WORK: SIXTEEN TONS

Johnny Cash - Sixteen Tons

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No work themed week would be complete without this song.

Sixteen Tons was originally written and recorded by Merle Travis in 1946 but it was Tennessee Ernie Ford's cover in 1955 that put the song on the Billboard charts.

Sixteen Tons laments the miseries of coal mining and the debt bondage system where workers were not paid cash; rather they were paid with unexchangeable credit vouchers for goods at the company store making it impossible for workers to accumulate any cash savings.