Blue Tattoo Lyrics - Singles - Sandy Denny

Travelin' down that coaltown road, 

Listen to my rubber tires whine; 

Goodbye to buckeye and white sycamore, 

I'm leavin' you behind. 

I've been a coal miner all my life 

Layin' down track in the hole, 

Got a back like an ironwood bent by the wind 

Blood veins as black as the coal. 

Somebody said "that's a strange tattoo 

You have on the side of your head." 

I said "that's a mark of number nine coal 

A little more and I'd be dead" 

But I love the rumble and I love the dark 

I love the cool of the slate. 

But it's travelin' down this new road lookin' for a job 

It's the travelin' and lookin' I hate. 

I've stood for the union, I walked in the line, 

I fought against the company; 

I stood for the u. m. w. of a. 

Now who's gonna stand for me? 

Cause I got no job, I got no pay, 

I just got a worried soul; 

And this blue tattoo on the side of my head 

Left by the number nine coal. 

Someday when I'm dead and gone 

To heaven, the land of my dreams, 

I won't have to worry on losin' my job 

To bad times 'n big machines. 

But I got no job and I got no pay, 

I just got a worried soul; 

And this blue tattoo on the side of my head 

Left by that number nine coal, 

Left by that number nine coal.