Tennessee Ernie Ford Lyrics
"Dark as a Dungeon"

[First Verse]
Come listen, you fellers
So young and so fine
And seek not your fortune
In the dark, dreary mine
It'll form as a habit
And seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood
Is as black as the coal

[Chorus]
It's dark as a dungeon
And damp as the dew
Where the danger is double
And pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls
And the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon
Way down in the mine

[Second Verse]
It's many a man
I have known in my day
Who live just to labor
His young life away
Where the demons of death
Often come by surprise
One fall of the slate
And you're buried alive
My hope when I'm gone
And the ages shall roll
My body will blacken
And turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door
Of my heavenly home
And pity the miner
Digging my bones

[Chorus]
It's dark as a dungeon
And damp as the dew
Where danger is double
And pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls
And the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon
Way down in the mine