1921 was the year seems like yesterday to me
Let me tell you about what happened then
Back in the mine country..
We were fightin' hard to build a union
'Cause at forty cents a ton
There was no way to feed a family
When the minin' day was done.
The strike had lasted for a year
When they shot down Smilin' Sid
He was a lawman who stood up for us miners
That's the only crime he ever did
A hundred miners locked up with no trial
There in Mingo-town
But the last straw came in Sharples
When the gunned the women down..
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Ten thousand men and countin'
Here in the hills of West Virginia
At the Battle of Blair Mountain.
We shouted through the hillsides
In every union hall
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Teach them a lesson, once and all
We commandeered every freight train
To the Kentucky line
Took every car that crossed our path
And all the guns and ammo we could find.
The union leaders tried to stop us
Mother Jones told us to turn back
But we had learned ourselves from the gun thugs
There's a time to talk and a time to attack
We had no leader, we didn't need one
We all knew the way through Logan County
And we all knew once we got there
We're gonna hang Sheriff Chapin from a sour apple tree.
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Ten thousand men and countin'
Here in the hills of West Virginia..
At the Battle of Blair Mountain.
For three days and nights we fought them
the front was ten miles wide
All the cops and scabs in West Virginia
Were there on the other side
They dropped explosives from their airplanes!
Such a thing you never saw
They shot us with machine guns
It was the operator's law.
We dug trenches and wore helmets
That we brought from the Argonne
All the way from France to Logan
We fought from dusk to dawn
President Harding sent in the Army
And we left our line to them
But the hills of West Virginia
Will long remember when
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Ten thousand men and countin'
Here in the hills of West Virginia..
At the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Let me tell you about what happened then
Back in the mine country..
We were fightin' hard to build a union
'Cause at forty cents a ton
There was no way to feed a family
When the minin' day was done.
The strike had lasted for a year
When they shot down Smilin' Sid
He was a lawman who stood up for us miners
That's the only crime he ever did
A hundred miners locked up with no trial
There in Mingo-town
But the last straw came in Sharples
When the gunned the women down..
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Ten thousand men and countin'
Here in the hills of West Virginia
At the Battle of Blair Mountain.
We shouted through the hillsides
In every union hall
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Teach them a lesson, once and all
We commandeered every freight train
To the Kentucky line
Took every car that crossed our path
And all the guns and ammo we could find.
The union leaders tried to stop us
Mother Jones told us to turn back
But we had learned ourselves from the gun thugs
There's a time to talk and a time to attack
We had no leader, we didn't need one
We all knew the way through Logan County
And we all knew once we got there
We're gonna hang Sheriff Chapin from a sour apple tree.
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Ten thousand men and countin'
Here in the hills of West Virginia..
At the Battle of Blair Mountain.
For three days and nights we fought them
the front was ten miles wide
All the cops and scabs in West Virginia
Were there on the other side
They dropped explosives from their airplanes!
Such a thing you never saw
They shot us with machine guns
It was the operator's law.
We dug trenches and wore helmets
That we brought from the Argonne
All the way from France to Logan
We fought from dusk to dawn
President Harding sent in the Army
And we left our line to them
But the hills of West Virginia
Will long remember when
We're marchin' on to Mingo
Ten thousand men and countin'
Here in the hills of West Virginia..
At the Battle of Blair Mountain.
inviata da giorgio - 13/4/2010 - 12:16
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Album "Songs for Mahmud"
"I read the book by Lon Savage, Thunder In the Mountains, and wrote this song, about the biggest battle in the West Virginia Coal Mine War of 1920-21".