Lyrics to
Old Black Kettle

This version of Old Black Kettle was released by Dolly Parton in 1973.

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Well I remember when I was just little
Mama used to cook on an old black kettle
On an old wood stove she’d had since she was wed
Well the oven door was sprung a little bit
So we propped it up with a forked stick
But that didn’t matter cause Mama kept us fed
My mama and daddy must have loved each other
Cause I had eleven sisters and brothers
And the girls worked just as hard as the boys did
There was corn to hoe then we’d go hoe it
We might have been poor but we didn’t know it
We’d heard that word but we didn’t know what it meant
Oh we used to have such a good life
And the days that I knew then are the happiest I’ve known
And oh didn’t we have such a good time
It’s sad to think the old black kettle’s gone

Well there was nothing that pleased us any better
Than when we got an occasional letter
From kin folks livin’ up north in some big town
We’d think of all the games we’d play
And we just couldn’t hardly wait
When our city cousins said they’ze a comin’ down
Now Mama’s done away with the old black kettle
She used to cook in when I was just little
And the door ain’t sprung on her electric range
That little farm and home we had
It ain’t there no more and that’s too bad
Folks are doin’ away with the simple things

And oh we used to have such a good life
And the days that I knew then are the happiest I’ve known
And oh didn’t we have such a good time
It’s sad to think the old black kettle’s gone

Now, I just mean to say the simple things are gone
The old black kettle’s gone

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Dolly Parton has released many songs over the years besides Old Black Kettle. Dolly Parton released songs from 1967 to 2005 spanning across albums like Hello, I'm Dolly, Just Because I'm A Woman, My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy, In The Good Old Days, As Long As I Love, The Fairest Of Them All, A Real Live Dolly, Coat Of Many Colors, The Golden Streets Of Glory, Joshua, Touch Your Woman, My Favorite Songwriter: Porter Wagoner, Bubbling Over, My Tennessee Mountain Home, Love Is Like A Butterfly, Jolene, Dolly: The Seeker / We Used To, The Bargain Store, All I Can Do, New Harvest... First Gathering, Here You Come Again, Heartbreaker, Great Balls Of Fire, 9 To 5 And Odd Jobs, Dolly, Dolly, Dolly, Heartbreak Express, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, Burlap & Satin, Rhinestone, The Great Pretender, Real Love, Rainbow, White Limozeen, Home For Christmas, Eagle When She Flies, Straight Talk, Slow Dancing With The Moon, Heartsongs: Live From Home, Something Special, Treasures, Hungry Again, The Grass Is Blue, Precious Memories, Little Sparrow, Halos & Horns, For God And Country, and Those Were The Days. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Dolly Parton.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1973 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Old Black Kettle by Dolly Parton

The lyrics for Old Black Kettle are defined as the words making up the song released by Dolly Parton in 1973. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Old Black Kettle have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only Dolly Parton and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Old Black Kettle by Dolly Parton if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Old Black Kettle" means the words set to the music of Old Black Kettle, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Dolly Parton. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Old Black Kettle and the lyrics to Old Black Kettle are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Dolly Parton who came here looking just for the lyrics to Old Black Kettle, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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