Get you a copper kettle, get you a copper coil
Fill it with new made corn mash and never more you'll toil
You'll just lay there by the juniper while the moon is bright
Watch them just a-filling in the pale moonlight.

Build you a fire with hickory, hickory, ash and oak
Don't use no green or rotten wood, they'll get you by the smoke
You'll just lay there by the juniper while the moon is bright
Watch them just a-filling in the pale moonlight.

My daddy he made whiskey, my granddaddy he did too
We ain't paid no whiskey tax since 1792
You'll just lay there by the juniper while the moon is bright
Watch them just a-filling in the pale moonlight.


Lyrics submitted by Philadelphia Eagles, edited by Flamencoprof

Copper Kettle Lyrics as written by Frank A Beddoe

Lyrics © T.R.O. INC.

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Copper Kettle song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment

    This song gets overlooked because it is on the much-maligned "Self Portrait" album, but I think it is one of Dylan's most passionate songs, a simple pastoral poem of a love song.

    seandirectoron January 20, 2009   Link
  • 0
    Song Comparison

    I dunno, to me this is an old trad love song to moonshinin', not workin a grind of a job, being outdoors, livin in the woods, a lifestyle

    though I love the song it really seems so undylanesque to me...

    what I like best is its sort of a stoners mellow ode to whisky..

    if you've ever known a mean drunk who blames the bottle this song is an interesting alt perspective.... its not the whisky thats exactly to blame.

    riteron May 22, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Copperhead Road later treated the same subject differently.

    Flamencoprofon August 02, 2021   Link

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