Henry's Songbook

Chorus:
And they say you don't go
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine
And they say you don't go
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine
'Cause it's one short step
You might leave this world behind
And they say you don't go
Say you don't go down in the Hillcrest Mine

Down in the mines of the Crow's Nest Pass
It's the men that die in labour
Sweating coal from the womb of the pit
The smell of life they savour
And in that mine, young man, you'll find
A wealth of broken dreams
As long and as dark and as black and as wide
As the coal from the Hillcrest seam

I've heard it whispered in the light of dawn
That mountain sometimes moves
That bodes ill for the morning shift
And you know what you're gonna lose
Don't go, my son, where the deep coal runs
Turn your back on the mine on the hill
'Cause if the dust and the dark and the gas don't get you
Then the goons and the bosses will

Well, son, I'm gonna open up
I'm gonna have my say
You'll get no peace from the Hillcrest Mine
'Cept the peace of an early grave
Go out and work for the workers' rights
Go work for the workers' needs
Don't stay down here to toil for your buck
You'll be a tool for the owners' greed

[1990:] Canada's largest mining disaster happened at the small town of Hillcrest in the Crowsnest Park area of Alberta in 1914. I wrote this song while I was working in the area in the summer of 1987. Hillcrest is still there, though the collieries have seen better days. (Notes James Keelaghan, 'Small Rebellions')

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=13022 Hillcrest Mine (James Keelaghan)