Vandaag een eigen lied en een veel mooier lied van Jean Ritchie.
Kompelcomplex
Wat heeft dit doolhof hen misleid.
Hier gingen zoveel longen, zoveel ruggen stuk,
zoveel vergeten levens, bezet door arbeid.
Hier groef men goud en vond men geen geluk.
Met in de verste gangen onbereikbaar licht:
door paters en patronen lonkend in het zicht
gesteld genadebrood, en, ver onder modaal,
een winstopslagje op de laagste loonschaal.
Welke plichten stonden hen voor ogen
dat niet viel toe te geven aan rebelse dromen?
Hoe konden zij, zo vaak hun vlucht werd overwogen,
in deze duisternis weer tot bezinning komen?
Stomme gravers in dat klokhuis aarde
wier handen joegen naar een nieuw record.
Zelfs als de schaftfluit hen bedaarde
ging het werk nog in hun hoofden door.
Ronald van Noorden © 2012 Cum Suis
Though Jean Ritchie typically eschewed controversial topics, the subject of impoverishing coal miners was touchy enough for the musician that she originally released “L&N” in 1965 under her maternal grandfather’s name, Than Hall. Ritchie grew up in Viper, Kentucky‘s Slabtown Holler, and a Louisville and Nashville Railroad passenger train ran right by the mouth of the hollow. Difficult times began when the local coal mines closed and the trains stopped coming; “The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore” reflects that time. In 2008, Ritchie still owned the family farm in Viper and fought against mountaintop removal mining, a form of surface mining she called “a sin“.
Michelle Shocked and Kathy Mattea covered the song, but it was made famous by Johnny Cash, who published his own cover of the ballad after hearing June Carter Cash sing it. (Bron: Wikipedia)
“The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore”
When I was a curly-headed baby
My daddy set me down on his knee
Saying “Son you go to school, you learn your letters
Don’t you be no dusty miner, boy like me”
I was born and raised at the mouth of the Hazard Holler
Where the coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty row of all empties
Because the L & N don’t stop here anymore
I used to think my father was a black man
With scrip enough to buy the company store
But now he goes to town with empty pockets
And his face is as white as the February snow
I was born and raised at the mouth of the Hazard Holler
Where the coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty road of all empties
Because the L & N don’t stop here anymore
Never thought I’d live to lean to love the coaldust
Never thought I’d pray to hear those temples roar
But God I wish the grass would turn to money
And then them greenbacks would fill my pockets once more
I was born and raised at the mouth of the Hazard Holler
Where the coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty road of all empties
Because the L & N don’t stop here anymore
Last night I dreamed I went down to the office
To get my payday like I done before
But them old kudzu vines was covering the doorway
And there was leaves and grass growing up through the floor
I was born and raised at the mouth of the Hazard Holler
Where the coal cars rolled and rumbled past my door
But now they stand in a rusty road of all empties
Because the L & N don’t stop here anymore
Songwriter: Jean Ritchie
taaljongen.nl 