Fire in the Hole - The Elders

Now the last ten years I’ve worked in the mines

Counting the hours of the day

‘Til I could wash off the dust from my bones

And spend what’s left of my pay

Oh I wish I was back in the company store

With a local girl on my arm

Where a pint and a kiss and a fiddler’s reel

Could keep me safe and warm

It’s fire in the hole man run for your life

A long blue vein of coal

Out of the dark and into the light

A dollar a day to sell your soul

And live through the fire in the hole

Well I’m fumblin' now for words to say

What’s caught behind my tongue

‘Cus I’m shaky now 'bout all the things

I knew when I was young

Just dreamin' tonight that I’m wide awake

A thousand feet under the ground

And a thousand souls under all that weight

Of heaven pressing us down

It’s fire in the hole man run for your life

A long blue vein of coal

Out of the dark and into the light

A dollar a day to sell your soul

And live through the fire in the hole

Now a nation will rise from the work we do

Making millionaires night and day

So I’ll sign us up with the union man

To get us the rest of our pay

Now we’ll strike every day if it comes to that

I coughed every night for a year and a half

We’ll meet them at the gates with bullets and some mates

And a few men won’t come back

It’s fire in the hole man run for your life

A long blue vein of coal

Out of the dark and into the light

A dollar a day to sell your soul

And live through the fire in the hole