Ron Bowes’ Ghost    by Bill Thompson

We were eight miners / for the Thompson Company                                        

Diggin’ coal for power plants /  there in eastern Tennessee

Then one day, a wall came crashing down, / all but one of us was free.

We found each other in the dust, a lucky / 7 when we could see

…Ron wasn’t so lucky

Heard the muffled moans of Ron Bowes be / hind that wall of stone.

We dug day and night, couldn’t save him and for / that we must atone.

With his dying breath, he cursed God / and the seven who left him there.

You see a frightened man can’t understand, /  that we tried, he was unaware

… that we cared.

So tunnel No. 2 became his tomb, his / ghost just biding time.

10 years later on Hallow’s Eve, through those/  tons of rock, it climbed.

True to his curse, it returned to haunt / and collect its flesh in pounds,

Sought out every man who left him, the / ghost did make his rounds.

… till every man it found.

chorus

Ron Bowes’ ghost had / always been on each / of those men’s / minds.    

Dyin’ in the dark and / all alone, / revenge was its design.     

Fear and anger, / fueled its plan, not / one of us was / spared.    

A ghost can’t be made to / understand, the part of us / that died down there.

Lorne Reid was struck down in Mexico, / choked on a worm he swallowed on a bet.

With his last breath he felt Bowes’ ghost, sittin’ on his chest.

Doc Deal fell on some black ice, smashed his /  head on a winter’s day.

Bowes’ ghost gave him a little push and watched him slip away.

…nothin’ more to say.

Larry Talbot was attacked by a wolf, that had escaped from a zoo.

Seems the ghost unlocked the cage, not fed for days, nothin’ he could do.

Bobby Moore, got crushed by a load of sheetrock, that broke loose and fell off a truck.

Once it buried him and at life’s end, Bowes’ ghost yelled “duck!”

… no such luck.

Ron Dadey took a killin’ jolt from an / old amp in his room.

Bowes’ ghost cut through the cord, straightened his curly hair, / sent him to his doom.

Big Mike Olson drowned while getting’ stuck / in flawed car wash machine.

And Bowes’ ghost chuckled when he died, / marveled that he looked so clean.

.... a coat of wax in between.

Chorus

Ron Bowes’ ghost had / always been on / each of those men’s / minds.    

Dyin’ in the dark and / all alone, revenge was its design.         

Fear and anger, fueled its / plan, not of one of us was / spared.     

A ghost can’t be made to / understand, the part of / us that died down there.

Now I’m the last one left to tell the tale, / of  Ron Bowes’ revenge.

I think the ghost had it planned so it would / work out like this in the end.

And now I lie in state, in a coffin, first rate, / with his blood on my hands.

As Bowes’ ghost driven by hate / takes the last man who stands.

… ghost justice demands.

My Halloween submission for 2018, featuring many well known "miners" who faced the wrath of Ron Bowes' Ghost!  Hope you guys get a kick out of it!  

Words/Music by Bill Thompson

All music performed by Bill Thompson who sang the vocal.