Artists
Musicians featured in this piece are:
Sting – lead vocals and bass guitar
Branford Marsalis – saxophone
Kenny Kirkland – piano and keyboards
Darryl Jones – bass guitar
Omar Hakim – drums
The song was written by Sting, expressing the position of British coal miners who had been on strike during the year prior to the album’s release, addressed to the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. It alludes to William Blake’s poem “And did those feet in ancient time” while criticising Thatcher’s economic policies, particularly the push to shift from coal to nuclear power. Produced by Sting and Pete Smith.
Sting – We Work The Black Seam Lyrics
This place has changed for good
Your economic theory said it would
It’s hard for us to understand
We can’t give up our jobs the way we should
Our blood has stained the coal
We tunneled deep inside the nation’s soul
We matter more than pounds and pence
Your economic theory makes no sense
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
Deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
The seam lies underground
Three million years of pressure packed it down
We walk through ancient forest lands
And light a thousand cities with our hands
Your dark satanic mills
Have made redundant all our mining skills
You can’t exchange a six inch band
For all the poisoned streams in Cumberland
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
Deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
And should the children weep
The turning world will sing their souls to sleep
When you have sunk without a trace
The universe will suck me into place
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
Deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 4 program and the full program, click here.