Chords for Hazel Dickens Performs "Black Lung"

[Bb] _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Bb] _ [Gb] _
_ _ [Gbm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ One of the most powerful songwriters is a woman [E] whose father was a preacher from Bluefield,
West Virginia, Virginia border, _ [N] and who's written more songs that are more powerful,
speaking of struggle and change, than any other person we know here at Highlander.
And
her name is Hazel Dickens.
Let's make her welcome. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [F] _ _ It was very _ _ astounding to me to learn later on after I got away from home, I left when
I was 16 to go to work, that one of my brothers, my oldest brother, had lived his entire life _
_ and never got any further than he did when he first started out as a teenager in the
mines.
And he lived his whole life, had six children, and he died with not enough to even
bury himself.
And we had to go to the welfare to get [G] enough to bury him.
[B] And _ _ [F] it just seemed
like that in a country like this, that people shouldn't have to live and be buried as poor
as when they came into the world.
And that was the first that I began questioning _ the
way the economy is in this world and the way that poor people are treated.
_ So this is the
song that I wrote for my brother so that he would have some kind of a voice in this world.
_ [N] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [B] He's never had a first love, but [F] never his friend.
He's lived a hard life and [N] hard he'll
die.
Black lung's done got him, his time is nigh.
_ Black lung, black lung, you're just
biding your time. _ _
[B] Soon all this _ suffering will be over.
And he'll be gone.
And he'll
be gone.
I'll leave behind, _ but I can't help but wonder what God had [F] in mind to send such
a devil to claim this soul of mine. _
He went to the boss man, but he closed the door.
Well,
[G] it seems you're not wanted when you're sick and you're poor.
_ _ You're not even covered in
their medical plans.
And your life depends on the favors of man.
_ _ _ [B] Down in the poor house
on starvation's plan, _ where pride is [C] a stranger _ and the poor man is a stranger.
And the poor
[Gb] man doomed is a man.
His soul full of coal dust [F] till his body's decayed.
And everyone
but black lung's done turned him away.
_ _ Black lung, black lung, you're just biding your
time. _
Soon all this _ [G] suffering _ I'll leave behind.
And he'll be gone.
And he'll be gone.
And
he'll be gone.
_ But I can't [E] help but wonder what God had in mind [B] to send such a devil
to claim this soul of mine. _
Down at the graveyard, _ the boss man came with his little bunch of
flowers.
Dear God, what a shame.
Take back those flowers.
Don't you sing those sad songs.
The die has been cast now.
A good man is gone. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _