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Flat Broke Songs: No. 3

'Coal Miner's Daughter'
-- Loretta Lynn (1970)


The bottom lines: "We were poor but we had love/That's the one thing my daddy made sure of/He shoveled coal to make a poor man's holler."

As she says in the opening line, Lynn was born a coal miner's daughter -- one of eight kids raised in a cabin with no electricity and no running water. Her description of Depression-era Appalachia almost literally put Butcher Hollow, Ky., on the map.

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Riich

This song needs no introduction....you can feel the cold mud on your feet, and the pangs in your stomach in this tune.....Luv ya Loretty!

December 10 2008 at 4:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
crwfmrk

Poor mans DOLLAR!!!!!!! DOLLAR!!!!!!DOLLAR!!!!!

November 28 2008 at 12:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Laura

If you are from the South it's not a Hollow, it's a holler!

November 28 2008 at 9:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
timeseeks

that great songs she still my number lady

November 28 2008 at 8:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
david

The place where Loretta Lynn lived as a child was called Butcher Hollow.Hollow was pronounced "holler" in the song.

November 05 2008 at 9:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
vintanner2

If you're going to write an article about lyrics, you should at least get the lyrics right. Two of the lines your cite are wrong.

"poor man's dollar" not poor man's holler
and "Butcher Holler" not Butcher Hollow.

November 05 2008 at 9:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wsochick2

Um...it's "poor man's dollar" not "holler".

November 05 2008 at 8:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply