Oh, it’s in the evening after dark
When the blackleg miner creeps to work
His moleskin pants and dirty shirt
There goes the blackleg miner
Well, he grabs his duds and down he goes
To hew the coal that lies below
There’s not a girl in this town row
Will look at the blackleg miner
Oh, Delaval is a terrible place
They rub wet clay in the blackleg’s face
And around the heaps they run a race
To catch the blackleg miner
So divvent gan near the Seghill mine
Across the way they stretch a line
To catch the throat and break the spine
Of the dirty blackleg miner
So he grabbed his duds, his picks as well
And they hoy them down the pit of hell
Down you go and fare you well
You dirty blackleg miner
So join the union while you may
Don’t wait till your dying day
For that may not be far away
You dirty blackleg miner
Oh, it’s in the evening after dark
When the blackleg miner creeps to work
His moleskin pants and dirty shirt
There goes the blackleg miner
So join the union while you may
Don’t wait till your dying day
For that may not be far away
You dirty blackleg miner
You dirty blackleg miner
You dirty blackleg miner
Actually the first time I heard this song was on a programme on the BBC early on a Saturday morning. The programme was for kids and used the song to try to explain the strikes and bitterness that came from them. The song stuck in my head till I heard RT dong this.
In "The Scab", Jack London famously wrote that "After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles. When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out..."
The song originated in County Durham, England, the locations of Seaton-Delaval and Seghill are mentioned as are gruesome punishments for the strike-breaking miner at those places.The song was written in Northumbrian dialect, perhaps as far back as 1844 but there have been many strikes since then.A hundred years later it was sung on the picket lines in the strike of 1984-85.BTW: The Seaton Delavel mine closed in 1960 and Seghill in 1965 over a century after the song is supposed to have appeared.
actually, i agree with you. folk music is always limited in school curricula and usually to stuff that nobody could possibly really like. and it puts people off folk music for life.
Glück auf! Greetings to all Miners. A special thanks to all the significant others of the brave men. You keep them grounded - or better "uplifted"
I worked in mines in Northumberland between 1968 and 1972. The Seghill mine headgear was still in place at that time, although the mine had closed. I sometimes perform this song myself.
Steeleye Span did a great version of this song way way back on their “Hark the Village Wait” album. The album they recorded with Gay and Terry Woods. Terry had earlier played with “Sweeney’s Men” and later went on to join “The Pogues”.
