The plight of Kentucky coal miners inspired a country music song that became a smash.
by Rich Watson
Merle Travis was a Kentucky country singer known for his unique style of picking the guitar. In 1946 he wrote a song called “Sixteen Tons,” about slaving in a coal mine for little pay.
In 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford remade the song.
It exploded.
Pre-Beatles music
My father had a huge music collection: records, tapes, 8-tracks and CDs. I grew up hearing lots of music from the time before the Beatles. Rhythm-and-blues and doo wop, naturally: Ray Charles, The Drifters, The Coasters, etc.
I also heard a fair amount of country: Marty Robbins singing “El Paso,” Freddy Fender singing “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” Hank Williams Sr., Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson. You get the idea.
It wasn’t until I was older when I began to appreciate this kind of music. Any Elvis fan will tell you rock has always had one foot in early country music. In the seventies, you heard its influence in bands from Lynyrd Skynyrd to the Allman Brothers Band to ZZ Top and even the Eagles. I was exposed to the purer sound, by a true-blue fan.
Songs like “Sixteen Tons” were part of that era.
Merle Travis and coal mining
Travis had received a letter from his brother about the death of a friend, a war correspondent. Travis’s brother likened the experience to working in coal mines.
Kentucky’s first commercial coal mine opened in Travis’ Muhlenberg County, in 1820. By 1879 one million tons of coal came from the Bluegrass State. During World War One, the demand raised production to 20.3 million tons. World War Two increased it to 72.4 million. Exposure to hazardous air quality, the use of dangerous machinery, and the threat of explosions and collapses made working in mines scary.
The United Mine Workers Union formed in 1890. The 1902 coal strike in Pennsylvania led to a shorter workday and a wage increase, but financial difficulties for the average worker remained. Coal companies owned stores where miners bought provisions with “scrip,” i.e., money advanced to them. This article details how this system of easy credit left workers perpetually in debt.
My maternal grandfather was a miner in West Virginia. Where he lived, the mine company not only supported the local businesses, but also provided housing. Miners and their families got what they needed; scrip was accepted everyplace, as long as one didn’t use it outside the community.
If one needed money, a man who ran a pool hall would exchange scrip for cash—for a fee.
Travis’s father was a coal miner, and it was from miners that Travis learned his finger-picking guitar style. When his label, Capitol, requested he try a record of folk songs, he wrote both “Sixteen Tons” and “Dark As a Dungeon.” Sixteen tons was the amount of coal new miners were expected to shovel on their first day.
“Sixteen Tons” appeared on Travis’ 1947 LP Folk Songs From the Hills. The FBI accused Travis of communist sympathies because of this song, but his career still flourished. He went on to the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Then came Ford’s version.
Tennessee Ernie Ford’s version of “Sixteen Tons”
Ford, from Bristol, Tennessee, studied classical music and became a radio announcer and DJ. Capitol signed him in 1949. He released singles like “The Shotgun Boogie” while performing on TV. He appeared on I Love Lucy.
Ford knew Travis, had worked with him. In 1955, Ford sang “Sixteen Tons” on his NBC TV show. Viewers poured the network with letters inquiring about the song. That summer, he performed it live at the Indiana State Fair to a rapturous reception.
Capitol released it as the B-side to “You Don’t Have to Be a Baby to Cry” in October. The sound of Ford snapping his fingers was an accident.
“Baby” should’ve been the hit, but DJs preferred the song on the flip side. 45 RPM singles were still new, as was high fidelity sound.
Capitol sold 400,000 copies in eleven days. The single hit the million mark in twenty-four days. “Sixteen Tons” became the fastest-selling single in Capitol’s history. It reached number one on the Billboard Country chart for ten weeks, then topped the Pop chart for eight.
Others recorded the song, such as BB King. Elvis Presley, at the start of his fame, performed it live in Louisiana. Later, Bo Diddley, The Platters, Johnny Cash, even Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder recorded it. The song reached other countries and was used in TV shows and movies.
It was certified gold. In 2015 it entered the Library of Congress.
Ford, a beneficiary of good timing in music history, also entered the Country Music Hall of Fame. He got stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died in 1991.
As for Travis, he died in 1983. A music center in Muhlenberg County is named for him. After Ford’s success with “Sixteen Tons,” Travis would perform it slightly differently. Instead of the lyric “I owe my soul to the company store,” he’d sing “I owe my soul to Tennessee Ernie Ford.”
———
Also in 1955:
- DJ Alan Freed produces the first rock concert.
- Colonel Tom Parker becomes Elvis Presley’s manager. Later in the year he signs Presley to RCA.
- Chuck Berry records “Maybellene.”
- New York radio station WINS takes a stand against white covers of songs by black singers.
- Sun Records releases Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.”
———
April 2: A new Behind the Blind.
April 9: The year 1927 in pop culture.
Share if you liked this post
⬇️
No comments:
Post a Comment