The Momma 'n' Daddy Collection 77

Sometimes in this series I've strayed towards the margins. I know it. I've included songs that were only borderline Momma 'n' Daddy. I'll be doing it again, for sure. My justification, if one is needed, is that the tradition is great and wide, and you won't have a full sense of the richness of it if you haven't acquainted yourself with its many shades. This means exploring at the margins.

I want you to know that a shortage of mainstream M&D songs isn't why I do it. No, Sir. I've got stacks of 'em. Here is one, right down the middle - Dolly Parton singing 'Old Black Kettle':

Well, I remember when I was just little
Mama used to cook in 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 forkéd 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

Chorus
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

Repeat chorus

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

It's a whole, lost world represented symbolically in an everyday household object.

[The Momma 'n' Daddy Archive, containing all the details of the series, is here.]