Lyrics
I come here empty-handed Like the day that I was born With a spoon out of the kitchen And a voice cracked and worn My daddy dug the black coal Till the black got in his lungs They closed the mine on Friday Sunday said the damage done Now the company’s a number And the number’s doing fine While the men who held it up Stand in unemployment lines There ain’t nobody coming Not as far as I can tell Just a spoon against my kneecap And a room as big as hell They’ll promise you tomorrow While they selling off today There ain’t nobody coming There ain’t nobody on the way I work sixty hours weekly Still the rent outruns my pay Every dollar’s spent by Tuesday But the bill comes anyway There’s a man behind a desk now Saying folks like me complain He ain’t ever missed a supper He ain’t ever worked in rain There ain’t nobody coming Not as far as I can tell Just a spoon against my kneecap And a room as big as hell They’ll promise you tomorrow While they selling off today There ain’t nobody coming There ain’t nobody on the way They put locks upon door now Put a dollar on the land Put the young men on a highway With their whole lives in a van I hear my mother singing From the house beneath the hill: “A man can leave his sorrow, son But sorrow follows still” So I ain’t asking for a savior I ain’t waiting for a sign I just want the ones who took it To look me in the eye There ain’t nobody coming Not as far as I can tell Just a spoon against my kneecap And a room as big as hell They’ll promise you tomorrow While they selling off today There ain’t nobody coming There ain’t nobody on the way There ain’t nobody on the way There ain’t nobody on the way