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The Dying Miner Lyrics

Artist: Woody Guthrie
Album: Struggle

In a half and an hour ago,
Way down in this tunnel of coal,
Gas caught fire from somebody's lamp.
And the miners are choking in smoke.

Goodbye to Dickie and Honey,
Goodbye to the wife that I love.
One of these men not coming home,
Tonight when the work whistle blows.

Dear sisters and brothers goodbye,
Dear mother and father goodbye.
My fingers are weak and I cannot write,
Goodbye Centralia, goodbye.

It looks like the end for me,
And all of my buddies I see.
We're all writing letters to children we love,
Please carry our word to our wives.

We, found a little place in the air,
Crawled and drug ourselves here.
But the smoke is bad and the fumes coming in,
And the gas is burning my eyes.

Dear sisters and brothers goodbye,
Dear mother and father goodbye.
My fingers are weak and I cannot write,
Goodbye Centralia, goodbye.

Forgive me for the things I done wrong,
I love you lots more than you know.
When the night whistle blows and I don't come home,
Do all that you can to help mom.

I can hear the moans and groans,
More than a hundred good men.
Just work and right and try to see,
That this never happens again.

Dear sisters and brothers goodbye,
Dear mother and father goodbye.
My fingers are weak and I cannot write,
Goodbye Centralia, goodbye.

My eyes are blinded with fumes,
But it sounds like the men are all gone,
'Cept Joe Valentini, Fred Gussler and George,
Trapped down in this hell hole of fire.

Please name our new baby Joe,
So he'll grow up like big Joe.
He'll work and he'll right and he'll fix up the mines,
So fire can't kill daddy no more.

Dear sisters and brothers goodbye,
Dear mother and father goodbye.
My fingers are weak and I cannot write,
Goodbye Centralia, goodbye.

Comments/Interpretations

by uhhhh on 5/24/2008 9:32pm
the centralia coal mine caught fire in the 1970s. woody guthrie died in the early 60s. need any more proof he was a profit?

by Southern Illinois Boy on 2/2/2010 10:49am
The explosion was March 25 1947 (Good Friday). Family friends helped with the bodies. I went to school with a daughter of one of the miners who was born shortly after the explosion. Don't know what your problem is with Woodie, but your facts are off. A Centralian

by Clarification on 4/6/2010 3:40pm
I can explain the 1st two posters confusion - there are 2 famous towns of Centralia and coincidentally both are sites of infamous coal mining disasters - Centralia, PA, and Centralia, IL.

"The Dying Miner" is written about the later.

by Toby on 7/13/2012 4:20pm
The word "right" in verses 8 and 11 should be "fight."