A radio-ballad about Britain’s coal miners by Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker & Peggy Seeger
The Big Hewer – ‘a poetic documentary with worker heroes,’ as The Times called it – charts the lives of Britain’s coal miners, in the Northeast, East Midlands and South Wales.
“In The Big Hewer, about coal mining and The Fight Game, about boxing, the radio-ballads find men titanic enough to live up to their pretensions. Listening to these two, you can really believe that there were giants in those days.” The Independent
1 When you hew a lump of coal… 1.21
2 Out of the dirt and darkness I was born… 3.46
3 Schoolday’s over, come on then, John… 2.33
4 Now don’t be late… 2.17
5 You’re at the pit bank… 2.40
6 Oh dear, the experience to go down the pit… 5.55
7 When I am down in the pit… 1.54
8 So now you know the coal how it is got… 3.26
9 Jimmy, come back, come back… 2.25
10 Yes… he was working next to me.. 4.05
11 And yet it’s good to come from the pit… 1.34
12 Three hundred years I hewed at the coal by hand… 2.48
13 Down in the dark… 2.44
14 In Durham and Northumberland, I’m sorry for to say… 2.41
15 A miner has to possess that sense of humour… 3.21
16 Coal is a thing that’s cost life to get … 5.40
17 Today, safety is the prime factor… 4.54
18 Deep down in a man’s heart 4.18
Script, song lyrics and music: Ewan MacColl
Orchestration and musical direction: Peggy Seeger
Actuality recording: Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger
Production: Charles Parker
Technical Direction: John Farrington
Singers:
Isla Cameron, Ian Campbell, Joe Higgins, Louis Killen, A.L.Lloyd, Ewan MacColl
Instrumentalists:
Jim Bray double bass – Brian Daly guitar – Alf Edwards English concertina, harmonica, clarinet – Alfie Khan tin whistle – Peggy Seeger autoharp, guitar, mandolin, 5-string banjo
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