It's as dark as a dungeon way down in the mine

I never will forget one time

When I was on a little visit down home in Ebenezer Kentucky

I was a-talking to an old man that had known me ever

Since the day I was born and an old friend of the family

He says son you don't know how lucky you are to have a nice job

Like you've got and don't have to dig out a living

From under these old hills and hollers

Like me and your pappy used to

When I asked him why he never had left

And tried some other kind of work he says

Now sir you just won't do that

If ever you get this old coal dust in your blood

You're just gonna be a plain old coal miner as long as you live

He went on to say it's a habit

Sorta like chewing tobaccer

Come and listen you fellows so young and so fine

And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mines

It will form as a habit and seep in your soul

Till the stream of your blood is as black as the coal

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

It's a many a man I have seen in my day

Who lived just to labor his whole life away

Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine

A man will have lust for the lure of the mines

I 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 a digging my bones

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