Well, may be i am made out of muscles and blood, but a mind thats weak? I doubt that. This song should become the anthom of the "occupy wallstreet people."
@dockhoo what do you mean, its as it states. people give their soul away to companies these days, I dont mean literally their souls but mean people work and work for little at end of it, thats what I mean
how could there be 44 people that do not like this song, seriously. I mean are there people out there that are being paid by youtube to dislike videos.
What's always impressed me about Tennessee Ernie Ford was his courage in recording and performing his song. He completely went against the prevailing political currents, and carried it off magnificently.
This hit by That Lil Ole Pea Picker from Tennessee was the 8th #1 song in the United Kingdom of the Rock Era. Ironically, he knocked the man out of the top spot that started the Rock Era. That was Bill Haley and His Comets with Rock Around the Clock. It was the first new #1 song of 1956 in the UK.
@SagaciousSilence The difference is that you chose to be in debt. He's singing about mining company stores. They would hire you and you didn't earn enough to buy live on, so they'd sell you food/clothes/whatever on credit. You couldn't quit because you owed them money and working there wouldn't allow you to earn enough to pay them off. It was literally indentured servitude... some might call it slavery, but you could buy your way out. Still pretty close.
@OnTheREDPILL : I was only five-big-years old, when this particular-version was made---but it's stuck with me for a lifetime, thru good and bad. But, HOLY JESUS, that VOICE!!! I love the sound/emotion he put into it! No electronical-enhancements needed---other than a good-microphone!
Me? I can't carry a tune in a bucket---but ah shore do like hearin' someone who can......!!!
This song represents the poor and oppressed. The term, "I owe my soul to the company store" meant just that. Like a gas card, you never paid it off. The mining company printed their own currency that could only be used in the store owned by the company. It was never enough, so when you bought things, you would sign an IOU to the company to pay it off. You couldn't, so you "owed your soul to the company store." Don't believe me? Google it. Been there. Not pretty.
In the late 50-ties was this song very popular under young people in the strong comunistics Czechoslovak Socialistic Republik. It was one of few songs "elowed" to be heard from the "capitalistic West" - only in privat - over the Radio Luxemburg or Voice of America. We loved the charismatic voice of the T.E.F. mostly without understandig the english language.
didn't hear this song until my husband started singing it and it was something his dad would sing to him and his siblings as kids...a really good song that resonates with the recession right now...
The company didn't pay in legal tender. They paid in company dollars or "scrip" which you could spend at the company store. They controlled both how much they gave you and how much what they gave you was worth. It was a bad scene. That being said, the song isn't wrong either. You can only push this kind of guy so far, and in the end even the Pinkertons couldn't keep things under wraps. These miners and people like them are a lot of the reason we have laws protecting workers today.
Good history or economics teachers would use this as an illustration for their students to give them a picture.. I remember hearing this on the radio as a little girl; always loved his deep, friendly voice.
Ok when I hear this song that my dad used to sing me as a child, I realize that the more things change the more they stay the same. This was written about the poor working conditions of the average working man. Well in most places working conditions are better. However now most people have no insurance, losing their houses, debtors calling, and no jobs. So I ask you, Have they really changed?????
@MrBluedogfan most of the poor have running water, tv, radio, electricity, heat, a car, oven, microwave, dishwasher etc. A good chunk have internet, iPods, computers etc. The poor in this country actually live better than Kings and Queens of 200 years ago.
@LukeL007 "The poor in this country actually live better than Kings and Queens of 200 years ago." Almost everything you have listed didn't exist 200 years ago. You have just thoroughly invalidated your own argument. Great job.
@LunarMovements No, my point is the evil rich have created the modern luxries that let most of us live very well. Very few people have to go without thebasic needs of life.
@LukeL007 Very few people? Count that number again. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year. And that's just people who are actually homeless. What about people who don't have proper utilities or food or clothing? According the Feeding America organization, 1 in 8 Americans (over 39 million people) now rely on food centers/soup kitchens for food.
@LunarMovements Check the statisitcs for the poor and see what they have in their homes. I personally know many people who use food aid, yet they have cable TV or a new car, or spend money on alcohol and tobacco. We have way too many people abusing the system and not taking care of their basic needs.
We also have a problem because we no longer can easily commit mentally ill people (the majority of the homeless)
@LukeL007 So if a family has no money due to lack of work, but they haven't had EVERY SINGLE THING taken away by their creditors (cable tv, car, etc.), they are "abusing the system" trying to get food for their kids? I can just hear it: "Sorry son. There's no food in the house, but because the cable hasn't been cut off and they haven't yet repossessed the car, you're not entitled to eat. Why? Because LukeL007 said so. Who's he? I don't know. But apparently only he knows how to define poverty."
My point is that if you are struggling to put food on the table you have no business having cable TV or a TV in your bedroom or kitchen, or internet, it shows poor money managment. I have also been poor as have my parents, their first furniture was cardboard boxes.
If people would put their entertainment budget last things would improve for easily 90% of the so called poor. All one needs to do is go into a casino and watch the poor piss away their social secuirty and wwelfare checks.
@LukeL007 I am guilty, see lots of big screens coming out of wally world, your words are true, so many worse off than me and many others, but people want their escapes, entertainment. Not arguing, just making a point.
You're basically saying just life without any comforts while someone else makes money off your hard work?
People need entertainment. Been that way or thousands of years, seeing as we're not actively hunting our food. (Hell, we CAN'T. It's illegal without the right permits and certain animals are restricted.)
Also, EVERYTHING is done online now-a-days...even applications for jobs and education. It's not a luxury if you want to move past poverty anymore.
To all the people that have good memories of this performance !!!! GOOD ON YA ! I Love what this stands for and know what it means.... I personally have loaded 12 tonnes of work a day !!!! thats alot of yer curbside recycle pick-up !!!!! TOTAL TRUTH !
This can't be the story of your life...I'm pretty sure company stores and the "Credit" were banned from America. You know and i doubt you load 16 tons...So do you really owe your "soul to the company store"?
Newry, SC... the U.S. leg of my family was started there. A textile company town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains. The company store still stands though today it's just a general store. Great song. Gotta' love that voice.
You don't understand... this was the birth on the unions... before that.. the mine provided home and board .. but they charged more than you made in wages.. so the longer you worked for them, the more you owed...
This is before all of that auto-tone stuff used today. This is real voices, real music. No computer generated, imitation music. This is real humans playing, real voices singing! Lord, please me back to the 50s! What I wouldnt do to be a teenage during the 50s!
This songs about the company moving them giving them a house and they would deduct the cost of the house from the paycheck and instead of paying them theyh would give them vouchers for the company store wich bassicly had foods general stuff like that
Sixteen Tons é uma canção sobre a vida de um mineiro de carvão. A sua primeira gravação foi em 1946, pelo cantor de musica country Merle Travis e, no ano seguinte, foi lançada em seu álbum Folk Songs of the Hills. Em 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford fez uma versão que atingiu o topo da parada na Billboard.
No final da década de 1960, Noriel Vilela gravou no Brasil uma versão dessa música (16 Toneladas).
@cf80to01 I grew up in the coal fields It is about conditions in coal camps where families lived Boys & men worked in mines They were paid in script It could only be spent at a co. owned store Stores sold everything: clothes to refrigerators Intimidation was great if script was cashed and spent elsewhere Between rent for co. owned houses & overprices at the store their low wages could never cover costs When dead you'll still owe them money #9 is a class of coal determined by several criteria
@junebug0649 Indeed. I grew up in a company town (not coal) and I lost a great uncle in the Springfield Bump of '58. My point was that the meaning to this song is lost on a great many young people who hear the words but don't know the meaning. I think it is still a great song, but if more young people had an appreciation for what it actually meant.........
@cf80to01 hey bro i am 18 and i learned about this in history so i kinda understand abotu this and oweing the company you work for your soul and living in a company town but i never lived back then so i cant say i know how it felt but i understand when you say young peopel dont know the meaning of this song
@cf80to01 It's almost like sharecropping. Miners worked for low wages about ten cents a ton. The company store, who owned the mines, would extend credit and the wages were so low, the workers never could pay their debts. They would have to get more and more credit, thus they got deeper in debt. They couldn't save any money to get ahead, so they usually ended up staying there for life because they owed their soul to the company store.
You say Justin Bieber, I say Justin Moore and go grow a pair.
92% of teenagers have turned to Hip Hop and Pop.If you are part of the 8% that still listen to real music,copy and paste this message to another 3 videos. Stop being a idiot and start listening to real music!!!THUMBS UP IF YOU BELIEVE
A #1 hit on both the Top 40 and Country & Western charts for that "Lil Ol' Pea Picker" from Tennessee. It would finish at #13 for the year 1955. It hit #1 on the Top 40 on November 26 and was the 5th #1 song after Bill Haley hit #1 with Rock Around the Clock on July 9, signifying the start of the Rock Era. 1955; the year that the music scene changed forever.
A great version of a powerful song. Just a case of the right voice and arrangement and the record sold as fast as any. Ernie liked performing and always worked to become more popular. Quite a song and quite a career. He even had his own morning TV show in the '60s and when it was cancelled, the last show ended in a pie fight. He was sumpin' else, brother! THANX SO MUCH!
Back in Ford's time, singers had to have actual talent. Now, people can get by with terrible voices edited with some software. Very few actually talented singers are around today. And Ford has that talent. Not only was he good in the records, but he was good live, too.
Back in Ford's time, singers had to have actual talent. Now, people can get by with terrible voices edited with some software. Very few actually talented singers are around today.
This is one of the first songs that I remember hearing as a very young child, listening to the radio. I hear it, and I go back to the late 1950's and 1960's. I think this first came out (by Ernie Ford) in 1955. Thank you for posting this, and thank you Tennessee Ernie Ford.
@thekarenheart I go and look on your profile, and of the three videos from your favorites it showed me, one was in japanese, one was a video of some guy showing how he cross dresses, and the other is apparently about guys who fall in love together.
As such, since you're apparently as gay as they freaking come, I'll just pass this off as wishful thinking. He's classy, but no, he wouldn't have returned your butt-love.
@thekarenheart no he was not. he was married on 2 separate occasions. his first marriage was to Betty Heminger from September 18, 1942, until her death on February 26, 1989, then he married Beverly Wood four months after his first wife died and he stayed married to Beverly until the day he died, October 17, 1991
WOW, A young man with a sence of history, yes these were the songs of slaves (of all colors, because greed knows no color) now instead of the company store it' the gov't and banking keeping slaves down. 54% of all that i earn goes to the gov't in some form, then when the banks have me pay 300,000 for a 90,000 home over 30 years and I die the gov't gets half of the house i paid for so mey kids have to "re-buy" my house....ready for the revolt...even though i'm an old fart.
@DIXIEJEFF A lotta men gets all of their money from the goverment, without working. I suppose you would prefer paying for driving on roads, over bridges and so on like it us to be? You may be an old fart, but you're not old enough to learn, even though seeing as you are "old" and still have these beliefs show that you're simply ignorant. A revolt would have a higher chance to mean more government control, not less, if we look at the history.
Peaceful revolution myfriend, you wana talk about learning? Then look over the history your talking about, revolution as done a lot of good in this world, more than bridges ever did.
ty alot for the upload but the song meant for those that don't know is for his work at the coal mines his check went to the store not a penny for his fam all they got was from the store own by the compeny
Aw- the memories...We were raised on TEF. I LOVE this song-still as cool as ever! I want to thank my late Daddy for introducing us to such a gr8 artist. My dad collected all the gr8s of that era,rest his soul. Thankx for posting. Too bad Dinah's on it and calls him merely "Ernie Ford" haha
Does anyone know who the older man is who puts his face in his hands at the end of the song? If you know, please e-mail me at nancymorris01@gmail.com. Thank you.
i like this song. We are singing it in my high school mens choir. =D
TheDangerboyhp 4 hours ago
"You load sixteen tons / What do you get / Another day older and deeper in debt"
Who knew that this song would be more relevant today than when Ford recorded it over 50 years ago?
KeiserSoze16 11 hours ago
i was bron in the 90's and I LOVE THIS MUSIC! FUCK THE NEW COMMERCIAL SHIT!
LULZCAPTAIN 1 day ago
Mad Men brought me here
ZeppelinWolf87 3 days ago
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Ford is a legend but he takes a back seat to Johnny Cash's version of "16 Tons". Sorry moustache-man, this one is untouchable.
AdriaFloriDeSoc 6 days ago
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Hkk.kkkk.kkjj
gasgasj 6 days ago
It makes me feel happy and stuff
PG701003 6 days ago
i love tennessee ernie ford :) this is the music i grew up on.
spg35fem 6 days ago
What a great voice.
billymonkeyreed 1 week ago
We are an indie, folk band and we want to know what people think of our sound. If you have the time, take a look and let us know what you think.
SunCountryMusic 1 week ago
story of my life
TREEPUSHERBRAD 2 weeks ago
Can any one please tell me WHO IS THAT LADY] introducing that song.???
km8854 2 weeks ago
Dinah Shore
addfast2 2 weeks ago
@km8854 - that lady is Dinah Shore.
austinaggie80 1 week ago
The Braziliam version of this song bring me here. Who like this song listen the "16 toneladas", the voice of the singer is amazing!
alebaroli 2 weeks ago
Well, may be i am made out of muscles and blood, but a mind thats weak? I doubt that. This song should become the anthom of the "occupy wallstreet people."
I ow my soul to the company-store!
Seasons greetings from "Yourop!"
dockhoo 2 weeks ago
@dockhoo " a "POOR man's made outta muscle and blood... a mind that's weak.."
MrThangdeu 1 week ago
owe my soul to the company. how true these days
Musicmania1968 2 weeks ago
@Musicmania1968
Support your statement.
dockhoo 2 weeks ago
@dockhoo what do you mean, its as it states. people give their soul away to companies these days, I dont mean literally their souls but mean people work and work for little at end of it, thats what I mean
Musicmania1968 2 weeks ago
@Musicmania1968 It`s exactly my opinion!
(Work all night for a drink of rum...(Hary Belafonte, Banana Boat Song)
dockhoo 2 weeks ago
Im singing this in choir!
lillyabbi 2 weeks ago
44 people work for the company store..
CowboyNovak 2 weeks ago
I owe my soul to Satan.
thrashguitarmaster70 2 weeks ago
thumbs up if your from Tennesse!!
iiAngelic 3 weeks ago
A great singer
rowan1325 3 weeks ago
UPS=Under Paid Slaves
Unions=Suffering
Vote=Ron Paul
ransac420 3 weeks ago
@ransac420 YES
kobie8819591 3 weeks ago
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rbrtdm 3 weeks ago
This song makes me smile
ringslore 3 weeks ago 5
I love dat cool finger snap he keeps time with.
therealraybaby 1 month ago
44 people prefer autotune. Pussies!
johnalvingalt 1 month ago 10
how could there be 44 people that do not like this song, seriously. I mean are there people out there that are being paid by youtube to dislike videos.
Chrismjo1 1 month ago
well when you are mud but also muscle and blood you have to love this song because even though the times are changing some things don't
fetuswrangler 1 month ago
This guy is one of my all time favorites. His singing voive is awesome.
radiowwww 1 month ago
Comment removed
KnightCupcake 1 month ago
I used to haul 16 tons.... Then I took an arrow to the knee
lope129 1 month ago
click "like" if your history teacher brings u here :))
JCandyLee 1 month ago
Ernie Ford was red!
MrRazorblade999 1 month ago
43 people run the company store
GunNut4570 1 month ago 2
Awesome!
CaptainNYG 1 month ago
this so old!!!!!!!!!!!!!
06090401111111111111 2 months ago
@06090401111111111111 thanks Capt. Obvious
sanvirel 1 month ago
that haunting sound of those woods, an artist exclamation.
ezcondition 2 months ago
The 16 Tons:
Level 16 Heavy Fists
Description: 'One fist of iron, one of steel. If the right one don't getcha then the left one will.'
-Speed increased by 20%
-Capture rate +1
-No random critical hits
ThePivotPivot 2 months ago
What's always impressed me about Tennessee Ernie Ford was his courage in recording and performing his song. He completely went against the prevailing political currents, and carried it off magnificently.
carollizc 2 months ago in playlist Appetizers 2
surprisingly catching.......
DSmoothMike 2 months ago
This hit by That Lil Ole Pea Picker from Tennessee was the 8th #1 song in the United Kingdom of the Rock Era. Ironically, he knocked the man out of the top spot that started the Rock Era. That was Bill Haley and His Comets with Rock Around the Clock. It was the first new #1 song of 1956 in the UK.
mkl62 2 months ago
Bravo
TheDb351c 2 months ago
He is very good looking... and has a great, powerfull voice! love it!
titanicluvphantom6 2 months ago
I love this song so much!!! (and i'm 13!!!)
titanicluvphantom6 2 months ago
Two words: wage slavery. 99% of us live in it.
SagaciousSilence 2 months ago
@SagaciousSilence This is not the place for that.
Mrpartsunknown 2 months ago in playlist Music
@Mrpartsunknown Every place is the place for it!
laffingass 2 months ago
Story of my life... debt collectors will have a noose around each and every one of our necks
SagaciousSilence 2 months ago
@SagaciousSilence The difference is that you chose to be in debt. He's singing about mining company stores. They would hire you and you didn't earn enough to buy live on, so they'd sell you food/clothes/whatever on credit. You couldn't quit because you owed them money and working there wouldn't allow you to earn enough to pay them off. It was literally indentured servitude... some might call it slavery, but you could buy your way out. Still pretty close.
ppardee 2 months ago 2
Thumbs up if you're watching this in 1946!!!
bacara975 2 months ago 2
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Thumbs up if this isn't your first time watching this... and you will be back!!
OnTheREDPILL 2 months ago 162
@OnTheREDPILL i know ill be back im just not ready to give you a thumbs up yet =/
magdolin1 2 months ago
@OnTheREDPILL Thumbs up!
claudiocastello 1 month ago
@OnTheREDPILL : I was only five-big-years old, when this particular-version was made---but it's stuck with me for a lifetime, thru good and bad. But, HOLY JESUS, that VOICE!!! I love the sound/emotion he put into it! No electronical-enhancements needed---other than a good-microphone!
Me? I can't carry a tune in a bucket---but ah shore do like hearin' someone who can......!!!
bruno640 1 month ago 2
This has been flagged as spam show
Thumbs up if you're listening to this in 1860 B.C.
Kingofkings6151 2 months ago 45
Thumbs up if you're listening to this in 2011
mryjn420090 3 months ago 2
This song represents the poor and oppressed. The term, "I owe my soul to the company store" meant just that. Like a gas card, you never paid it off. The mining company printed their own currency that could only be used in the store owned by the company. It was never enough, so when you bought things, you would sign an IOU to the company to pay it off. You couldn't, so you "owed your soul to the company store." Don't believe me? Google it. Been there. Not pretty.
smcconnico 3 months ago 2
In the late 50-ties was this song very popular under young people in the strong comunistics Czechoslovak Socialistic Republik. It was one of few songs "elowed" to be heard from the "capitalistic West" - only in privat - over the Radio Luxemburg or Voice of America. We loved the charismatic voice of the T.E.F. mostly without understandig the english language.
janmkyber Brno_Munich_Brno
janmkyberjohn 3 months ago 2
i love when he says "what do you get"
FongioHELS 3 months ago
In this economy, I'm sure people would find "Sixteen Tons" to be a poignant song if they heard it.
Akira625 3 months ago
didn't hear this song until my husband started singing it and it was something his dad would sing to him and his siblings as kids...a really good song that resonates with the recession right now...
HarlotAlchemist 3 months ago
The company didn't pay in legal tender. They paid in company dollars or "scrip" which you could spend at the company store. They controlled both how much they gave you and how much what they gave you was worth. It was a bad scene. That being said, the song isn't wrong either. You can only push this kind of guy so far, and in the end even the Pinkertons couldn't keep things under wraps. These miners and people like them are a lot of the reason we have laws protecting workers today.
datatrolls 3 months ago 2
Good history or economics teachers would use this as an illustration for their students to give them a picture.. I remember hearing this on the radio as a little girl; always loved his deep, friendly voice.
CattailsandRoses 3 months ago
Love this song, can't tell you the number of times that my dad has sung it to me. It was his granddaddy's favorite song.
ohmigawditsMorgan 3 months ago
shame there is no more music this good being produced today
Lvl22nerd 3 months ago
Ok when I hear this song that my dad used to sing me as a child, I realize that the more things change the more they stay the same. This was written about the poor working conditions of the average working man. Well in most places working conditions are better. However now most people have no insurance, losing their houses, debtors calling, and no jobs. So I ask you, Have they really changed?????
MrBluedogfan 3 months ago
@MrBluedogfan most of the poor have running water, tv, radio, electricity, heat, a car, oven, microwave, dishwasher etc. A good chunk have internet, iPods, computers etc. The poor in this country actually live better than Kings and Queens of 200 years ago.
LukeL007 3 months ago
@LukeL007 "The poor in this country actually live better than Kings and Queens of 200 years ago." Almost everything you have listed didn't exist 200 years ago. You have just thoroughly invalidated your own argument. Great job.
LunarMovements 3 months ago
@LunarMovements No, my point is the evil rich have created the modern luxries that let most of us live very well. Very few people have to go without thebasic needs of life.
LukeL007 3 months ago
@LukeL007 Very few people? Count that number again. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year. And that's just people who are actually homeless. What about people who don't have proper utilities or food or clothing? According the Feeding America organization, 1 in 8 Americans (over 39 million people) now rely on food centers/soup kitchens for food.
LunarMovements 3 months ago
@LunarMovements Check the statisitcs for the poor and see what they have in their homes. I personally know many people who use food aid, yet they have cable TV or a new car, or spend money on alcohol and tobacco. We have way too many people abusing the system and not taking care of their basic needs.
We also have a problem because we no longer can easily commit mentally ill people (the majority of the homeless)
LukeL007 3 months ago
@LukeL007 So if a family has no money due to lack of work, but they haven't had EVERY SINGLE THING taken away by their creditors (cable tv, car, etc.), they are "abusing the system" trying to get food for their kids? I can just hear it: "Sorry son. There's no food in the house, but because the cable hasn't been cut off and they haven't yet repossessed the car, you're not entitled to eat. Why? Because LukeL007 said so. Who's he? I don't know. But apparently only he knows how to define poverty."
LunarMovements 3 months ago
My point is that if you are struggling to put food on the table you have no business having cable TV or a TV in your bedroom or kitchen, or internet, it shows poor money managment. I have also been poor as have my parents, their first furniture was cardboard boxes.
If people would put their entertainment budget last things would improve for easily 90% of the so called poor. All one needs to do is go into a casino and watch the poor piss away their social secuirty and wwelfare checks.
LukeL007 3 months ago
@LukeL007 I am guilty, see lots of big screens coming out of wally world, your words are true, so many worse off than me and many others, but people want their escapes, entertainment. Not arguing, just making a point.
DangerousDan77777 2 months ago
@LukeL007
You're basically saying just life without any comforts while someone else makes money off your hard work?
People need entertainment. Been that way or thousands of years, seeing as we're not actively hunting our food. (Hell, we CAN'T. It's illegal without the right permits and certain animals are restricted.)
Also, EVERYTHING is done online now-a-days...even applications for jobs and education. It's not a luxury if you want to move past poverty anymore.
fullmetalgod 2 months ago
@LukeL007 Uncle sam has spent approximately twelve trillion dollars on multiple wars overseas, war profiteers always profit.
DangerousDan77777 2 months ago
excuse me while I clean up this MIND ORGASM. Happens every time I hear this.
rolutos 3 months ago
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a rare rich voice.
mrbeaverstate 3 months ago in playlist sixteen tons
a rare rich voice
mrbeaverstate 3 months ago in playlist sixteen tons 3
mad men :)
boratfan1234 3 months ago 3
West Virginia. Matewan. That illustrates it best.
teaspoonjune 3 months ago 3
To all the people that have good memories of this performance !!!! GOOD ON YA ! I Love what this stands for and know what it means.... I personally have loaded 12 tonnes of work a day !!!! thats alot of yer curbside recycle pick-up !!!!! TOTAL TRUTH !
SkilledIdiot 3 months ago
This can't be the story of your life...I'm pretty sure company stores and the "Credit" were banned from America. You know and i doubt you load 16 tons...So do you really owe your "soul to the company store"?
aarontperdue1 3 months ago
@aarontperdue1 Clearly you failed history class.
cf80to01 3 months ago
Story...Of...My...Life.
BanksTheTank89 3 months ago
When I first heard this I could have sworn in was Howard Keel singing.
cdjumper 3 months ago
Actually, in Eastern Europe we know what does it mean.
olics93 3 months ago
not any
deesownpl2 3 months ago
the line "i own my soal to the company store " Was true back then
noobsaibot25 4 months ago in playlist Liked 3
@noobsaibot25 "I OWE my SOUL to the company store". Makes a bit more sense...
paddyosee 3 months ago 3
basicly it's about how the old coal workers were treet ed
which were almost slaves for NO pay Except the kind u could litteraly Use ONLY at the company store
noobsaibot25 4 months ago in playlist Liked
Newry, SC... the U.S. leg of my family was started there. A textile company town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains. The company store still stands though today it's just a general store. Great song. Gotta' love that voice.
gabeshedd 4 months ago
Some people say a man is made out of mud
A poor man's made out of muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's weak and a back that's strong
You load sixteen tons what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
madmikey721 4 months ago
Cool video
Uthedudeful 4 months ago
ST PETER DONT YA CALL ME......
mjnsophie 4 months ago
It's one of those songs about backbreaking, horrifying labor conditions that, yet, is so freaking catchy you can't help but smile as you sing it!
ekedolphin 4 months ago 3
Im singing this song at school!!!!!!!
MsToriGirlRox 4 months ago
My dad sang this to me as well
Siamterri64 4 months ago
You don't understand... this was the birth on the unions... before that.. the mine provided home and board .. but they charged more than you made in wages.. so the longer you worked for them, the more you owed...
horshooer 4 months ago
Es una de las mejores canciones del mundo,Tennessee Ernie Ford y alberto vazquez... y sin duda los 2 me gusta como la cantan.
ruben93206 4 months ago
even tough i never know this song before i juz heard it today it very nice i like it :))
MrArsenalAwesome 4 months ago
My dad sang this song to me and his dad sang it too him <3
mmCait 4 months ago 40
@mmCait Me too
davidfluet11 4 months ago
@mmCait Much respect.
Alabamaguy205 3 months ago in playlist Alabamaguy205's favorites
This is before all of that auto-tone stuff used today. This is real voices, real music. No computer generated, imitation music. This is real humans playing, real voices singing! Lord, please me back to the 50s! What I wouldnt do to be a teenage during the 50s!
tripovermyego 4 months ago 4
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39 persons didn't sell their souls to the company store
osychenko 4 months ago
Comment removed
osychenko 4 months ago
This is great. What a feel good song to start the day with!
titangoddess05 4 months ago
This songs about the company moving them giving them a house and they would deduct the cost of the house from the paycheck and instead of paying them theyh would give them vouchers for the company store wich bassicly had foods general stuff like that
thevideochief 4 months ago
Love it!!!
CollaredPrinzzess 4 months ago
I love how the stuffy shirts are snapping along with the song.
YesWeCantaloupe 4 months ago
A voice smooth as velvet, so good.
MrVideoRater1 4 months ago
@cf80to01 I dont please explain
iamjustweird 4 months ago
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In Portuguese from Brazil:
♪16 Tons♪
Sixteen Tons é uma canção sobre a vida de um mineiro de carvão. A sua primeira gravação foi em 1946, pelo cantor de musica country Merle Travis e, no ano seguinte, foi lançada em seu álbum Folk Songs of the Hills. Em 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford fez uma versão que atingiu o topo da parada na Billboard.
No final da década de 1960, Noriel Vilela gravou no Brasil uma versão dessa música (16 Toneladas).
Paulo Gurgel
blogdopg(dot)blogspot(dot)com
PauloGCS 4 months ago
remember this like yesterday. classic. thank you.
laswan5 5 months ago
How many people today actually know what this song means?
cf80to01 5 months ago 83
@cf80to01 Yeah, I do...It's about being a coal-miner in the '40's/'50's - type "16 tons" on Wickipedia.
msmith173 4 months ago
@cf80to01 I grew up in the coal fields It is about conditions in coal camps where families lived Boys & men worked in mines They were paid in script It could only be spent at a co. owned store Stores sold everything: clothes to refrigerators Intimidation was great if script was cashed and spent elsewhere Between rent for co. owned houses & overprices at the store their low wages could never cover costs When dead you'll still owe them money #9 is a class of coal determined by several criteria
junebug0649 4 months ago 2
@junebug0649 Indeed. I grew up in a company town (not coal) and I lost a great uncle in the Springfield Bump of '58. My point was that the meaning to this song is lost on a great many young people who hear the words but don't know the meaning. I think it is still a great song, but if more young people had an appreciation for what it actually meant.........
cf80to01 4 months ago
@cf80to01 hey bro i am 18 and i learned about this in history so i kinda understand abotu this and oweing the company you work for your soul and living in a company town but i never lived back then so i cant say i know how it felt but i understand when you say young peopel dont know the meaning of this song
DDCB15 4 months ago
@DDCB15 You've learnt some history, now some English.
xparty 3 months ago 3
@xparty always a fking asshole who has to make his self seen on little shit but w/e kid have you little 15 secs of shine
DDCB15 3 months ago
@cf80to01 I think we ALL do. Just replace the company store with the federal government to the tune of trillions...
meyery2k 3 months ago in playlist Music
@cf80to01 It's almost like sharecropping. Miners worked for low wages about ten cents a ton. The company store, who owned the mines, would extend credit and the wages were so low, the workers never could pay their debts. They would have to get more and more credit, thus they got deeper in debt. They couldn't save any money to get ahead, so they usually ended up staying there for life because they owed their soul to the company store.
herschelzboy 3 months ago 6
@cf80to01 What?
sodapop554 3 months ago
@cf80to01 Everyone who watches "South Park" knows exactly what it means ... it's better to be a company man than be sold to Paris Hilton.
liquidgee13 3 months ago
@cf80to01 Yes Sir!.
smalltownkid2004 2 months ago
@cf80to01 Here is one of them.
DangerousDan77777 2 months ago
awsume
2001warmachine 5 months ago
you work all day. dig for coal. whatayah get. parents sell you to paris hilton.
TheGodMan69 5 months ago
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You say Lady Gaga, I say Lady Antebellum.
You say Jason Derulo, I say Jason Aldean.
You say T-Pain, I say T-Swift
You say Ke$ha, I say Kenny.
You say Pitbull, I say Paisley.
You say Justin Bieber, I say Justin Moore and go grow a pair.
92% of teenagers have turned to Hip Hop and Pop.If you are part of the 8% that still listen to real music,copy and paste this message to another 3 videos. Stop being a idiot and start listening to real music!!!THUMBS UP IF YOU BELIEVE
MrOutdoorsman32 5 months ago
Does anyone have a tab for the bass?
UbiquitousLazar 5 months ago
I always loved this song. It just occured to me that I'd like to see
a punk rock cover version of it.
chrisbacos 5 months ago
@chrisbacos I could see that happening. This song was ahead of its time yet can be tailored to any venue.
Tonithenightowl 5 months ago
A #1 hit on both the Top 40 and Country & Western charts for that "Lil Ol' Pea Picker" from Tennessee. It would finish at #13 for the year 1955. It hit #1 on the Top 40 on November 26 and was the 5th #1 song after Bill Haley hit #1 with Rock Around the Clock on July 9, signifying the start of the Rock Era. 1955; the year that the music scene changed forever.
mkl62 5 months ago
A great version of a powerful song. Just a case of the right voice and arrangement and the record sold as fast as any. Ernie liked performing and always worked to become more popular. Quite a song and quite a career. He even had his own morning TV show in the '60s and when it was cancelled, the last show ended in a pie fight. He was sumpin' else, brother! THANX SO MUCH!
909chuck 5 months ago
Back in Ford's time, singers had to have actual talent. Now, people can get by with terrible voices edited with some software. Very few actually talented singers are around today. And Ford has that talent. Not only was he good in the records, but he was good live, too.
BlackCowboy9 5 months ago
Back in Ford's time, singers had to have actual talent. Now, people can get by with terrible voices edited with some software. Very few actually talented singers are around today.
BlackCowboy9 5 months ago
This is one of the first songs that I remember hearing as a very young child, listening to the radio. I hear it, and I go back to the late 1950's and 1960's. I think this first came out (by Ernie Ford) in 1955. Thank you for posting this, and thank you Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Thomas1954 5 months ago
Y E A H !!!
AlterWagner 5 months ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
he was a homosexual
thekarenheart 5 months ago
@thekarenheart I go and look on your profile, and of the three videos from your favorites it showed me, one was in japanese, one was a video of some guy showing how he cross dresses, and the other is apparently about guys who fall in love together.
As such, since you're apparently as gay as they freaking come, I'll just pass this off as wishful thinking. He's classy, but no, he wouldn't have returned your butt-love.
Kaelzoroden 5 months ago
@thekarenheart no he was not. he was married on 2 separate occasions. his first marriage was to Betty Heminger from September 18, 1942, until her death on February 26, 1989, then he married Beverly Wood four months after his first wife died and he stayed married to Beverly until the day he died, October 17, 1991
Jennaflip 5 months ago
HE IS A HOMO
thekarenheart 5 months ago
way GAY
thekarenheart 5 months ago
The B side of this is just as good. It hit about three years after 16 Tons. :You Don't Have to be a Baby to Cry".
Rollemunder 5 months ago
His family was customers at my father's fruit store in Bristol, Tn. He's as down to earth real as it gets folks!
amanasatree 5 months ago
My nana knew this man :DD My uncle was held by Ernie the day he was born :)
Korraisamazing666 6 months ago
Reminds me of my Daddy, awesome! :)
Brianna1969 6 months ago
This was back when the workers knew the rich weren't on their side. Today we sympathize with our captors who have made us into debt slaves.
DarkPonzu 6 months ago 4
@DarkPonzu
WOW, A young man with a sence of history, yes these were the songs of slaves (of all colors, because greed knows no color) now instead of the company store it' the gov't and banking keeping slaves down. 54% of all that i earn goes to the gov't in some form, then when the banks have me pay 300,000 for a 90,000 home over 30 years and I die the gov't gets half of the house i paid for so mey kids have to "re-buy" my house....ready for the revolt...even though i'm an old fart.
DIXIEJEFF 5 months ago
@DIXIEJEFF A lotta men gets all of their money from the goverment, without working. I suppose you would prefer paying for driving on roads, over bridges and so on like it us to be? You may be an old fart, but you're not old enough to learn, even though seeing as you are "old" and still have these beliefs show that you're simply ignorant. A revolt would have a higher chance to mean more government control, not less, if we look at the history.
simontja 5 months ago
@simontja
Peaceful revolution myfriend, you wana talk about learning? Then look over the history your talking about, revolution as done a lot of good in this world, more than bridges ever did.
Doerkules 5 months ago
@Doerkules Revolution in the last 50 years has exclusively been pro-military dictatorship.
simontja 5 months ago
ty alot for the upload but the song meant for those that don't know is for his work at the coal mines his check went to the store not a penny for his fam all they got was from the store own by the compeny
ixnay1039 6 months ago
if you see me coming better step aside alot of men didnt alot of men died !!!!!!!!!!!
chevy662 6 months ago
if you see me coming better step aside alot of men didnt alot of men died
chevy662 6 months ago
Such a wonderful man. His spirit lives on through this great song.
robertdamico1 6 months ago
how does he snap like thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.
AkumuKeayo 6 months ago
some people say a man is made out of mud. A poor man's made out of muscle and blood.
godfreyhowatchin 6 months ago
Aw- the memories...We were raised on TEF. I LOVE this song-still as cool as ever! I want to thank my late Daddy for introducing us to such a gr8 artist. My dad collected all the gr8s of that era,rest his soul. Thankx for posting. Too bad Dinah's on it and calls him merely "Ernie Ford" haha
skyemcleod1 6 months ago
one of dads favorite songs. im only 37 ,but know all the greats
kanz74 6 months ago
@kanz74
im 19 and this is one of my fav songs. ;)
Doerkules 6 months ago 3
@Doerkules I was 13 when this song got up on my top 10.
ImTheBatchMan 6 months ago
@Doerkules LORNE GREEN had a version of this thats worth a listen wandering boy by clint miller sounds like the same song
spacepatrolman 5 months ago
I OWEEEEEEE MYYYYY SOUUUUULLLLLLLLL
kdj29 6 months ago 3
more soul in his snapping fingers than kanye west has in his whole body
beefyoso 6 months ago 4
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Does anyone know who the older man is who puts his face in his hands at the end of the song? If you know, please e-mail me at nancymorris01@gmail.com. Thank you.
carcrazies 6 months ago
This man created the world in 7 days but god got the patent.
TheDogDover 6 months ago
This is the one and only version - simply great!
softie461 6 months ago