Old Mr. Johnson worked the Number Nine
Forty years breathin’ coal and dust and time
Back bent low, lunch pail in his hand
One of Number Nine’s hard-workin’ men
Met sweet Mary when they both were young
Seventeen years and the church bells rung
Two poor kids with a borrowed ring
But he swore she was his everything
Now the porch light’s burnin’ but the house feels wrong
The radio’s playin’ their old love songs
The hills still echo but the heart moves on
And Mr. Johnson knows she’s gone
Yeah the world keeps turnin’ like nothin’s wrong
But a man can only stand so long
When the one you lived for all along
Is gone, she’s gone
Fifty-some years side by side they stood
Through hard winters and times not good
She’d wait each night by the screen door frame
Till he came up the road from the mines again
Then sickness came like a cold dark rain
Took her slow through the hurt and pain
One quiet mornin’ she slipped away
And the light in his life just faded to gray
Now the porch light’s burnin’ but the house feels wrong
The radio’s playin’ their old love songs
The hills still echo but the heart moves on
And Mr. Johnson knows she’s gone
Yeah the world keeps turnin’ like nothin’s wrong
But a man can only stand so long
When the one you lived for all along
Is gone, she’s gone
Late one night by the mine gate sign
Sat his old Ford truck in the moonlight shine
Someone said the chain had been cut clean
And boot prints led where the dark runs deep
Hard hat hangin’ by the broken door
Like he’d walked that tunnel once more
Maybe he heard her call his name
From somewhere past the coal and flame
Now the hills are quiet and the night’s so long
No one’s heard old Johnson’s song
But the miners swear when the shift lamps glow
There’s two shadows down below
Yeah the earth keeps turnin’ like nothin’s wrong
But a heart can only hold so long
And a man might follow the love he’s known
When she’s gone, she’s gone
So if you’re drivin’ past the Number Nine
And the wind sighs low through the mountain pines
Some say love don’t die alone
It just goes where the other’s gone
“She’s Gone” is a single released by Thumper Barrel which was later included as track 3 on the No. 3 Mine Album by Thumper Barrel
Track: She’s Gone
Album: Single and Album No. 3 Mine
ISRC: QZPLR2672607
ASCAP: 935125754