COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER
“Coal Miner's Daughter” is a song written and recorded by American country artist Loretta Lynn. It was originally released as a single in 1970 and became a number one hit on the Billboard country chart. It was later released on an album of the same name. Produced by Owen Bradley, the song tells the story of Lynn’s childhood as the daughter of a coal miner in rural Kentucky. Lynn also describes her childhood and the circumstances she was raised in. “Coal Miner’s Daughter” would become one of Lynn’s signature recordings in her career. It would also be considered one of music’s most significant recordings, according to polls from Time and the Recording Industry Association of America. The title of a movie about Lynn’s life, called Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) was taken from this song. (More from Wikipedia)
The other songs on the Racehorse album are written or at least co-written by Holly Ramos (there are no credits given in my copy of the CD), but some are echoes of other well-known songs: “Coal Miner’s Lullaby” has almost the same name as the Loretta Lynn classic “Coal Miner’s Daughter”, and “This Bird Has Flown” lifts the parenthetical phrase from the Beatles song “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”. In this case, the song is about a real bird (as used in the Beatles song, “bird” is British slang for an attractive girl or woman): “One day I found a bird on my way / so one time I thought I’d make him mine / No longer wild but tame / I gave that bird a name / A dark night that bird would sing instead of fly / A sad song / I left the cage open now he’s gone / It came as no surprise / When I opened up my eyes / That this bird has flown.”
(Year 9 Review)
