Posted on 09/20/2025 1:34:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
This song and Ford’s rendition tears at me as well.
I worked in MN’s Iron Range taconite mines before I went on to a rewarding and rewarded career in biomedicine.
The beat of “Working on a chain gang” also gets to me. Echoes using a spiking maul on a track gang. Then I got to the point where i could use one maul in each hand; so all melodic bets were off. [Sounds better than it was. Usually used one maul for spikes across the rail ‘cause the foreman got pissed if you broke a handle by missing the spike head]
I’m getting too damn old when I reminisce in public.
My father used to play this. Ford’s voice has such a depth to it. This song always made me think of how hard dad worked to giving his life for our family.
I can never hear it without thinking of dad and all those dads who slave away for their wife and kids. Those dads.
You’re welcome:
A stack of 16 tons of coal would be roughly the same volume as a room approximately 8 feet wide, 8 feet long, and 10 feet high, based on the approximation of 40 cubic feet per ton.
Too tired to type more now...
I was 11 years old when that came out and I can still put myself in the living room shouting the song along with the radio. Great music years.
Definitely
He can do it all! Have you seen the video where he sings ‘all the parts’ of a song while five or six of him are standing RIGHT THERE in line? (Yes, I know it’s an ‘effect.’) I remember them being in front of a big fireplace...
I think it’s a Christmas song/medley. Can’t remember...
Blew my mind. What a GIFT that man has been given!
And I thought falling in love with Andrea Bocelli was a life-altering moment! ;)
With inflation it’s 20 tons.
My formative years were spent listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford and Arthur Godfrey. I love this song and possibly still know all the words 70 years later.
Thanks for the memory.
There are mosaics in Ravenna from the 6th century showing Jesus and the apostles—for some reason Peter is shown with white hair although he would still have been young in the 30s A.D.
Gen X and this wasn’t getting any airplay in my northeast area in the 80s. I probably hear some of the original on TV shows maybe. I was tuned to the rock stations so I wasn’t hearing old Tennessee Ernie Ford recordings.
^^^THIS. Still remember singing along to this song as a child. Didn’t understand it then but I sure do now.
Six times within three hours, of which were two separate instances by the same young woman doorkeeper: once after she let Peter into the waiting room of Annas' meetng hall; the second instance just after she let him out into the portico linking the residence of Annas with that of his neighbor Caiaphas, who was then acting as High Priest.
Lol. Love it!
Interesting things I never heard.
Long before his death, the volume THE GOSPELS: A Precise Translationclick here was published, of which a PDF copy of it can be downloaded, or a hard copy mailed to you; both freely at your request.
The little feature that I mentioned is explained in the chronology of Jesus' ministry, a supplement in the volume, very adequarely supported by the Greek text.
Thank you.
We had some Pea Pickin’ record of his.
Courtesy of Del Monte or Birdseye, I think.
A great privilege for me to share this with you, Framk!
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