CHORUS: 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.
(SPOKEN) Yessir, there's a-many a Kentucky coal miner that pretty near owes his soul to the company store. He gets so far in debt to the coal company he's a-workin' for that he goes on for years without being paid one red cent in real honest-to-goodness money. But he can always go to the company store and draw flickers or scrip -- you know, that's little brass coins that you can't spend nowhere only at the company store. So they add that against his account and every day he gets a little farther in debt. (CHUCKLE) That sounds pretty bad, but even that's got a brighter side to it.
Now some people say a man is made outta mud But poor man's made outta muscle and blood Muscle and blood and skin and bones A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong
CHORUS
Well, I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine. I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mines. I loaded sixteen tons of Number Nine coal, And the straw-boss hollered, "Well, bless my soul.''
CHORUS
Well, I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain. Fightin' and trouble is my middle name. I was raised in the bottoms by a mama hound. I'm mean as a dog, but I'm as gentle as a lamb.
ALTERNATE LYRICS, LAST TWO LINES: I was raised in a cane-brake by a big mama lion Cain't no high tone woman break this heart of mine. WeIl, if you see me a-comin' you better step aside. A lotta men didn't and a lotta men died. I got a fist of iron, and a fist of steel. If the right one don't get you, then the left one will.