J. P. Cormier - Brothers in Darkness lyrics

My daddy worked the Lincoln mine 'til he was 62. With both his lungs as black as night his working days were through. But he never cursed a single hour he spent down in the hole. To his dying day he'd always say this town was built on coal. And the day that I became a man I went down underground. The rake had stopped and I jumped off and took one look around. And I saw the ghosts of miners past in every rock and seam, and my future there before me within my lantern's beam. We are brothers, brothers in darkness and we never see the sun The stars wait to greet us when the day's work is done We go down down down under land and sea where the blackness stops time, with pickaxe and shovel and these brothers of mine. And soon the days turned into years for the work was in my blood My luck held fast as I survived 3 cave-ins and a flood But for some men this might be the day When the reaper rolls his dice It's once below and once above you'll end up buried twice One day we dug the hole so deep that we woke the devil up Instead of being angry to us he raised his cup He said you must be mighty men to have come so far below And I see you've brought the Lord here with you So I'll have to let you go We are brothers, brothers in darkness and we never see the sun The stars wait to greet us when the day's work is done We go down down down under land and sea where the blackness stops time, with pickaxe and shovel and these brothers of mine. And now the mines are locked up tight. We've faced our early end: some 3-piece suit took all our jobs with one stroke of his pen. And lest the young ones might forget we'll raise our voice in song. Though we'll never see the deeps again the miner's heart lives on.