Dick Gaughan's Website

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Blackleg Miner
(Traditional)

Song Lyric as sung by Dick Gaughan

It's in the evenin after dark
When the blackleg miner creeps to work
With his moleskin pants an dirty shirt
There goes the backleg miner

He takes his pick an doon he goes
To hew the coal that lies below
But there's not a woman in this town row
Would look at a blackleg miner

Oh, Delaval is a terrible place
They rub wet clay in the blackleg's face
Around the pit-heaps they run a foot race
To catch the blackleg miner

Divvn't gan near the Seghill mine
Across the way they stretch a line
To catch the throat an break the spine
Of the dirty backleg miner

Tak your tools an gear as well
An hoy them doon the pit of hell
Doon ye go an fare ye well
Ye dirty blackleg miner

So join the union while ye may
Don't wait until your dying day
For that may not be far away
Ye dirty blackleg miner

Song Notes

Live performance only.

It's become quite common to hear people use the last verse as a chorus. I find it fascinating that this song had become almost an antiquity until the 1984/85 Miners' Strike when it came roaring back to contemporary relevence.

The evidence of the placenames and the style of the language (although I've largely rendered it in "Standard English" here rather than give a Scot's attempts at writing "pitmatic"!) suggests its origins were in the Durham coalfield in the 19th century and I think it probably pre-dates the great Tommy Armstrong. I'm sure all the relevant info is in Lloyd's "Come All Ye Bold Miners" but my copy isn't to hand at the moment. When I find it, I'll update this with more precise info.

Recorded by Dick Gaughan

Live performance only

Also recorded by

 

Music is available for this song in these formats:

mp3
Sample

Not yet

Notation
& Chords

Available here

MIDI
File

Available here

ABC
Notation

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Related pages on this site

Related pages on other sites

The following links are to other websites and I am not responsible for what you might find there. Sites do change without warning and it is impossible for me to keep checking that links go where they should.

Song Archive

Lyrics and music for songs sung by Dick Gaughan

Gaughan Website
Song Archive
Song Index B
Blackleg Miner