Summary: “The Lousy Miner” is a sorrowful Gold Rush song, set to the melody of the old English sea ballad “A Dark-Eyed Sailor” and sung by men laboring and longing in the gold fields of California.“Oh, land of gold, you did me deceive/ And I intend in thee my bones to leave,” goes the final stanza. “So farewell home, now my friends grow cold/ I’m a lousy miner/ I’m a lousy miner in search of shining gold.
