MAN OF EARTH

Jock Graham / Phyl Lobl

Jock Graham was a Hunter Valley Coal miner and poet. Warren Fahey asked me for a tune for this poem when we were recording the LP 'Man of the Earth'.

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Lyrics

By profession and birth I'm a man of the earth,
I burrow in it like a mole.
I dig it and drill it, and blast it and fill it,
For that great commodity coal.
To some I'm a brave man to others a knave man,
Who's puttin' the land in a hole.
A strike and attack man a black man a slack man,
Who plunders the country of coal.

Its narkin' at times to be blamed for their crimes,
And placed in a villainous role.
Invented by story press jury and Tory,
The profit made agents of coal.
No story of men who are suffering pain,
Of heroes who starve on the dole.
Naught written or spoken of hearts that are broken,
The widows and orphans of coal.

The court is the gauge that determines my wage,
The parson looks after my soul.
My hands are my boss's his gains are my losses,
My body is bartered in coal.
The gaps in the lines red roll of the mines,
Show death has been taking its toll.
While snipers at maimed men and dead men and famed men,
Grow fat on the blood of the coal.

By profession and birth I'm a man of the earth,
I burrow in it like a mole.
I dig it and drill it, and blast it and fill it,
For that great commodity coal.
Yet through muck and mire and lung-dust and fire,
More clearly I'm seeing my role.
Of digging and drilling and blasting and filling,
Supplying a socialised coal.

Of digging and drilling and blasting and filling,
Supplying a socialised coal.

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Man of Earth

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