I can buy Rebecca no new ribbons we can't take no Sunday walks
The kids would cry for icecream and I'd be broke cause I've been laid off
All I know is Kentucky coal mines but they've got that new machine
And it does my job and does it better and it don't knock off for bread and beans

A machine can work all day and night and its back don't ever ache
It's got no kids that want no a tater no wife to wish for a steak
So it don't make a company man a beggin' for a nickel raise
That machine's a perfect miner fateful John has been replaced

I've spent years and years in tunnels and I fought Satan over coal
I stole this fuel for making brown stones when I left this fire was low
But mighty deeds don't matter here where Mr Coal is king
He'll lay me off next Friday night then hire that new machine

That machine can work all day and night and it's never got a gripe
It won't cuss and call the union hall or advocate the strike
Cause it don't care if water fountains don't run cold and clean
So they don't want me because I'm human they just want that new machine
I'd like to get my hands on some of them new machines