©Ed Pickford mcps/prs

Now you are born, another to feed

Small are our wants lad but great is our need

For the work is scarce, yer dad’s on the dole

They want nee mair men ‘cos they’ve got too much coal.

Chorus:

Wee knaas wee yer cryin’ for?

Wee knaas wee made us so poor?

Wee knaas what yer ganna dee?

Wee knaas what’s in store for ye?

 

Now you’re a boy, yer play in the streets

Fish in the burn and performing great feats

While the pit heaps stand, marking the graves

Of fathers and sons and the lives that they gave.

Chorus:

Now you’ve left school, a man at thirteen

Yer mother is grim as she looks at the scene

And she makes up yer bait, yer off down below

And away t’ the pit with yer father yer go.

Chorus:

Now yer a man, yer work in the mine

With fightin’ with strugglin’ yer old for yer time

For the work is hard, conditions are bad

And yer promise yer son lad what ye nivver had.

Chorus:

Now you are old, yer’ve worked aal yer can

But they’re closin’ the pits and yer part of the plan

To cut out waste, make the mines pay

So t’ hell with yer now lad and be on yer way.

Chorus:

Wee knaas wee yer cryin’ for?

Wee knaas wee made us so poor?

Wee knaas what yer ganna dee?

Wee knaas what’s in store for ye?