Haunting video of "Sixteen Tons" starring Johnny Cash.

[Brigid]

[enlightenment]

1. Nice!

Have to admit I prefer the Tennessee Ernie Ford version - probably because that's what I grew up hearing.

Thanks for posting; it's easy to forget these fantastic, meaning filled ballads.

[doc03]

2. Love Johnny Cash, are you old enough to remember

Tennessee Ernie Ford's original? Bob Murray of the Utah mine disaster a few years ago just purchased all the union mines in this area. Stay tuned for union busting and more mining deaths in Eastern Ohio, WV and PA coal fields. He is the scum bag that has posted "Save America Fire Obama" and "War on Coal" signs all over the eastern USA coal fields. Now if there was a "War on Coal" why in the f---k would you spend several billion dollars to buy more coal mines?

[Cooley Hurd]

5. Bob Murray is an unadulterated scumbag...

Miserable fucker.

[Brigid]

6. Of course I remember Tennessee Ernie Ford's version.

I picked this one because I think Cash's voice suits the song even better, and I love the video.

As for Bob Murray all I can say is

[RebelOne]

25. Nothing can top the original Tennessee Ernie Ford version. n/t

[Curmudgeoness]

29. I agree.

I was uninspired by the Cash version. Tennessee Ernie Ford gives me chills.

[RebelOne]

32. Here is Tennesse Ernie Ford's version. Loved that man. Yes, I am old enough to remember him.

Last edited Fri Dec 6, 2013, 10:12 PM - Edit history (1)

[Curmudgeoness]

34. Yeah, this post got me looking at videos too.

When I found the "go-go version" of this, I had to quit.

[RebelOne]

38. Yes, I saw that one too. n/t

[Boudica the Lyoness]

39. My dad had the 78 rpm version of this

My fav too.

[bmbmd]

3. Thanks for the memories.

Poignant, powerful, and meaningful.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. THAT is an awesome video!

[Demo_Chris]

7. This (below) is my favorite version, followed by Ford

[Brigid]

8. Way cool!

I love the way they used footage from "Joe Versus the Volcano."

[bmbmd]

9. Hah! I had forgotten that one.

Must be a brain fog.

[Tanuki]

10. Did you know that the song was written by Merle Travis? Here's Merle singing it:

&feature=player_detailpage

[MoonRiver]

12. Love it!

My parents built, from scratch with little money, a thriving business. They were independent and very happy that way. So, when I heard "16 Tons" it deeply affected me. I had no experience with that reality and was really scared about the concept a company owning somebody's soul.

[Brigid]

13. There is a wonderful scene in "Matewan" . . .

I can't find it separately, but it involves a group of new miner -- blacks who didn't know they were brought in to work as scabs -- are being told that their train ride from AL, use of the wash house, equipment, etc., would all be deducted from their pay, which would be issued in "scrip," usable at the company store. If the workers bought items available at the company store from elsewhere, they would be fired without pay.

The coal mines were not the only employers that behaved this way. In a documentary I have about late nineteenth-century Chicago, one woman talked about her mother, who came with her family to Chicago in the 1880s. At 13, her mother took a job in a garment factory.The workers were charged rent for the machines they operated, needles that broke, and oil for the machines. Appalling.

[MoonRiver]

14. Sickening.

The bastards who make money on the backs of humans or animals have no souls.

[Brigid]

17. See "Matewan."

It's an incredible movie.

[MoonRiver]

21. I will!

Thanks Brigid!

[madrchsod]

22. i`ll second that..it`s a dam fine movie.

[MoonRiver]

11. Awesome! I love Cash!

He looks very old in that video, but is still great.

[rhett o rick]

15. I am partial to Tennessee Earnie Ford's version. nm

[Capt.Rocky300]

28. +1

[X_Digger]

31. +1 n/t

[Skittles]

16. Johhny Cash, like Bruce Springsteen, never forgot where he came from

yes indeed

[spanone]

18. the now defunct 'cactus brothers' version....

[Drahthaardogs]

19. Sixteen tons is good, but Miner's prayer hits so close to home...

[William769]

20. Unfortunately many and I do mean many

Cannot even fully comprehend the true meaning of that song unless they actually experienced it first hand.

[X_Digger]

26. +1

Sometimes ankle to knee deep in cold water, hunched over, shovel in hand, with a belt flapping by your waist that will tear off your arm if you're not careful and trip the wrong way.

Dark when you get up, dark where you work, dark when you leave.

Never again, for me.

[Trailrider1951]

40. Damn

[William769]

23. Somewhat modern version (at least for me).

[rocktivity]

24. Monty Python's version

rocktivity

[seveneyes]

27. If the Right don't get you, the Left one will

[Mopar151]

30. Paradise - written by John Prine

Definitive version performed by Jim & Jesse "And they dug it all up, til the land was forsaken, and put it all down to the progress of man."

[baldguy]

33. The "company store" is now WalMart & Wall Street.

[90-percent]

35. It's too bad June Carter Cash got sick this night

"Johnny was going to come to the concert tonight and he was going to sing with us....." - Frank Zappa

R.O.F. starts at about 4:40.

-90% Jimmy

[Initech]

37. Broadway The Hard Way FTW!

[Isoldeblue]

36. When I was around 10,

I got a 45 record player. The very first 45 I got to play on it was this song, by TEF... I played it a zillion times and never got tired of hearing it. My girl friends and I would pantomime it in front of a mirror. LOL We would make hand gestures, like chopping the air. I guess we thought that was cool....

Thanks for the sweet memory, Brigid. I like the Cash one, too.