travis)

Some people say a man is made outa mud

A poor man's made outa muscle 'n blood...

Muscle an' blood an' skin an' bone

A mind that's weak and a back that's strong

cho: You load sixteen tons an' whaddya get?

Another day older an' deeper in debt

Saint Peter doncha call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my soul to the company sto'

If ya hear me a-comin' ya better step aside

A lotta men din't an' a lotta men died

With one fist of iron an' the other of steel

If the right one don' getcha then the left one will.

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine

Picked up my shovel and I went to the mine

Loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal

And the strawboss said, "Well, Bless my soul!"

I was born one morning in the drizzlin' rain

Fightin' and trouble are my middle name

I was raised in the canebreak by an' ol' mama hound

Ain't no high-tone woman gonna push me around.