Dark As a Dungeon

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Dark As A Dungeon

Lyrics: Merle Travis
Music: Merle Travis
This song has been performed by quite a few country/ folk m including Merle Travis, Johnny Cash, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Cisco Houston, Harry Belafonte,

"The saddest songs are written when a person is happy. I was driving home after a date with a beautiful girl in Redondo Beach, California. I had a recording session to do the next morning and needed some material. I parked my car under a street light and wrote the verses to "Dark As A Dungeon." I got the idea from growing up around the coal mines in Kentucky. My father and brothers were coal miners."

Merle Travis, interview, Nashville, TN, Jul 8, 1973 or telephone interview, Sep 7, 1973, reprinted in Dorothy Horstman, Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy, New York, NY, 1976, p. 246.